Kempton Bunton

Kempton Bunton (14 June 1904–April 1976) was an English man who confessed to taking Francisco Goya's painting Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London in 1961.

[5][6][7] In that year, Charles Bierer Wrightsman, a rich American art collector, who made his money in the oil business, purchased Goya's painting Portrait of the Duke of Wellington for the sum of £140,000 ($390,000) (equivalent to £3,936,285 in 2023).

[9] According to his own account, Bunton learnt from conversations with guards at the National Gallery that the elaborate electronic security system of infrared sensors and alarms was deactivated in the early morning to allow for cleaning.

[citation needed] A letter was received by the Reuters news agency, however, requesting a donation of £140,000 to charity to pay for television licences for poorer people, and demanding an amnesty for the thief, after which the painting would be returned.

[citation needed] In 1965, four years after the theft, Bunton contacted a newspaper and, through a left-luggage office at Birmingham New Street railway station, returned the painting voluntarily.

[11] In 2012, following a Freedom of Information request by Richard Voyce, and with the assistance of Sarah Teather MP, the National Archives released a confidential file from the Director of Public Prosecutions in which it was revealed that Bunton's son, John, had confessed to the theft following his arrest in 1969 for an unrelated minor offence.

[16] The story of the theft and the subsequent trial of Bunton was dramatised in the film The Duke, starring Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren,[17][9] which premiered in UK cinemas on 25 February 2022.