Sad Max and rueful Elvis after painting stolen from Geldart

Popular Cambridge artist and musician Max Bianco is suffering from the blues this week after having some artwork stolen from the Geldart pub on Ainsworth Street - the day before the exhibition was set to close.

The show had been running at the friendly off-Mill-Road pub during January when the painting disappeared on January 31.

“It went missing some time on Friday night,” said an ashen-faced Max. “It wasn’t there Saturday morning. I mean, I am flattered someone liked it enough to take it from the Geldart, but Elvis, the landlord, he is devastated. He even called all his staff to find out if they had seen it but no one had. No one has ever stolen art from his pub and he always gives artists great opportunities to display and sell their work.”

Landlord Elvis Jontueski told the Cambridge Independent: “We’ve been doing exhibitions here for 12 years and we’ve never had anything like that happen before, it’s a bit unfortunate.

“That night there were a lot of different groups in, a lot of pub crawls, and I wonder if someone took a liking to it.”

The painting, ‘Orchards in Bloom’, part of an exhibition of five artworks on display, is now being sought. It was painted last year and is based on someone Max describes only as “a mysterious character”.

“I’ve not contacted the police as I don’t want them involved,” Max says. “I just hope it’s returned, I don’t care who has it, maybe they just took it for a laugh, maybe they can just put it back in the pub or they can contact me if they’d like to pay for it - I doubt that though.”

Anyone with any information is invited to contact the Geldart.