Kempton Bunton

Kempton Bunton
Born
Kempton Bunton

14 June 1904
DiedApril 1976
Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Spouse
Dorothy Donnelly
(m. 1925; died 1974)
Children5
Criminal chargeOffence contrary to Section 2 of the Larceny Act 1916 [unlawfully taking property of the Trustees of the National Gallery by stealing the frame of the portrait of the Duke of Wellington]
Penalty3 mos. imprisonment
Imprisoned atHM Prison Ford

Kempton Bunton (14 June 1904–April 1976) was an English man who confessed to taking Francisco Goya's painting Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London in 1961. The story of Bunton and the painting was the subject of the October 2015 BBC Radio 4 drama Kempton and the Duke, and the 2020 film The Duke.

A National Archives file, released in 2012, revealed that Bunton's son John had confessed to the theft in 1969.