Where is Psyche?

Robert McDougall thankfully didn’t live to see New Zealand’s most mysterious art theft.
But it was from the gallery in Christchurch that bears his name that an astonishing mystery took place.
McDougall was born in Melbourne on December 27, 1860, and came to New Zealand as a three-year-old. After his education he became a junior clerk at the Colonial Bank of New Zealand in 1875, but his longest job was as manager of Aulsebrooks biscuit factory in Christchurch.
HIs father had been brought in as a partner which lasted for two years. Later he bought an interest in the factory for Robert and in 1889 founder John Aulsebrook sold it to Robert.
Robert was also director of the Kaiapoi Woollen Mill, a founder of the Christchurch golf club and had a great interest in many philanthropic ventures in the city.
He married Malvina Mary Webb in 1897.
Robert had a particular interest in art and he gave £26,000 (his obituary says £30,000) to build a gallery that is now named after him, the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in the Botanic Gardens.
He died on February 21, 1942 - just months before his gallery made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The gallery was showing a near life-sized oil painting called Psyche by famous British painter Solomon Joseph Solomon. It had been brought to New Zealand in 1907 for an international exhibition. It had been bought for £440 and gifted to the gallery.
Then overnight on June 22, 1942 the painting vanished.
A skylight was broken in and the thief or thieves removed the canvas stretcher from the frame and then the painting removed from the stretcher.
For months police investigated, but the painting has never been recovered or even seen.
There had been a theory that a cleaner might have damaged the painting accidentally and removed it to prevent it being found out. But the truth is, no one really knows.
Robert, who is remembered as one of Christchurch's most generous benefactors, is buried in Linwood Cemetery.
Photo from The Press, 1942.
Do you know what happened to the painting? Let us know: