There’s a joke in the first James Bond film Dr. No that no one would get watching it today. Ok, maybe not no one, but certainly most people.

The joke comes when James Bond and Honey Ryder are exploring Dr.No’s underground lair. After looking around for a minute, Dr. No enters in classic bond villain fashion, offers them a drink and then invites them to dine with him. Well, invites is a strong word, like they don’t have a choice or anything.

Anyway, as they are escorted to the dining table, James Bond recognises a painting on display, does a double take and then look back at Dr. No a little surprised. That’s the joke. It’s a little humorous moment that audiences watching the movie in the cinema would likely found funny. You see, this painting is a real painting. Well, it’s not the real painting but it’s a copy of a real painting. This painting in fact. A portrait of The Duke of Wellington painting by Francisco de Goya. This painting was stolen from the National Gallery in London in 1961 a year before Dr. No came out. The theft was front page news for months here in the UK so when audiences went to the cinema to see Dr. No, chances are they would have recognised the painting and enjoyed reference to the real life news story. Ironically, just like the real one. The copy produced for the film Dr. No was also stolen while on display.

The story behind the real painting’s theft is brilliant. The painting wasn’t stolen by a multimillionaire foreign spy. Nor was it stolen by a criminal mastermind, which was the original assumption of the police. It was actually stolen by a retired taxi driver called Kempton Bunton. Well, his son actually undertook the heist, but it was Kempton who had wanted to steal it. He then sent an anonymous ransom letter to a newspaper with his demands. Kempton requested a donation of £140,000 to a charity to pay for TV licences for people struggling to afford it. He also requested an amnesty for the thief, after which the painting would be returned. The request was declined. Four years later, Kempton returned the painting undamaged and give himself up. At a trial, he was only convicted of theft of the frame, as he didn’t return the frame, but not the painting. He served three months in prison.

For someone who was unaware of the painting’s theft, this moment in Dr. No comes across as a bit confusing. Why did that painting catch Bond’s eye? I think about this a lot with all the art that has been created during the pandemic. Little jokes and reference that in 20 or 30 years time will confuses the audiences of the future. Like in Bo Burnam’s special Inside where he jokes,___ It’s a joke that relies on a common knowledge of what happened at the beginning of 2020. But I kinda love how these moments have an expiration date. They are products of their time and are, first and foremost, made for their immediate audiences. In the future, they become fun easter eggs that movie buffs will point out to their friends who will just roll their eyes and say ‘stop pausing the damn movie to tell us trivia’.

The Portrait of the Duke of Wellington still hangs in the National Gallery to this day. Most great art is timeless. But some great art demands a contemporary eye to fulfil its glorious potential. And that is why this James Bond double take in Dr. No is a magnificent movie moment.