{"id":11203,"date":"2022-03-03T10:20:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T09:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=201425"},"modified":"2022-03-03T10:35:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T09:35:12","slug":"the-duke-the-real-story-of-kempton-bunton-and-the-theft-of-goyas-wellington-portrait","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/the-duke-the-real-story-of-kempton-bunton-and-the-theft-of-goyas-wellington-portrait\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duke: The real story of Kempton Bunton and the theft of Goya\u2019s Wellington portrait"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Jonathan Wright\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 03 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Only one painting has ever been stolen from the National Gallery in London. In August 1961, Francisco Goya\u2019s \u2018Portrait of the Duke of Wellington\u2019, which had been purchased for the nation for the then-huge fee of \u00a3140,000 just 19 days earlier, was found to be missing.<\/p>\n

It would be four years before the Iron Duke was recovered. In the meantime, a replica appears in the background of the first James Bond<\/a> film, Dr No<\/em> \u2013 where is appears as one of the spoils in the villain\u2019s lair.<\/p>\n

But was individual behind the theft a dastardly criminal mastermind? Not at all, as a new comedy-drama, The Duke<\/em>, makes clear.<\/p>\n

The Duke<\/em><\/strong> and Kempton Bunton \u2013 how are they connected? <\/strong><\/h2>\n
This is a story centred on one Kempton Bunton (1904\u201376), played by Jim Broadbent, an eccentric autodidact and aspiring writer whose only other claim to fame was waging a long-running campaign against the elderly and the poor having to pay for a TV licence, even going to jail over his own refusal to pay.<\/p>\n
Read more | A beginner\u2019s guide to art history<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
So what really happened? One reason we now know so much about what occurred is because of research by Kempton\u2019s grandson, Christopher Bunton. It was Christopher who approached The Duke<\/em>\u2019s producer, Nicky Bentham, to tell her about a story that even now defies belief.<\/p>\n
Without giving too much away, Kempton ended up being tried for the theft of the painting. While he was represented by the celebrated QC Jeremy Hutchinson, who had previously worked on the Lady Chatterley\u2019s Lover<\/em><\/a> case, the film shows how Kempton himself was the star of court proceedings, emerging as a battered fabulist and idealist committed to social justice.<\/p>\n
To judge by The Duke<\/em>, this combination often made Kempton difficult to live with, as we see through the eyes of his long-suffering wife, Dorothy (Helen Mirren).<\/p>\n
$\""Christopher\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>