Stolen Art Watch, Weekend Snapshot of Global Art Crime April 2013

Rhino horns stolen in National Museum raid were not insured

RHINOCEROS horns stolen from the National Museum during an armed raid were not insured.
Four heads with eight horns, worth €500,000, were stolen from a storage facility in Swords, Co Dublin, late on Wednesday night and are probably destined for the Far East.
Three masked men broke into the National Museum's Collections Resource Centre (CRC) on the Balheary Road at about 10.40pm and tied up a security man before fleeing an hour later in a white van.
The security guard was not injured and later managed to free himself and alert the gardai shortly after midnight.

The heads had been taken out of public display more than a year ago and put into storage after a spate of similar thefts from museums across Europe.
The rhinoceros horns were up to 100 years old and were probably stolen to supply the illegal trade in powdered horn that is used in traditional medicines in the Far East.
The gardai sealed off the premises to carry out a technical examination, and an incident room has been set up at Swords garda station.
CCTV footage is being examined as part of the probe.
Keeper with the National Museum, Nigel Monaghan, said last night the horns, which were on display on Merrion Street, were removed more than a year ago amid security concerns.
"We took a decision a couple of years ago, largely on garda advice and also from monitoring the traffic internationally, following a steady rise of theft of rhino horn. The pattern was to smash and grab, even when the museums were open, and we did not want to put the public at risk.
"The horns were in the CRC for the last year. They would be powdered up and sold in the medicinal trade in the east, and would be worth about €500,000."
And he admitted that the horns were not insured, despite their value.
"Generally, the museum would insure items which are sent on loan to other institutions. Generally, state heritage is not covered by insurance because you'd be spending a fortune on insurance premiums. They were not insured.
"We would hope that the rhino heads are recovered . . . Unless you've got connections to the Far East trophy heads would normally fetch a couple of thousand euro."
Back-story
Rathkeale Rovers
DUBLIN — Masked men stole stuffed rhinoceros heads containing eight valuable horns from the warehouse of Ireland's National Museum, police and museum officials said Thursday, in a heist being linked to an Irish Gypsy gang that specializes in such raids across Europe.
Police said three men raided the storeroom in Swords, north of Dublin, on Wednesday night and tied up the lone security guard. He later freed himself and raised the alarm.
Nigel Monaghan, keeper at the National Museum's natural history section, said the museum had never experienced such a theft before but had worried that the rhinos would be targeted. He said the four heads – three of black rhinos from Kenya, one of the virtually extinct white rhino from Sudan, all killed more than a century ago – were removed from display last year and put into storage specifically to safeguard them from thieves.
He said the eight horns could be worth a total of about (EURO)500,000 ($650,000) on the black market based on their weight.
Three of the five species of rhinoceros in Africa and South Asia have been hunted to the verge of extinction because their horns command exceptionally high prices for use in traditional Asian medicine chiefly in China and Vietnam, where the powdered horn is marketed as an aphrodisiac and even as a cure for cancer. The horns are made of keratin, a fibrous protein that is the building block for skin and hair, and has no documented medicinal value.
In 2011, Europol issued a warning that an Irish Gypsy criminal network based in the County Limerick village of Rathkeale was responsible for dozens of thefts of rhino horns across Europe. Europol said the thieves – officially called the Rathkeale Rovers but also dubbed the Dead Zoo Gang by Dublin tabloids – had already targeted museums, galleries, zoos, auction houses, antique dealers and private collections in Britain, continental Europe, the United States and South America.
In 2010, U.S. undercover agents arrested two members of the Rathkeale gang trying to buy four black rhino horns in Colorado. They both received six-month prison sentences.
Rathkeale is considered the epicenter for Ireland's Gypsy minority, known locally as "travellers." They own most of the properties in the town, which regularly experiences huge influxes of Irish travellers from throughout Ireland and Britain arriving in luxury vehicles for clan events.
Irish police and Europol say the Rathkeale criminal network also is involved in road-tarmac fraud and the sale of counterfeit goods, particularly tools and engine parts.

Stolen Egg Found: $1.3 Million Faberge Style Object Found Near Swiss Border... And More Arts News

Don't you hate it when you just can't remember the last place you left your $1.3 million egg? A stolen egg encrusted with hundreds of jewels was recently recovered near the Swiss border, after being missing for four years.

The bejeweled ovum was burgled in 2009 from a Kuwait import-export firm based in Geneva, and its location has remained unknown ever since. But last Thursday, a suspicious looking BMW was pulled over during a routine roadblock near the border between Switzerland and France, and the egg was found inside the car, according to International Business Times. Two men in the vehicle were promptly arrested, along with a third man trailing behind in a Jaguar.
"Under questioning the three men unconvincingly claimed they had found the jewelled work of art lying on the ground, or had bought it cheaply in a flea-market," police told the Associated Foreign Press.
Not surprisingly, the case of the stolen Faberge-like artwork is not the first time an overpriced egg has gone missing. From a Russian private collector to a Los Angeles antique shop, few facilities are safe from the temptation to pilfer such inviting oval items.

Painting Worth €1.2m Stolen From A Yacht Turns Up At Former Juventus Star Roberto Bettega’s House

A painting by preeminent Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall that was stolen from an American yacht anchored in  an Italian port over a decade ago has resurfaced hanging on the walls of former Juventus striker Roberto Bettega’s house in Turin after being tracked down by Italy’s art-theft police squadron.
The painting, called “Le Nu au Bouquet” was painted by Chagall in 1920 and is conservatively estimated to be worth around €1.2 million…

Italian authorities have been quick to absolve Bettega, who bought the painting in good faith from a gallery in Bologna back in 2003.
Bettega (who played for Juve several hundred times between 1969 and 1983, picked up 45 caps for the Italian national side and is currently employed as the Bianconeri’s deputy director-general) was said to be unaware that the painting was stolen from an American-owned yacht which had been anchored for repairs in the northern port of Savona and had no idea the gallery he bought it from was a clearing house for stolen artwork.
According to Italian news coverage, the thieves replaced the original painting on the yacht with a copy and then hoodwinked the Chagall Foundation into providing a new authentication for the stolen artwork.
We’re fairly sure there’s a joke about dodgy Juventus directors in there somewhere but frankly we’re not willing to make it on legal grounds.

Billionaire Tamir Sapir Failed To Notice That $200,000 Worth of Silver Champagne Buckets Had Been Stolen From His Long Island Mansion

Billionaire cabbie-turned-real-estate mogul Tamir Sapir was recently the victim of theft at his $20 million Long Island mansion after a construction worker allegedly stole four antique silver champagne buckets worth $200,000, according to Newsday. But the real crime is that Mr. Sapir didn’t even notice that his extravagant booze buckets were gone until an auction house called him months after the fact. Being a billionaire is hard!
Apparently, Mr. Sapir only learned of the theft when Sotheby’s notified him that construction worker Anatoliy Maryuk had tried to fence two of the buckets—made in France and worth $50,000 a pop—to the auction company in September 2011. Mr. Maryuk had, at this point, allegedly sold the two other buckets on Ebay.
In Mr. Sapir’s defense, $200,000 is kind a drop in the silver champagne bucket when you’re worth $2 billion. And it takes a lot of time and energy to manage a real estate empire as well as one’s personal, palatial dwellings, let alone worry about every piece of $50,000 kitchen equipment. And while we’d like to believe that the life of a real estate mogul with a sprawling Long Island mansion means drinking expensive champagne every evening, we understand that even people who can afford to chug the finest bubbly sometimes prefer other libations. Besides, when one has a staff, one doesn’t necessarily interact with one’s household belongings on a daily basis—perhaps the butler simply assumed that the antiques had been misplaced by a maid and started using one of the other silver champagne buckets.
Sadly, if court documents filed in 2010 are true, there might be another explanation for the mogul’s absent-mindedness. While Mr. Sapir appears to have been busy managing his extensive personal and real estate holdings these last few years—selling the Duke Semans mansion to Carlos Slim for $44 million, importing endangered and exotic animal carcases into the country on his yacht, buying the perfect Long Island mansion, he has allegedly been suffering from aphasia—”a deteriorating mental condition” since 1998. The condition has left him unable to form comprehensible sentences in either English or his native Russian, and to do little other than sign his name, according to court documents that came to light as part of the $130 million lawsuit against him. (Although one wonders why a man who can longer form comprehensible sentences is allowed to sign documents.)
But if Mr. Sapir is no longer calling the shots at his business empire (rumors abound that his son Alex is the one running the show these days), surely there’s someone looking after his personal affairs who should be safeguarding his very expensive champagne buckets? And making sure that 150-foot yacht isn’t filled with stuffed Bengal tiger heads when it enters U.S. waters (being shipped on an Italian freighter no less)?
For his part, Mr. Maryuk, who is being charged with second-degree larceny, denies that he pilfered the pricey buckets, according to his lawyer. In the meantime, we’ll toast to the truth being uncovered in a timely manner.

Flagons stolen from Clifton Park Museum

 
The 18th Century silver flagons were stolen from Clifton Park Museum

Two 18th Century silver flagons worth £30,000 have been stolen from a museum in South Yorkshire.

The 36.5cm high (14in) drinking vessels were taken from Clifton Park Museum in Rotherham on Tuesday.
Thieves broke into the museum overnight by smashing a window, South Yorkshire Police said.
Both flagons had a domed hinged cover with a leaf scroll thumb-piece and engraved with "The Gift of Mrs Mary Bellamy, Late of Rotherham, 1781".
The George III flagons, which have a hollow handle with a heart shape at the end, weighed 116oz (3kg) in total.
Police have appealed for witnesses.

Stolen Antiques Discovered At Chop Shop, 2 Arrested

  
A major burglary operation and chop shop is out of commission.

Police found guns, auto parts, and of all things…expensive stolen antiques.

It happened in Fresno, at a home near Herndon and Highway 99.

Two people are in custody.

CBS 47's Lemor Abrams has more on with what went down.

Police found room after room loaded with stolen stuff, auto parts stripped from new cars, and $25,000 worth of antiques, stolen days earlier from a Fresno antique shop.

“We set up a deal here at North Garfield…out here in the country. As we set it up to buy the antiques he was selling-we showed up and served a search warrant,” said Fresno Police Sgt. Tim Tietjen. 

Fresno Police's Burglary Task Force initially went for the antiques, but say a man and woman were also running a fencing operation and chop shop.

“He was actively involved in having people bring the vehicles out to him but he was also active in burglaries inside city where he was participating in stealing the antiques from some of these stores,” said Sgt. Tietjen. 

And the suspects aren't going down easy. Police accuse them of burning down the antique shop a couple days after burglarizing it. 

“After they got what thought they wanted Saturday, they actually burned the business… arson,” said Sgt. Tietjen.

The antique dealer showed up to take back his collection.

Police are looking for other victims. 

“We’re sure we're going to find other victims...we're doing more follow reports,” said Sgt. Tietjen.

‘Reconnaissance units’ stake out houses for burglar gangs

Criminal gangs are using reconnaissance units to stake out houses before leaving chalk markings outside denoting if they’re ripe for burgling or too risky to enter.

Muintir na Tíre’s national co-ordinator for community alert, Liam Kelly, described the use of the so-called ‘Da Pinchi Code’ as “very disturbing”.

The chalk markings have appeared in Dublin, Drogheda, and Limerick areas in recent months.

It is understood at least eight signs are being used by the “recon unit”, one of which indicates the occupant is a vulnerable female and easily conned.

Another points to the householder being nervous and afraid, while other signs indicate the house is a good target and its owners are wealthy.

Reconnaissance units also save their burglar colleagues time by leaving signs showing there is nothing worth stealing from a house, or it is too risky to attempt burgling it.



Mr Kelly, a retired garda, said that years ago he had come across such markings, which are used regularly by criminal gangs in Britain.

“The re-emergence of these signs [in Ireland] is very disturbing,” he said.

“We advise anybody who sees them to immediately remove them and report it to the gardaí.”

He advised people in particular to keep a close eye out on the homes of elderly or vulnerable neighbours in case such markings suddenly appear outside their properties.

Mick Neary, a consultant with the firm National Security, has posted the signs on his company website to alert the public.

“My own father was a garda and he knew of the existence of these signs years ago,” he said.

“People should be especially aware of casual labourers coming to their doors looking to do work because they could be reconnaissance men.

“From our information they are also checking on the security company name on alarm boxes. They check on the internet to see if the company has gone out of business. If it went out of business a few years ago it’s likely the alarm hasn’t been serviced and the chances are it will not work properly.”

Mr Neary said the average burglar will spend just eight minutes in a house and as such could cause considerable damage in a short space of time in an estate where they know householders are out at work.

A Garda spokesman said there was “insufficient evidence to significantly link such markings with burglaries”.

Fight for Nazi-looted art must continue

For more than 15 years, I and my law firm have been fortunate to have been provided the opportunity to handle, on behalf of the families of victims of the Holocaust, some of the most significant cases brought to recover artworks looted by the Nazi regime as part of its murderous programme to eliminate a whole race of people from the face of the earth.
The efforts to recover Nazi-looted art have been well-publicised and reported on internationally. As a result, the sometimes enormous sums paid for recovered artworks at auction and elsewhere have also been widely covered, and some commentators have criticised the lawyers and researchers who have helped the claimants recover their art. Some even criticise the claimants themselves. Still others have begun calling claimants and their lawyers "bounty hunters" and referring to the "restitution industry" as a huge money-making operation. They reproach claimants for selling the works they recover, rather than donating them to museums and so proving that they are not "doing this just for the money".
And I am not now speaking about extreme right-wing bloggers whose rants we might comfortably dismiss as antisemitic ravings. Rather, these type of comments have come from so-called legitimate sources. There's Jonathan Jones, an art writer for the Guardian and a former Turner Prize juror, who wrote in 2009: "A work of art should never, ever be taken away from a public museum without the strongest of reasons. Making good the crimes of the Nazis may seem just that - but it is meaningless. No horrors are reversed. Instead, historical threads are broken, paintings are taken away from the cities where they have the deepest meaning, and money is made by the art market."
And then there is Sir Norman Rosenthal, former exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts - and the son of Jewish refugees - writing in the Art Newspaper in 2008: "Grandchildren or distant relations of people who had works of art or property taken away by the Nazis do not now have an inalienable right to ownership, at the beginning of the 21st century. If valuable objects have ended up in the public sphere, even on account of the terrible facts of history, then that is the way it is."


That is the way it is?
Added to this chorus is Bernd Schultz, director of Berlin's Villa Grisebach auction house, who in 2007 put it very simply: "They say 'Holocaust,' but mean money… In New York, some call this Shoah Business."
In my view, such comments are offensive and lack any justification. Let us not forget that these artworks are being recovered for the heirs of their true owners. They were taken away from them by the murderers of the Third Reich, often in the course of carrying out the Final Solution. Who except the families of these owners have the right to decide what to do with their property?
Regardless of whether these works are important to the world's culture, surely it is the choice of the claimants and the claimants alone as to whether they would like to donate or loan them to the great museums, sell them on the open market or keep them among their prized possessions? In other words, we should treat them with the same respect we accord to any other collector who owns a great artwork. Would we ever require that all those who own great art, but whose families did not lose it during the Holocaust, donate it to museums to prove that they are not greedy and selfish?
How ironic and repulsive it is to criticise victims of the Nazis, who are not only trying to get back their own property but trying to correct in some small way the ghastly injustices of the Nazis. As for the researchers and lawyers who work for years on these cases, with no certainty of victory: is it improper for the claimants to pay them even if that means selling the artworks they have recovered?
But the criticism of our work has not stopped there. A different attack was launched during the decade-long case to recover the "Portrait of Wally" by Egon Schiele, the first major case of its type heard in the US. We represented the Bondi Jaray estate in that case against the Leopold Museum of Vienna, and worked jointly with the US federal government throughout the case. It was brought by the government under the so-called forfeiture laws, based on our contention that "Wally" was wrongfully imported into the United States for temporary exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in violation of the National Stolen Property Act.
It began with the US government's seizure of "Wally" at the Museum of Modern Art to prevent its return to Austria, pending the resolution of the case, which sent shock waves around the world. The case was finally resolved in 2010 by the payment of the artwork's full value by the Leopold Museum to Jaray's estate. The Leopold Museum also agreed to post a sign next to "Wally" wherever it is displayed, setting out the facts of its prior ownership and the lawsuit, and have it displayed at the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York for three weeks before it was returned to Austria.
Throughout the decade of the court proceedings, we heard repeatedly from many quarters this simple question: why was the US government involved in the case at all? Why were substantial government resources being committed to what these same critics characterised as nothing more than a title dispute, one that should have been resolved in a civil lawsuit between the estate and the Leopold Museum? Indeed, the question entered into the lawsuit itself, when the two major American museum associations, and several important individual museums, joined as "friends of the court" on the side of the Leopold Museum and the Museum of Modern Art to urge the court to dismiss the case entirely.
This line of questioning is critically important because it really raises the issue of whether governments should play a major role in trying to resolve Nazi-looted art claims. Despite the misgivings of many, it is clear that this action was both consistent with and fully promoted the express public policy interests of the US regarding Holocaust-looted art.
As former US district court chief judge (and later Attorney General) Michael B Mukasey determined in one of the early decisions in the case: "On its face, [the National Stolen Property Act] proscribes the transportation in foreign commerce of all property over $5,000 known to be stolen or converted. Although the museum… would have it otherwise, art on loan to a museum - even a [so-called] 'world-renowned museum' - is not exempt." Explaining further, the court added that "if 'Wally' is stolen or converted, application of [the Act] will 'discourage both the receiving of stolen goods and the initial taking,' which was Congress's apparent purpose." The court concluded that there was "a strong federal interest in enforcing these laws".
Indeed, it was the US government that led the way in urging governments around the world to seek ways to advance the policy of identifying art looted from the Nazis and returning it to its rightful owners. It convened a meeting of 44 nations at the Washington Conference in 1998, which adopted the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art. One principle states that pre-war owners and their heirs should be encouraged to come forward to make known their claims to art that was confiscated by the Nazis and not subsequently restituted, and another states that, once they do so, steps should be taken expeditiously to achieve a just and fair solution, recognising this may vary according to the facts and circumstances surrounding a specific case.
Another principle adopted at the Washington Conference encouraged the resolution of these disputes by "alternative dispute resolution," where possible, to avoid long drawn-out litigation. Throughout the "Wally" case, there was much consternation expressed that it had not been settled much earlier and that such long litigation was exactly the wrong way to go about resolving Nazi-looted art claims. But it is important to understand that the government brought this action and seized "Wally" before it was about to be put on a plane to Austria and thus beyond the reach of any plausible attempt at resolution. The Austrian government, while adopting a law in 1998 that was purportedly designed to ensure the careful review of claims for Nazi-looted artworks, had determined that, as a "private foundation", the Leopold Museum was not covered by this - despite the fact that the Austrian government provided a substantial amount of the Leopold Museum's funding and appointed half of its board of directors.
In any court case, it is of course usually in all the parties' best interest to reach a mutually acceptable resolution as early as possible. But, as is often the case, it is only after the court issues a decision resolving many of the issues - as happened in the "Wally" case in autumn 2009 - that the parties become clearly focused on what is going to be the likely outcome of the case. But regardless of how long it took, securing the artwork in the US, certainly promoted the government's interest in fairly resolving these cases and preventing the trafficking of stolen Holocaust property.
The Washington Conference led eventually to the Holocaust Era Assets Conference, held in Prague in 2009, at which 46 nations adopted the Terezin Declaration. That pronouncement makes clear that Holocaust-looted art claims should be resolved on their merits ,without regard to so-called technical defences like the statute of limitations. But this has led to criticism as well.
At a series of US State Department-organised meetings, although the museum community joined calls for the resolution of Nazi-looted art claims on this basis, they raised an objection. The museum representatives made clear that they retained the right to move to dismiss cases on the grounds of the statute of limitations, if they have made the determination in particular cases that the claims in the case lacked merit. Thus, rather than allow these claims to be determined on their merits before a court of law, these museums would rather play the role of judge and jury themselves once they are convinced that they are right. Clearly, there is still much work to be done to reach a consensus on this matter.
One commentator, Eric Gibson, who well understood the true significance of the efforts to recover these precious belongings for the families of the original owners, once asked the question: "Why do we bother with recovering [Nazi-looted art] at all? Plundering is, after all, the handmaiden of war. And the world's museums are filled with objects lifted during conflicts from the Romans on." Gibson's answer to his own question eloquently describes just why the recovery of these looted artworks is so critically important: "Why do we bother? [Because] the Nazis weren't simply out to enrich themselves. Their looting was part of the Final Solution. They wanted to eradicate a race by extinguishing its culture as well as its people. This gives these works of art a unique resonance, the more so since some of them were used as barter for safe passage out of Germany or Austria for family members. The objects are symbols of a terrible crime; recovering them is an equally symbolic form of justice."
And even more poignant are the words of Henry Bondi, the now-deceased former leader of the family of Lea Bondi Jaray, on whose behalf we sought the recovery of "Wally": "You ask did they kill, yes they killed. They killed for art, when it suited them. So killing Jews and confiscating art somehow went together."
Earlier this week, on Monday, we observed Yom Hashoah, the Day of Holocaust Remembrance, and we recently commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, which ushered in the nightmare of the Holocaust for the huge number of Jews and other victims of Nazism who lived there and in and so many other places. Shame on those who would prefer that we forget history and forgo our efforts to try in some small way to right the terrible wrongs fomented in its darkest hours.

Magistrates strip more than £14k from Derby antiques dealer

MAGISTRATES in Derby have stripped more than £14,000 from an antiques dealer who could not prove he had made the cash legitimately.
At a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act on Wednesday, April 10 magistrates made a forfeiture order to strip £14,185 from the 59-year-old man. He was also ordered to pay £7,232 costs.
The act gives the police the power to take offenders to court and strip them of cash and assets if they cannot prove they have obtained it legitimately.
The money seized is split between the Treasury and police, Court Services and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The case against the man began in February 2011, when officers searched his antiques business in Derby and found suspected stolen items including Royal Crown Derby.
Police also found more than £14,000 in cash at the business and the man’s home for which he had no receipts or paperwork.
The man was arrested in April 2011 on suspicion of handling stolen goods and money laundering as part of Operation Lurcher.
Operation Lurcher was an initiative to tackle the stolen goods market in the Derby area.
Warrants were executed at businesses and homes across the city and south Derbyshire and thousands of pounds were seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
No criminal charges were brought against the man by the CPS but Derbyshire Constabulary’s Financial Investigation Unit took the case to Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court where the money was forfeited.
Detective Sergeant Craig Hughes said: “Even where no criminal proceeds are brought against a person, if they cannot prove they had the cash or goods legitimately we can still get them removed at court.

Man sought after antiques raid

CCTV image Credit: Cambridgeshire Police

POLICE in Ely have released an image of a man they want to speak to in connection with the theft of antique jewellery.
A display cabinet was broken into at Waterside Antiques shortly after 10am, on Friday, March 29.
Now police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to trace in connection with the theft.

Grantham court: Jail for man who aimed to sell stolen antiques

One man was jailed and another received a suspended prison sentence for handling stolen jewellery and antiques which they wanted to sell to make money for Christmas.

Liam Curtis, 23, of Lymn Court, Grantham, was jailed for 16 weeks after admitting possessing stolen goods. Clive Taylor, 24, of Thames Road, Grantham, was handed a 16-week sentence suspended for 12 months for the same offence and a two-week concurrent sentence, also suspended, for possessing cannabis. He was also ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge.
A third person, Sarah Taylor, admitted receiving stolen goods and was fined £70 with £85 costs and £20 victim surcharge.
Prosecuting, Marie Stace told the court that the three were stopped in a Fiat Punto car in Trent Road by police on November 20 last year, because they were driving without lights.
Clive Taylor admitted he had a spliff in his hoodie which he handed to one of the officers and it was identified as cannabis.
The police found bags containing the antiques and jewellery in the boot and footwell of the car. The defendants told the officers they had bought the items off a “tall ginger skaghead”.
Miss Stace said Curtis told officers the items were to be sold for scrap to get cash for Christmas.
Clive Taylor tried to escape from the officers but was quickly caught. A ring was later found at his address and a bag containing a camera and a GPS tracker was found during a search of Sarah Taylor’s. These had been stolen in a burglary in Redmile Walk.
Miss Stace told the court that Sarah Taylor said she had bought the car on November 16 and then found the bag containing the camera and tracker in the boot.
She put the bag in a cupboard under the stairs at her address, intending to take it back to the car company from which she had bought the vehicle. Miss Stace said Taylor had never gone back to the company or made any inquiries about the items.
Clive Taylor had said the property had been bought for £100 and that the cannabis was for his own use. In interview, Curtis had also said he and Clive Taylor had bought the items for £100. The property was later returned to its owners.
Rob Arthur, for all three defendants, said: “For Mr Taylor and Mr Curtis it was the old adage ‘never look a gift horse in the mouth’ as this had come back to bite them.
“They were stopped in the vehicle and accept they bought the items for £100 to try to sell them and make money for Christmas.”
He said Sarah Taylor agreed for police to search her property and they found the bag containing the camera and tracker which she now accepts she was asked to look after.
Mr Arthur said: “The fact is she turned a blind eye and will face the consequences.”
Clive Taylor and Curtis were sentenced after magistrates read probation reports. Curtis, who suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, had previously said it was unlikely he could complete a community service and was prepared for a prison sentence.

Police recover stolen dolls, cologne and after-shave

RCMP say $2,000 worth of antique goods stolen in Ingomar area

 

 The stolen goods will now be returned to their owner who no longer lives in Canada. (RCMP)

The RCMP say they’ve found $2,000 worth of antique goods that were stolen in September, 2011 in Shelburne County.
The items include 9 antique dolls and 21 antique colognes and after-shaves. Police said they’re owned by an elderly woman who no longer lives in Canada.
Police said the items were taken during a break in. No one has been arrested, but police said they are “assessing intelligence” in connection to the case.

Unusual theft from Art Gallery of Ballarat

• 
  THEFT: Art Gallery of Ballarat director Gordon Morrison looks at the empty spot in Alfred Deakin's desk where a decorative item used to sit. PICTURE: JEREMY BANNISTER

A RARE decorative object connected to Australia's second Prime Minister Alfred Deakin has been stolen from the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
Gallery director Gordon Morrison said the theft of the object, a small decorative circular wooden table lid, might have resembled something from the Da Vinci Code but it was actually worthless on its own.
The tragic thing was that its removal seriously compromised the integrity and value of the table it belonged to, he said.
"You look at (the lid) and think that could be the key to something - but its not," he said.
"It's got no monetary significance and we just want it back."
The table was owned by Alfred Deakin, one of the fathers of the Federation, and Federal Member for Ballarat who was Prime Minster of Australia for three terms.
It is an example of 'treen', highly detailed and intricate micro-mosaic work in wood.
The table's creator Frederick Edwin Strangward was known for his mathematically intricate designs and the mosaic work on it contains more than two million tiny pieces of wood, some of which are less than half a millimetres thick.
Mr Morrison said he believed the theft to be a result of impulse, rather than an organised heist.
"I think it's someone on impulse has twisted it, found that it's loose and has pocketed it," he said.
"I don't think it's a criminal that has come here thinking it's a valuable object and has stolen it."

An image of the missing lid.
The rare example of Australian woodwork was given to the gallery by a Deakin descendant in 1998 and has been on public display in the Crouch Gallery, the room dedicated to the art of the Heidelberg School and the Federation era.
The lid was removed sometime between 2pm on Thursday afternoon and 2pm on Saturday afternoon.
The room the table was in is covered by CCTV and tapes of the footage from those days are being examined by the Ballarat police.
"This is an object that has no great inherent value and it is certainly not something that would be easy to sell," Mr Morrison said.
"I would appeal to whoever has it to return this important piece of our cultural heritage."
If anyone knows anything about its removal, they should contact Leading Senior Constable Dana Mollison at the Ballarat police station or call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Jewellery and watch theft (Glastonbury)

Image

One of the stolen watches

A reward is being offered for information leading to the recovery of jewellery and watches worth £60,000 stolen in Glastonbury.

The items were taken overnight from a van parked at the Travelodge in Wirrall Park. The owners, from Cornwall, were staying there having been to an antiques fair at the Bath and West showground.

The stolen items include valuable watches by Rolex, Omega, Patek Philippe and Zenith. Rings, chains, bracelets and brooches were among the jewellery items taken.

Mobile developer convicted in stolen antiques

 case pleads guilty in hunting lodge theft

 

  View full size From left to right, Matthew Boykin Walker, Timothy Smith and Kristopher Joseph Ambrose pleaded guilty to federal firearms charges on Thursday, April 18, 2013, in Mobile, Alabama. Walker, who was on probation for a 2010 receiving stolen property charge, also faces possible prison time in state court.  

MOBILE, Alabama – A developer who admitted to harboring more than $500,000 in stolen antiques and furniture pleaded guilty today to a federal gun charge involving a break-in at his uncle’s hunting camp.
According to court records, Matthew Boykin Walker and co-defendant Timothy Smith went to the hunting lodge in McIntosh and stole a safe. Smith, who claims he did not know what was in the safe until they already had removed it, also pleaded guilty today.
Smith admitted to receiving money that was in the safe, although the defendants disagree about how much. Smith’s attorney maintains it was $300; Walker’s lawyer said it was $4,000.
A third man who pleaded guilty today, Kristopher Joseph Ambrose, admitted that he ground off the serial numbers of the 17 firearms. He pleaded guilty to possession of firearms without serial numbers and faces up to five year in prison.
There are other disagreements. Walker, according to defense attorney John White, maintains that it was Smith who asked him for help removing the safe in February. Smith’s plea agreement suggests that it was Walker who set the theft in motion.
From a legal standpoint, it makes little difference. Smith is guilty of possession of stolen firearms and faces up to 10 years in prison. Walker, because of his previous conviction in the antiques case, is a felon barred by law from having guns. He faces the same maximum prison term.
U.S. District Judge Kristi DuBose scheduled sentencing for all three men in July.
In an interview, White said his client brought the guns to his mother’s house and called his uncle, Bob Boykin, to return the firearms.
“His uncle didn’t show up at the condo,” White said. “The police did.”
Walker, 63, pleaded guilty in 2010 to four counts of receiving stolen property that included antique marble fireplace mantles, crystal bowls, sculptures, a flat screen TV, chandeliers, a Victorian sofa and family heirlooms passed down for generations. Investigators found the items stashed in a pair of homes.
In 2011, Mobile County Circuit Judge Joseph “Rusty” Johnston imposed a 10-year suspended sentence and ordered the defendant to spend three years on probation and perform 500 hours of community service. His attorney at the time described him as extremely remorseful for his actions.
Mobile County prosecutors have filed paperwork seeking to revoke Walker’s probation and send him to prison. A hearing is set for next month.
White said he hopes the judge in that case will let his client serve the prison sentence at the same time as his federal punishment, but the attorney said he anticipates push-back from local prosecutors.
Said Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich, “We will leave it to the judge whether it’s consecutive or concurrent time. But we will definitely seek revocation.”
Walker comes from the prominent Boykin family and was a fixture in elite social circles. His son was a knight in the 2008 Mardi Gras royal court of the Mobile Carnival Association.
Walker developed subdivisions in west Mobile and co-founded a Tunica, Mississippi, casino in 1992.
Law enforcement officials found the stolen antiques and furniture at Walker’s secluded house on Jeff Hamilton Road in west Mobile County and a house he was renovating on Rochester Road near the University of South Alabama.
More than 80 of the items had been stolen from a single house on Spring Hill Avenue.
The haul from the hunting lodge was extensive: 14 shotguns, a Colt .38-caliber revolver, a Savage .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol and a Forehand & Wadsworth revolver, according to court records.

Art Nouveau trove to go under hammer in Switzerland

A employee of the "Hotel des Ventes" auction house presents Art Nouveau style vases by Galle during a press preview on April 17, 2013 at the Castle of Gingins, Western Switzerland. Nine years after an amazing theft of 15 priceless works by glass maker Emile Galle, the rest of the Art Nouveau collection of the Neumann family will be auctioned.

GENEVA — A decade after thieves stole a haul of Art Nouveau glassworks in a lightning raid on an exhibition, legitimate collectors will have a chance to bid for the remaining trove of the Swiss-based Neumann family.
Due to go under the hammer on April 27 in the medieval castle of Gingins, a hillside village overlooking Lake Geneva, the 500 lots include other glassworks, furniture and paintings.
According to Geneva's Hotel des Ventes auctioneers, who are handling next week's sale, the estimated value is between a million and 1.5 million Swiss francs (800,000-1.25 million euros, $1.1-1.6 million).
The sale was organised by the heirs of Czech-born couple Lotar Neumann, who died in 1992, and his wife Vera, who passed away earlier this year. The castle was their home.
Born in 1918, Lotar was the son of a wealthy Jewish industrialist in Prague.
He escaped Nazi Germany's clutches during World War II thanks to a false identity, and in 1948 married Vera, who was eight years his junior.
The same year, a communist regime took over what was then Czechoslovakia, and the Neumanns emigrated to Venezuela.
Starting from scratch, they founded a paint and dye factory which was to make their fortune.
Nostalgic for their European past, they had begun collecting posters of the works of Czech Art Nouveau icon Alfons Mucha, and eventually their wealth enabled them gradually to buy original pieces.
In 1960, the Neumanns decided to move back to Europe, setting up home in Switzerland and buying the Gingins castle two years later.
They continued to collect art over the ensuing decades.
Two years after Lotar's death, Vera set up the Neumann Foundation which was dedicated to putting their prize works in display in regular exhibitions in the castle.
It was as such an event in October 2004 that the thieves struck, making off with 15 works by French master glassmaker Emile Galle worth an estimated four million Swiss francs at the time.
Among them were five of Galle's dragonfly-motif cups, made in 1904 and seen as a touchstone of the Art Nouveau movement.
The gang members -- who like the stolen artworks have never been tracked down -- took just five minutes to raid the exhibition.
The shocked Neumann Foundation decided to close its doors to the public after the robbery.
In addition to the art up for auction, the castle is also on sale, with unconfirmed information suggesting it has been valued at 35 million Swiss francs.

Cocaine smuggler loses appeal against 30-year sentence

Perry Wharrie imprisoned for part in €440m Dunlough Bay drug seizure in 2007

Perry Wharrie (53) was one of four men jailed in Ireland for their part in the bungled Dunlough Bay drug-smuggling operation off Mizen Head in West Cork in July 2007. Photograph: Julien Behal/PA Wire

A member of an international organised crime gang behind the largest seizure of cocaine ever found in the State has lost his appeal against the severity of his 30-year sentence.

Perry Wharrie (53) was one of four men jailed for their part in the bungled Dunlough Bay drug-smuggling operation off Mizen Head in West Cork in July 2007. Perrrie was jailed for 30 years.

The plan to smuggle €440 million worth of cocaine into Ireland for shipment on to the UK came unstuck when a gang member put diesel in the petrol engine of their boat.

The engine cut out and the boat was left to the mercy of the waves with 1.5 tonnes of cocaine being tossed into the choppy seas of Dunlough Bay.

Wharrie, from Pyrles Lane, Loughton, Essex, was arrested two days later near Schull and was later charged along with three others in connection with the huge drugs haul.

He was convicted of possessing €440 million worth of cocaine for sale or supply following a lengthy trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in 2008.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin sentenced Wharrie to 30 years in jail along with a co-accused, Martin Wanden, of no fixed abode, while Joe Daly from Bexley, Kent was jailed for 25 years.

A fourth accused, Gerard Hagan from Hollowcroft in Merseyside, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the operation and was later jailed for 10 years.

Wharrie appealed the record sentence last February at the Court of Criminal Appeal before Mr Justice MacMenamin, Mr Justice de Valera and Mr Justice McGovern.

The three-judge court set aside two days to hear Wharrie's appeal but reserved their judgment.

Stolen Art Watch, Kunthsal Art Heist, (Ruslan) Karaev Kicker In Klink, Under Arrest Former World Champ, No Comment, No Paintings, No Charges

Former K-1 stalwart Ruslan Karaev suspected in multi-million dollar art theft

Ruslan Karaev was never what you might call a star in K-1, but he was a name fighter with victories over Kyotaro, Badr Hari, and Stefan Leko. However, after a 2009 loss to Badr Hari at the K-1 World Grand Prix Final, he's been largely inactive. Now he's back in the news, and for all the wrong reasons.

In October of 2012 seven paintings (Pablo Picasso's 1971 "Harlequin Head;" Claude Monet's 1901 "Waterloo Bridge, London" and "Charing Cross Bridge, London;" Matisse's 1919 "Reading Girl in White and Yellow;" Gauguin's 1898 "Girl in Front of Open Window;" Meyer de Haan's "Self-Portrait," around 1890; and Lucian Freud's 2002 work "Woman with Eyes Closed.") were stolen from the Kunsthal Gallery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Three Romanian men were arrested under suspicion of the theft, and while speaking with prosecutors one of them dropped a very interesting name, Ruslan Karaev.

Radu Dogaru was arrested, after allegedly taking the works to the curator for foreign paintings at the Romanian National Art Museum to be valued. While under questioning he apparently told authorities that he gave four of the paintings to K-1 kickboxer Ruslan Karaev. European coverage of the story suggests that Karaev may have ties to organized crime in Russia, ties which have kept him out of competitive kickboxing.

However, at the moment there is little clarity, as sources have been unable to confirm Dogaru's statements.

 Kunsthal Art Heist Suspect's Girlfriend Spills Beans, Deal Offered For Lighter Sentences.

The 19-year-old Romanian woman who was stuck on suspicion of involvement in the robbery from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, has helped in Romania in detecting the paintings. That's her lawyer Martin Iwema said Wednesday.

The woman was released Wednesday after having been fixed. Than 6 weeks Natasha T. in the period was approximately 15 hours 'intensive' interrogated by the police.
Police hoped that the woman could help with the recovery of the seven paintings among others Gauguin, Monet and Picasso representing one million value. The Romanian is the girlfriend of D. Radu, who along with several co-defendants stuck in Romania.
Two months after the art theft, which took place in October last year, Natasha went to Romania. She visited there among others the mother of Radu D. That would in that period of her son have received 'that stuff' out of the house to take away. A call "The suspect was referring hence a bag with precious cloths. Mother Olga D. brought the bag along with Natasha to another address in the village, "says Iwema.
According Iwema has his client led police to the address where they had left the bag. Iwema want to give any details about that location. 'T. wanted to protect her friend and was not trying to make money. "the cloths On the evidence of T. Moreover, no new suspects are arrested.
Unfindable
So far, the artworks not found. There are rumors that they are burned, but there are different scenarios the round. Iwema does not exclude that there are negotiations about the location of the paintings in exchange for reduced sentences. According Iwema involves petty thieves "who happen easily running into an open door of the Kunsthal.
They would not have picked the canvases, the value or name but the works were especially easy fit in the suitcase. They all had about the same size. The lawyer states that the Public Prosecutor (OM) actually has no case against T. The woman, who worked in prostitution, would not have been aware of the plans of the group of men to steal the paintings. Iwema: "They did not see her as a full partner. She is held by the robbers deliberately outside the plan. "

Stolen Art Watch, Charlie Hill Tracking Oudry White Duck With Police Looking Over His Shoulder, Waiting to Pounce, Arrests As Soon As Oudry White Duck Is Revealed

Art Hostage has learned that Charlie Hill has been in negotiations to recover the Oudry White Duck Painting stolen from Houghton Hall in 1992, the Norfolk home of the Cholmondeley family, and those negotiations are at an advanced stage.

Charlie Hill is trying to recover the Oudry White Duck in the same fashion as he did with the Titian stolen from Longleat and recovered by Charlie Hill back in 2002.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/aug/23/arttheft.arts

However, Police are aware of Charlie Hill's current efforts and have him under surveillance and as soon as the Oudry White Duck is revealed, they will swoop and make arrests and also demand no monies, I repeat no monies are paid out for the recovery of the Oudry White Duck.

This comes as Charlie Hill has also been making advances in the Gardner art Heist by visiting a convicted criminal in Ireland and claiming that criminal has access to the Gardner art and all he wants is for the remains of his dead brother to be repatriated to Ireland.

Far fetched as the Gardner Art Heist aspect seems, the Oudry White Duck aspect of that news has been confirmed by sources close to the negotiations.

Stolen Art Watch, World Of Art Crime 2013

Matisse ,Blue Dress in a Yellow Armchair,

 OSLO, Norway (AP) -- The family of a prominent Parisian art dealer is demanding that a Norwegian museum return an Henri Matisse painting seized by Nazis under the direction of Hermann Goering, in the latest dispute over art stolen from Jews during World War II.
The painting at the center of the dispute, Matisse's 1937 "Blue Dress in a Yellow Armchair," depicts a woman sitting in a living room. It has been among the highlights of the Henie Onstad Art Center near Oslo since the museum was established in 1968 through a donation by wealthy art collector Niels Onstad and his wife, Olympic figure-skating champion Sonja Henie.
Museum Director Tone Hansen said it had been unaware the painting was stolen by the Nazis until it was notified in 2012 by the London-based Art Loss Register, which tracks lost and stolen paintings.
She said Onstad bought the painting in "good faith" from the Galerie Henri Benezit in Paris in 1950. The Benezit gallery "has no record of collaborating with the Nazis, as many galleries did," she said in an interview.
Although the war ended almost 70 years ago, disputes over looted art have become increasingly common in recent years, in part because many records were lost, and in part because an international accord on returning such art was only struck in 1998.
But the case of the Matisse is somewhat different in that its former owner, Paul Rosenberg, was one of the most prominent art dealers in Paris before the war, which he survived by fleeing to New York. Art Loss Register Director Chris Marinello said the records in this case are unusually clear.
According to a biography published by New York's Museum of Modern Art, Rosenberg was one of the preeminent modern art dealers of his day, and personal friends with Picasso and Matisse, among others.
Art Registry documents show he purchased "Blue Dress" directly from the painter, having noted the purchase in 1937 and put it on display in the same year, Marinello said. After the war, Rosenberg re-established his business and sought to recover more than 400 works that had been taken by the Nazis.
Marinello showed The Associated Press documents that name the piece now on display in Norway as among those missing after the war.
He slammed the Henie Onstad art museum for "stonewalling."
"The evidence is overwhelming. They just don't want to resolve this," he said.
Paul Rosenberg died in 1959. His family has remained prominent, as his son Alexandre was a war hero and later began his own art dealership.
Among surviving family descendants are Anne Sinclair, the French journalist and ex-wife of former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss Kahn.
Another granddaughter, American lawyer Marianne Rosenberg, said Friday she didn't wish to antagonize the museum, but hoped that it would come to realize that it is wrong in every sense of the term.
The paintings seized from Paul Rosenberg and other Jewish victims of Nazi aggression were taken "under difficult conditions, in a cruel and unfair situation," she said in a telephone interview from her office in New York. "We honor my grandfather Paul's memory ... by doing what he would have done: we wish to recover that which we consider ours."
The lawyer representing the museum, Kyre Eggen, said it was significant that Onstad didn't know where the painting came from.
Under Norwegian law, if a person has had an item in good faith for more than 10 years, that person becomes the rightful owner, he said.
That argument runs against the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, to which Norway is a party. The principles say that owners of looted art should take into account the difficulty that Jewish war survivors faced in reclaiming lost property after the Holocaust, and that owners of looted art should in all cases seek a fast and fair solution.
The Seattle Art Museum returned a Matisse to the Rosenberg family in 1999, after initially making similar arguments.
Eggen also argued that it is possible Rosenberg sold the painting himself between 1946 and 1950.
But Marianne Rosenberg rejected that possibility. Art Loss Register documents show Paul Rosenberg notifying French authorities the piece was missing in 1946, and his family again listing it as among missing pieces it was seeking in 1958.
"The Rosenberg family has since the end of the war assiduously and continuously sought the recovery of the paintings it lost," she said. "We have never sought to recover paintings not lost."

 

Matisse Painting Stolen By Nazis Reignites Sonja Henie's Dark Past

Relatives of the legendary Parisian art dealer Paul Rosenberg are demanding the return of a Matisse Masterpiece from the Henie-Onstad Art Centre in Norway. The family claim that the painting was seized by Nazis, under the orders of Hermann Goering, during World War II. The gallery has so far refused to cooperate with the family in securing its return.

"Blue Dress in a Yellow Armchair," shows a woman sitting in a drawing room in front of a fireplace with another painting by Matisse hanging over the mantle. It has been prominently displayed at the Henie-Onstad Art Gallery in Oslo from the time the museum was established in 1968. It was gifted by the wealthy art collector Niels Onstad and his wife the Olympic figure-skating champion, Sonja Henie who created the important art collection together.

"Henie's connections with Adolf Hitler and other high-ranking Nazi officials made her the subject of controversy before, during, and after World War II. During her amateur skating career, she performed often in Germany and was a favorite of German audiences and of Hitler personally. As a wealthy celebrity, she moved in the same social circles as royalty and heads of state and made Hitler's acquaintance as a matter of course"(1).

"Controversy appeared first when Henie greeted Hitler with a Nazi salute during an exhibition in Berlin some time prior to the 1936 Winter Olympics; she was strongly denounced by the Norwegian press. She did not repeat the salute at the Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but after the Games she accepted an invitation to lunch with Hitler at his resort home in nearby Berchtesgaden, where Hitler presented Henie with an autographed photo which included a lengthy inscription. After starting her film career, Henie kept up her Nazi connections by personally arranging with Joseph Goebbels the distribution and release of her first Hollywood film, "One in a Million", in Germany"(2).

The Henie-Onstad Centre in Oslo was only notified about the title dispute in 2012, when the London-based Art Loss Register, an official data-base of lost, stolen and looted works of art contacted them. The ALR have documentation that the Matisse was in the inventory of the Rosenberg Gallery and that it was reported missing to the French authorities as early as 1946. The American lawyer and Rosenberg granddaughter Marianne Rosenberg, stated to AP on Friday that she; "didn't wish to antagonise the museum, but hoped that it would come to realise that it is wrong in every sense of the term", to keep the painting.

Paul Rosenberg was one of the greatest art dealers of his generation. He represented artists including Picasso, Braque, and Matisse. He began his career in his father's antiques business, and worked in England (1902–05) before returning to Paris to open an art gallery (1911). The gallery was successful enough that he opened another premises in England (1935). He emigrated to the U.S. in 1940 to escape Nazi persecution. Rosenberg opened a gallery in New York which he represented Modern American and European artists. The Henie - Onstad Centre in Oslo should now do the right thing and give the painting back to its rightful owners.

Thieves steal Uncle Arthur’s 1934 Nobel Prize medal

The Labour politician won the prize for his work on disarmament

The Nobel Peace Prize medal won by one of the founding fathers of the modern Labour Party, Arthur Henderson, has been stolen in a £150,000 raid at the Lord Mayor’s office in Newcastle.

Burglars forced their way into the mansion through a cellar before breaking in to display cases and stealing unique artefacts including antique silverware and a lock of hair from one of the country’s most distinguished admirals of the 18th century.
Police have not ruled out some of the most recognisable items having been stolen to order but fear that some may be swiftly melted down for their scrap value since they will be impossible to sell on the open market.
The 23-carat gold Nobel award, dating back to 1934, would be worth £5,000 if melted down but its historic value makes it much more valuable. All 124 winners of the prize dating back to 1901 have been given similar medals.
Mr Henderson, Labour’s first ever cabinet minister and known as “Uncle Arthur” for his central role in the party, won his award for his ultimately unsuccessful work on international disarmament before the Second World War.
A quarter century after his death in 1935, the medal was presented to Newcastle City Council and had been on display in the grand hallway of the Lord Mayor’s mansion when burglars broke in late on Monday night.
Mr Henderson, who was born in Glasgow, grew up in Newcastle and worked in the North-east as an ironworker before forging a formidable political career.
Police Superintendent Bruce Storey said: “It’s difficult to tell but at this stage we can’t discount that these items have been targeted. It’s not opportunistic and they could have been stolen to order.”
“Some of the items taken in this burglary are very uncommon and we are asking the public to keep their eyes open for them.” The burglary marks the first theft of a peace prize but the 1913 medal for literature won by Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore was stolen from a museum in West Bengal in 2004. The medal was never recovered and a replacement was made.
The Nobel Foundation has been contacted about the stolen Henderson medal and supplied photographs to help with the search.
A rose bowl presented to Mr Henderson when he was given freedom of the city of Newcastle in 1930 was also stolen. Other items stolen included an oak box containing a lock of hair of Lord Collingwood, a Royal Navy admiral who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar.
Vernon Rapley, the former head of Scotland Yard’s art and antiques squad and current head of security at the Victoria and Albert Museum, said the items stolen were a “strange mixture”. He said items were rarely stolen to order at the behest of a “Mr Big” and even if the burglars had been commissioned to steal certain treasures, they could have grabbed other items that appeared of value.
The Art Loss Register, which operates an international database of stolen items, said that the medals would show up if they hit the open market.
Greg Rosen, the chairman of the Labour History Group, said the Henderson medal was one of the great symbols of his achievements during a lifetime of service. “He was immensely admired and respected. He was solid and unflashy and wasn’t someone who blew his own trumpet.

Historic Goodwood trophies worth £15,000 stolen near Chichester

 

Historic Goodwood trophies worth £15,000 stolen near Chichester

Historic trophies worth £15,000 were stolen from a stately home.
A gang of four men swiped the 28 trophies from the Goodwood Estate, near Chichester, in just three minutes.
The trophies were loaded into a Range Rover while builders were working on site.
A spokesman from the estate said he feared they would be melted down and sold as scrap.
The stolen trophies included the Mobil Oil Trophy from 1931, marking victory in motor racing.
The 16.5 inch-high trophy has shallow silver circular bowl sup- ported by winged figures of women.

The 1916 Sheep Trophy – marking the best sheep in show – is a silver-gilt two-handled cup and cover.
Gary Axon, from Goodwood, said CCTV from the night of the burglary showed at least four people in a dark-coloured Range Rover targeting the Home of Golf building.
He said: “They smashed a ground floor window to gain access then smashed four glass display cabinets to steal 33 trophies, two of which were part of the Goodwood chattels and of great historic value to the house and family.
“The remaining trophies were either golf or motor sport related.
“The total value of the haul is believed to be up to £15,000 and the burglary took less than three minutes from start to finish.

“Obviously these trophies would be very hard to sell on and we fear that they could be melted down.
“The trophies which have been taken are irreplaceable.
“They have been in the fam- ily for decades.”
Clubs across the south east were put on high alert last year following a spate of thefts.
In October 20 trophies were taken from West Sussex Golf Club in Pulborough.
Other clubs were targeted in Surrey and Hampshire.
One man, discussing the thefts on Facebook, said: “It’s a smash and grab. They are targeting golf clubs specifically. Put your silver in a safe until they are caught.”
A Sussex Police spokeswoman said: “Police are investigating a burglary at the Goodwood Estate. The burglary took place around 11pm on Monday 11 March.
“Around 28 trophies were stolen dur- ing the burglary.
“Officers would also like to hear from anyone who has been offered trophies to buy.”

Hunt for diamond ring stolen in Hove burglary

 

Hunt for diamond ring stolen in Hove burglary

A £500 reward has been offered for a highly valuable diamond ring stolen in a Hove burglary.
A flat on Wilbury Road in Hove was broken into between 6.45am and 1.30pm on March 7.
But the ring, which is of sentimental value to the owner, was only noticed missing on March 24.
Detective Constable Paul Candy from Brighton and Hove Priority Crime Unit said: "The crime was reported to police on 24 March when the victim decided to wear the ring for an evening out and realised that it was missing.

"She is very upset at having been burgled but devastated that an item of such sentimental value has been taken and has offered a reward of £500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible for the theft.
The ring is described as having a white gold band with diamonds on the face shaped like an eye.
Other items taken during the burglary include cash, a silver Cartier watch and a green Ipod.

Picture of stolen painting released as police hunt for burglars

 

Picture of stolen painting released as police hunt for burglars

A photograph of a painting stolen during a burglary in Angmering has been released by police officers hunting for the thieves.
Several items including two paintings, cash and jewellery were taken during the break-in at East Drive on February 15.
A police spokesperson said: "Extensive enquiries have been undertaken to try and find those responsible for the burglary, but we have been unable to trace them.
"We hope that someone may recognise this painting and it will assist with the investigation.

Woman accused of stealing $30,000 worth of antique figurines

 HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A 57-year-old woman is behind bars amid accusations she stole $30,000 worth of antique figurines from a Houston art gallery in southwest Houston.



Patricia DiCoste was arrested Friday at her Bellaire home in connection to the April Fool's Day theft at Simpson Galleries.
Detectives say DiCoste, a frequent customer of the gallery, stole 18 antique Chinese figurines called Buddhist Lohans. They were made during the Qing Dynasty, which dates to the 16th century, and had made their way into the U.S. before a ban on ivory imports was imposed.
The artifacts, which are valued at $30,000, had been at Simpsons on consignment until the gallery's manager received a call on Monday.
"Simpsons had received word from a third party that these particular items had shown up at another gallery. They confirmed that those were their pieces -- promptly went and looked around their warehouse and could not find the items," said Richard Halberd with Homeland Security Investigations.
Authorities say DiCoste sold the figurines to a high-end consignment shop, which then sold them to a Houston-based auction house for $8,000. They were finally seized Wednesday by special agents with Homeland Security Investigations.
"As it turns out, Simpsons Gallery is one of the places we did outreach on and so it's nice to see the fruits of our outreach coming back to us with a lead," Halberd said.
The ivory statues now are being kept at the Harris County District Attorney's Office until they're returned to the gallery.
Meanwhile, DiCoste is being held at the Harris County Jail, waiting arraignment on a charge of felony theft.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Harris County District Attorney's Office and the Bellaire Police Department.
DiCoste's arrest was conducted in support of Houston HSI's Operation "Hidden Relic" because the figurines are classified as cultural antiquities.

Judge will determine Renoir painting's owner

 

Potomack Company - This image released by Potomack Company shows an apparently original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that was acquired by a woman from Virginia who stopped at a flea market in West Virginia and paid $7 for a box of trinkets that included the painting. An anonymous woman who claimed to have found a Renoir painting at a flea market has been unmasked in court papers as she fights to retain it. It turned out the painting was stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1951. When a theft report was found in September, the FBI seized the painting. Now a federal judge in Alexandria will determine who owns it. The Washington Post reports the woman who called herself "Renoir Girl" is Marcia "Martha" Fuqua of Lovettsville, Va., a former physical education teacher.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal judge will seek to unravel an art mystery and determine the rightful owner of a napkin-sized painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that a Virginia woman says she bought at a flea market for $7.
The ownership is in dispute after documents were uncovered showing a Baltimore museum reported the painting stolen more than 60 years ago.
The painting has been seized by the FBI, and the federal government filed an action last month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria asking a judge to determine who should keep the painting.
Among the contenders is a Lovettsville woman, Marcia "Martha" Fuqua, who has told the FBI that she bought the painting at a West Virginia flea market in late 2009 for $7 and stored it in a plastic trash bag for two years before having it authenticated as a genuine Renoir.
Last year, Fuqua planned to have the painting sold at auction, where it was expected to fetch at least $75,000. But the auction was postponed after it was learned that the Baltimore Museum of Art reported the painting stolen in 1951. Records show an insurer, the Fireman's Fund, paid a $2,500 claim on the theft.

The insurer says it is now the rightful owner, based on payment of that claim.
According to an appraisal commissioned by the FBI, Renoir painted "Paysage bords de Seine," or On the Shore of the Seine, on a linen napkin in 1879 on the spot at a riverside restaurant for his mistress.
The appraiser says the Renoir's value is about $22,000, much less than the auction house estimated, because Renoir's paintings have fallen out of favor with some art collectors who consider them old fashioned and because questions about the painting's ownership and possible theft diminish its value to collectors.
Fuqua, who had managed to remain anonymous until the court case was filed, told the FBI under penalty of perjury that she bought the painting at a flea market in Harpers Ferry, W. Va., never believing the painting to be a true Renoir, even though a plate reading "RENOIR" is attached to the frame. She describes herself as an "innocent buyer" and questions the FBI's authority to seize the painting.
"Because I am not an art historian, collector, appraiser, or dealer, I lacked the expertise to identify the Renoir Painting's authenticity, origins or previous ownership history," she wrote.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that Fuqua's 84-year-old mother, who operated an art school for decades in Fairfax County under the name Marcia Fouquet, is an artist who specialized in reproducing paintings from Renoir and other masters. The Post said Fouquet had artistic links to Baltimore in the 1950s, when the painting was stolen, and graduated from Goucher College with a fine arts degree in 1952.
A man who identified himself as Fuqua's brother, Owen M. Fuqua, told the Post that the painting had been in the family for 50 or 60 years and that "all I know is my sister didn't just go buy it at a flea market."
The man later retracted his story, and ultimately said it was another person using his name who gave the initial interview.
Efforts by the AP Friday to reach Martha and Owen Fuqua Friday were unsuccessful. Martha Fuqua's lawyer did not return a call Friday seeking comment.
The FBI has an ongoing investigation, according to spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ordered all parties seeking to claim ownership of the painting to make their case in written pleadings later this month.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/04/05/3244882/judge-will-determine-renoir-paintings.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/04/05/3244882/judge-will-determine-renoir-paintings.html#storylink=cpy

Stolen Picasso Case Takes Stamford Police to NY, London, California

   

Police found the failed actor and alleged thief in California, where he had been busted for allegedly stealing a car the day prior to Stamford police searching for him.

A homeless California man has been arrested and extradited to Stamford for allegedly stealing a $25,000 Picasso sketch following a year-long investigation that took investigators to galleries in New York and London, Stamford police announced Friday.
The suspect was caught after stealing a car the day prior to Stamford authorities running his information through the National Crime Information Center, police said.
According to Sgt. Peter DiSpagna, a failed actor who was an acquaintance of an art collector in Stamford stole a sketch from Pablo Picasso's 1938 series of Buste de Femme a la Chaise, which was validated, stamped and registered. The complainant had a number of art pieces in his basement and didn't realize the sketch was missing for approximately 2 years, DiSpagna said.
DiSpagna said the suspect, identified as Terrence Riggins, 48, with a last known residence of Warren St. in Brooklyn, NY, knew the collector while attempting to make it as an actor before falling on hard times. Riggins allegedly ripped the Picasso out of a frame in the complainant's home, causing minor damage to the piece, and selling it to a New York gallery for $1150.
The New York gallery sold the piece to a London art gallery. When that gallery then sold the piece to a collector in Manhattan for $11,000 in January of 2013, the complainant's brother saw the piece being sold online and alerted authorities.
With the help of Interpol and New York investigators, Stamford police finally tracked down the path the sketch traveled to the New York gallery that originally sold the sketch to London and discovered the owner had the information for Riggins, DiSpagna said.
When DiSpagna was preparing to submit Riggins information to various authorities and ran it through NCIC, he discovered Riggins had been arrested the day prior, March 11, on charges that he stole a car in California, where he moved after not making it in New York as an actor.
Riggins waived extradition rights and was picked up by Stamford authorities Wednesday of this week and brought to Connecticut Thursday. He was charged with first-degree larceny and held on a $20,000 bond.
DiSpagna said the sketch would not be returned to the original complainant as the piece had legitimately changed hands a number of times following the alleged theft. Riggins, should he be found guilty, would eventually be responsible for the cost of the sketch to the original owner.

The Battle for Looted Jewish Artwork Intensifies 

 As has occurred on multiple occasions over the last few decades, once again, valued artwork owned by Jews in pre-Holocaust Europe has been the focus of a protracted legal imbroglio.

As was reported in the New York Post, the German state of Bavaria has assumed a recalcitrant posture as it pertains to returning a famed painting done by Pablo Picasso called “Madame Solder” to the family of Felix Mendelssohn, the legendary 19^th-century classical composer. He is best known for his overture for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Presently, a lawsuit has been filed in Manhattan federal court against Bavaria over their refusal to return the painting of three of Mendelssohn's relatives. With an estimated worth of $100 million, “Madame Soler” is a 1903 portrait that Picasso did during his popular “Blue Period.”
The suit states that the previous owner of the iconic painting was Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, a Jewish banker and a relative of Felix Mendelssohn’s. Amongst the plaintiffs in the suit are Queens homeowner, Britt-Marie Enhoerning, who holds both American and Swedish citizenship.
Court papers reveal that beginning in the early 1900s, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy assiduously assembled a “singular private modern art collection” of approximately 60 works by such exemplary artists such as Monet, Renoir, Picasso and van Gogh.
Prior to his death of a heart attack in 1935, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy made the painful decision to liquidate his impressive collection as the Nazi party rose to prominence in Germany and began to seize the assets of Jewish owned banks, thus decimating his cash flow.
The NY Post also reports that in 1964, Madame Soler” was eventually sold to the Bavarian State Paintings Collection from the Manhattan apartment of Justin Thannhauser, a Berlin art dealer who fled Germany in 1937. During the war, the painting was consigned him. The sale of the painting to the Bavarian government was “through its agent and incoming director,” who’s identified in the suit as “former Nazi party member Halldor Soehner.”
The court papers also charge that, “When it acquired ‘Madame Soler’ in 1964, Bavaria was planning to sell secretly some 113 paintings that leading former Nazi officials like Herman Göring and Martin Bormann had owned, and to auction these works to unsuspecting buyers to raise money to acquire modern artworks like ‘Madame Soler,’” .
“With ex-Nazi Halldor Soehner directing operations, Bavaria auctioned 106 of these works in 1966-67 by concealing the ownership history of these paintings so that prospective buyers remained unaware that notorious Nazi leaders once had owned them — and that the Nazis in turn may have acquired these works from persecuted Jews”, the papers add.
Although Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s descendants are embroiled in intense legal wrangling with the Bavarian government over the return of “Madame Soler”, they had previously won a $5 million settlement after suing the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum over two other Picassos from his collection. According to the lawsuit, Bavaria has remained adamant in its refusal to return “Madame Soler” and has not agreed to submit the dispute to Germany’s Limbach Commission, which hears claims over Nazi-looted art.
John Byrne Jr, the attorney for the plaintiffs said, “This is a case of great historical importance involving Germany’s most famous Jewish family. We are perplexed and disappointed by Bavaria’s failure to properly address the important issues involved in this matter.”
A spokesman for the German Embassy in Washington declined to comment.
While stubbornly holding on to Jewish owned artwork for over 70 years, some museums in Europe are now beginning the process of returning such works to the owner’s heirs.
According to a recent report in The Guardian newspaper of London, France has agreed to return seven paintings stolen, or forcibly appropriated by the Nazis from their Jewish owners in the 1930s to their families. Four of the seven paintings had been hanging in the Louvre in Paris for decades, known as the world’s most foremost art museum.
The report discloses the fact that the paintings were destined to be displayed in an art gallery that Nazi Chancellor Adolf Hitler planned to build in his native Austria.
As many legitimate heirs of Jewish art collectors who lived in pre-Nazi Europe are now initiating lawsuits against museums who have been reluctant to return the highly valued paintings in question, some museums find themselves with no choice but to hand over the stolen works. As part of the renewed effort by the French government to return looted or misappropriated artworks to their rightful owners, they are starting with these seven paintings.
The Guardian reports that six of the seven works being handed back belonged to Robert Neumann, an Austrian Jew who fled to France and then Cuba, selling some of his collection to fund his escape. The paintings will be given to Neumann’s grandson, Tom Selldorff, 82, who lives in the United States.
The seventh work, by the German painter Pieter-Jansz van Asch, belonged to Josef Wiener, a Prague Jew who died in a German concentration camp, and whose collection was sold by the Nazis in 1941.
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis purloined about 100,000 paintings, sculptures and other valuable objects in Jewish private collections in Europe. Some were stolen, others were sold under pressure, often to fund an escape from German occupation and the death camps.
In January of this year, a Viennese newspaper called Der Standard reported that the Jewish Museum of Vienna has been in possession of hundreds of books and works of art that may have been stolen by the Nazis.
Der Standard reported that a screening program that started in 2007, years after other Austrian museums began combing their collections for works taken from their rightful owners, had determined that about 500 works of art and 900 books are of dubious origin.
It cited in particular paintings by Jehudo Epstein, who, while abroad in 1936, entrusted 172 works to industrialist Bernhard Altmann for safekeeping. Altmann fled the country in 1938 when Nazi Germany annexed Austria, and his factory was “Aryanized,” the paper said. The Nazis confiscated the paintings and in some cases erased the signature of the artist.
Epstein died in South Africa in 1945. After 1947, his widow tried in vain to track down the paintings, some of which were later sold at auction by Dorotheum, a huge Austrian auction house, the paper said. One of them, “Madchen mit blonden Zopfen” ‏(The Girl With Blonde Braids‏), was purchased by gallery owner and restaurateur Kurt Kalb.
Several others are now in the Jewish Museum’s collection, the paper said, citing information it got from the museum after many requests.

Antiques valued at £60,000 stolen from van parked at Glastonbury Travelodge

Police are looking for witnesses after £60,000 of antiques were stolen from a van parked at the Glastonbury Travelodge.
The victim, who had been exhibiting at an antiques fair held at the Bath and West Showground near Shepton Mallet, lost Rolex watches, pewter and silver in the raid.

Thieves broke the glass on the driver-side window of the victim’s Vauxhall Movano van in the early hours of Monday morning.
Inspector Mark Nicholson from Wells Police Station said no other vehicles in the car park were targeted in the raid.

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