In 1961, a 60-year-old taxi driver 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. What happened next became the stuff of legend.
The Duke is a 2020 British comedy drama film directed by Roger Michell, with a screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. It is based on the true story of the 1961 theft of the Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Kempton Bunton. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Matthew Goode. It was Michell's penultimate film before his death on 22 September 2021.