An Audacious Heist at the National Gallery

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2022

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please note that this episode contains spoilers from the film ‘The Duke’.

Kempton Bunton was a taxi driver who stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first and remains the only, theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton proceeded to send ransom notes declaring that he would only return the painting on the condition that the government invest more in care for the elderly, specifically bringing attention to his long-running campaign for pensioners to receive free television.

With Dan currently away in Antarctica, Matt Lewis, from the ‘Gone Medieval’ podcast, stepped in to make sure that you did not miss out on this caper that details the theft and the following trial. Matt is joined by Kempton Bunton's grandson, Chris, for a discussion of ‘The Duke’ and the remarkable true story behind the film.

‘The Duke’ is in UK cinemas from 25th February.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history. Now as you know, I am in the Antarctic at the moment.
0:05.2	I'm in the ice-bound Weddle Sea. I am sheltering inside an Antarctic survey vessel outside
0:12.1	Blizzard's battered the superstructure of the ship. At the end of this ordeal on ice,
0:17.2	we have to look forward to crossing the roughest stretch of water on planet Earth,
0:20.8	get back to South Africa. That's how my day is going. You however, I hope I have a very different
0:25.5	experience. And the fact you listen to this podcast, I hope, means you're tucked up somewhere safe
0:30.4	and warm. In this podcast, the brilliant Matt Lewis, my fellow presenter, my colleague from
0:35.9	Gone Medieval podcast, he's going to be talking to Chris Bunton. Chris Bunton is the grandson of
0:41.7	Kenpton Bunton. Kenpton Bunton is now famous because there's a movie all about him called The Duke.
0:48.2	This, my friends, is a podcast about the Duke of Wellington, but not like any of the other many
0:52.8	podcasts I've been about Duke of Wellington. This is about the portrait of the Duke of Wellington.
0:57.3	It was stolen by a 60-year-old taxi driver, Kenpton Bunton, from the National Gallery in London.
1:02.8	It's the only painting ever stolen from National Gallery in London. And he left a series of
1:07.2	ransom notes declaring that he would only return the painting when the government invested in more
1:12.3	care for the elderly. This is now been made into a film. It is such a brilliant story. Even
1:19.0	though I'm away and didn't get a chance to interview Chris, I thought it was such a great story.
1:23.1	I want to get Matt on it and bring this one to you. I think you'll find it absolutely gobsmacking.
1:28.4	If you want to watch programs about the Duke of Wellington or listen to other podcasts,
1:32.4	let me tell you. I've got some. I've got plenty, in fact. The program about Battle of Waterloo
1:36.4	on History at TV is one of our top performing shows on there. If you follow the link in the
1:40.8	description of this podcast, you get taken to History at TV. It's like Netflix for history. We've
1:44.4	got hundreds of documentaries on there. We got all the podcasts about the ads. You're going to
	...

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