Court told how police sting led to millions in antiques
AN undercover police officer helped to recover millions of pounds
worth of stolen antiques after infiltrating the Yorkshire gang who were
hoarding them.
Three members of the gang were jailed yesterday over the
scam in which they stored heritage pieces stolen from stately homes.
Some of the items were from Newby Hall, in Ripon, which was designed by
Sir Christopher Wren and is home to a prized collection of Chippendale
furniture as well as Gobelins tapestries.
Other properties which
were targeted included Lotherton Hall, near Leeds, another in North
Yorkshire, Sion Hill, one of the last Edwardian country houses to be
built in the region prior to the First World War, as well as Firle Place
in Sussex, which dates from the late 15th century.
Among the
valuables were a George III Pembroke Chippendale drop leaf table worth
£500,000 and two Louis XVI vases valued at £950,000.
Darren
Webster, 46, of Burnshaw Mews, Middleton, Leeds, was jailed for
six-and-a-half years; Carl Rutter, of Silcoates Street, Wakefield, was
jailed for six years and Brian Eaton, 70, of Chapel Road, Tankersley, in
Barnsley, was jailed for four years. All three men pleaded guilty to
conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
Leeds Crown Court heard police
became aware of the their involvement by being told by Graham Harkin(actual thief of the said artworks) as part of a deal, then shortly after carrying out a drugs
raid at Webster’s home in Middleton in April 2011.
A search recovered a computer memory stick and SIM card which contained photographs of stolen antiques.
An
undercover police officer approached Eaton, as is always the case in these matters, pretending that he wanted
to store stolen cars. After gaining his trust the officer, known as
‘Jason’, began to talk about buying stolen antiques.
Eaton told
him that he knew someone who stored stolen antiques but any pieces
bought would have to be shipped abroad because they were so well known.
‘Jason’
told the men that he knew a buyer overseas and was further able to gain
their trust. All three gang members were arrested in September 2011.
The burglar responsible for targeting the stately homes, Graham Harkin, is currently serving nine years in prison, albeit with better conditions as a result of him guiding Police towards Eaton Webster and Rutter.
Jailing
them, judge James Spencer said: “He could not have carried out those
burglaries without some prospect of disposing of them. It is because of
that that the real evil of handling exists.”
Antiques stolen from North Yorkshire stately homes are recovered
ANTIQUES worth millions of pounds stolen from North Yorkshire stately
homes were recovered after an undercover police sting operation traced
three of the handlers involved.
A police officer posed as a middleman pretending to buy items for the
overseas market and in the process tracked down a £500,000 Chippendale
table and a £1.3m collection of Sevres and Meissen china.
Leeds Crown Court heard the table had been stolen in a burglary at
Newby Hall, near Ripon, in 2006, and the porcelain from Firle Place,
Sussex, in 2009.
Other burglaries had been carried out at Burtonfields Hall, Stamford Bridge, and Sion Hall, Kirby Wiske,
Thirsk, where a £35,000 Delander clock was among items taken and recovered.
Graham Harkin, the burglar responsible for the break-in at Firle Place
and others, was jailed for nine years in 2011 but would not say, publically, where
the items had gone, Patrick Palmer, prosecuting, told the court.
However, by chance, after being tipped off, police carried out a drugs raid at the home of
Darren Webster in Leeds and found numerous photos of stolen antiques.
Webster, 46, of Leeds, was jailed for six and a half years after
admitting conspiracy to handle stolen goods and possession of cocaine
and a stun gun. Carl Rutter, 49, of Wakefield, was jailed for six years
for the conspiracy and Brian Eaton, 70, of Barnsley, was jailed for four
years.
Darren Webster, Brian Eaton and Carl Rutter have all been jailed
Three men have been jailed for handling stolen antiques worth £5m from country houses.
All three had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen goods earlier this year at Leeds Crown Court.
Darren Webster, 46, of Burnshaw Mews, Leeds, was jailed for six years and six months.
Carl Rutter 46, of Silcoates Street, Wakefield, was jailed
for six years and Brian Eaton, 69, of Chapel Road, Tankersley, was
jailed for four years.
According to police the valuables, reported stolen from
country halls and estates in North Yorkshire and Sussex, included a pair
of Louis XVI vases valued at almost £1m and a Chippendale table worth
£500,000.
The antiques were recovered by officers in September 2011 after a year-long investigation.
They had been stolen from Newby Hall and Sion Hill in North Yorkshire and Firle Place in Sussex between 2007 and 2009.
Irishman Pleads Guilty in US Rhino Horns Case
An Irishman linked to a criminal Gypsy clan pleaded guilty Tuesday to
charges he used forged documents to sell horns from endangered black
rhinos to a New York collector for $50,000.
Michael Slattery wept, rubbed his face and waved his arms before
entering the plea in federal court in Manhattan, prompting U.S. District
Judge John Gleeson to comment, "You look like a nervous wreck."
Slattery, 23, told the judge he barely knows how to read but understood the trafficking charges.
"I knew I was doing wrong," the defendant said.
Asked later by Gleeson how he was doing in jail, Slattery claimed that
one inmate had threated to "spin my head off," and that he'd overheard
conversations about how a murder suspect "wanted me to sleep with him."
Prosecutors have identified Slattery as a member of Ireland's Gypsy
minority, known there as travelers. They cited a letter from Irish
authorities linking him to an Irish Gypsy criminal network based in the
County Limerick village of Rathkeale that's suspected in dozens of
thefts of rhino horns across Europe.
In Rathkeale, the travelers have purchased "most of the real estate in
this town in recent years and shown incredible signs of wealth," the
letter said.
According to Europol, thieves known as the Rathkeale Rovers have
targeted museums, galleries, zoos, auction houses, antique dealers and
private collections in Britain, continental Europe, the United States
and South America. It says they were behind a heist this year by masked
men who stole stuffed rhinoceros heads containing eight valuable horns
from the warehouse of Ireland's National Museum.
U.S. authorities alleged that Slattery traveled from London to Houston
in 2010 to try to buy two horns at a taxidermy auction house. Learning
that he needed to be a resident of Texas to make the purchase, he
recruited a day laborer to be a straw buyer. He and other unidentified
suspects gave the straw buyer $18,000 in $100 bills to complete the
deal, a complaint said.
Later that year, Slattery met with a Chinese buyer in Queens and sold
four horns using endangered-species bills of sale with fake Fish and
Wildlife Service logos on them, the complaint said. It's unclear where
he got the additional two horns, it said.
Slattery was arrested in September at New Jersey's Newark Liberty
Airport while boarding a flight to London. He faces a maximum term of
about 2 ½ years at sentencing early next year, followed by deportation.
In 2011, two Irish nationals from Rathkeale were sentenced to six months
behind bars on charges they bought black rhino horns in a sting
operation in Colorado. Irish authorities say one of the men is
Slattery's cousin.
An Irish national linked to an overseas crew of grifters pleaded guilty
Tuesday to illegally selling four rhinoceros horns to a collector in
Queens.
Federal prosecutors say there's a thriving demand on the black market
for the horns in China and Vietnam for medicinal purposes, and they sell
for up to $30,000 per pound. Slattery is a reputed member of the
Rathkeale Rovers, also known as "Irish Travelers," notorious for pulling
scams in Europe and raiding museums for rhino horns.
Michael Slattery, Jr., admitted he traveled from County Limerick to
Texas, where he enlisted a straw buyer to purchase a black rhinoceros
head with two horns from a taxidermy shop.
RELATED: MOZAMBIQUE RHINOS NOW EXTINCT: EXPERTS
Slattery, 23, returned to New York City and sold four horns for $50,000
to an unidentified collector at a tea house in Flushing. It was unclear
where he obtained the other two horns.
"Today's guilty plea highlights our commitment to protect endangered
species, like the black rhinoceros, by prosecuting those who would
profit from the rhinos' extinction," said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta
Lynch.
Slattery wept openly in Brooklyn Federal Court, and told the judge he's
had some rough times in federal jail, including deflecting an accused
murderer's request to bunk with him.
RELATED: INDIAN FOREST GUARDS RUSH TO RESCUE WOUNDED RHINO
"Some days I wish I wasn't born," he told Federal Judge John Gleeson.
"One guy said he'd spin my head off if I came near him again."
"I'd stay away from that guy," Gleeson advised.
Slattery faces up to 33 months in prison when he's sentenced in January.
Germany's shame over looted art haul
Germany today is a peaceful, democratic nation that is in many ways a
model to which the rest of the world should aspire. But its
authorities’ handling of the hoard of Nazi-looted art found in Cornelius
Gurlitt’s flat of reveals that, beneath the surface, severe problems
still remain.
The indictment has several counts. The authorities sat on the
discovery for eighteen months, during which time owners of the stolen
property may well have died. Even now it has been revealed, they have
refused to cooperate in any way with the restitution bodies, brushing
away with contempt their requests for specific information about the
contents. And they have somehow let — ‘been complicit in’ might even be
more accurate — Herr Gurlitt simply disappear.
Those who deal with this issue every day say none of this is
surprising. While the German government makes the right noises and
usually does the right thing, further down the chain attitudes are far
more unreconstructed. Many simply do not agree with the idea of
restitution and refuse all but the most basic legally necessary
engagement.
But the revelation that, far from doing their best to restore stolen
property to its rightful owners, the German authorities have – at best –
frustrated those efforts may have a positive impact in alerting the
world to a Nazi scandal that remains a live issue.
Looted Nazi art: Germany’s ‘conspiracy of silence’
Restitution experts have condemned the German authorities’ handling
of the discovery of a hoard of Nazi-looted artwork in a Munich flat.
Investigators faced a furious backlash after they admitted the haul
of almost 1,400 paintings had been found two years ago and kept secret
until a German magazine reported the case last weekend.
The authorities were also attacked for refusing to publish a full
list of the items recovered — hampering attempts to reunite the works
with Holocaust survivors and their heirs.
Jewish art specialists raised fears that German investigators could
have been involved in a “conspiracy of silence” and accused the German
authorities of “deliberately obstructing attempts to reunite the victims
of the Nazis with their stolen property”.
Anne Webber, co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe,
said: “The concealment in the past two years is as great a concern as
the theft itself.
“The information is a matter of huge public interest and concern. The German government has a clear moral and ethical duty.
“The looting itself was declared a war crime. The authorities must commit to being open, transparent and credible.”
David Glasser, chairman and chief executive of the Ben Uri Collection
of art of Jewish origin, said the authorities should have done more to
“alert families that it was likely one of their heirlooms had been
discovered, and brought some closure to a 75-year-old wound.
“This was a huge opportunity for the Bavarian authorities to
demonstrate a moral leadership where the rights of the person should
take equal if not greater priority than the state. It appears to be an
opportunity lost.”
Valued at around £1 billion, the 121 framed pieces and 1,258 unframed
works include paintings by masters including Picasso, Renoir and
Matisse.
Reinhard Nemetz, the prosecutor leading the investigation, confirmed
on Tuesday that exact details of all the items would not be revealed
publicly.
He said authorities would “prefer people with a claim to get in touch
with us to say which picture they’re missing, rather than the other way
round”.
One observer pointed out that this is “like inviting someone to lunch
but refusing to name the restaurant. If people don’t know what the
hoard contains, they can’t know if it contains their stolen art ”.
Ms Webber criticised the lack of attention given to reuniting the art with its original owners.
She said: “We are calling on the German authorities to publish a list
of the works as quickly as possible. It’s a matter of great concern
that the prosecutors said they would not publish details.”
Mr Glasser said a list could have been checked against records stored
by art experts based in Munich, with pieces ultimately returned to
families within two months of the initial discovery.
Mr Nemetz defended the way the case had been handled and said his
“primary attention” was on whether a crime had been committed and the
“exceedingly complex legal position”. He said the public attention was
proving “counter-productive”.
Much of the public focus has been on the emergence of previously
unknown works, but Ms Webber and other specialists criticised the lack
of attention given to reuniting the paintings with their original
owners.
She said: “We are calling on the German authorities to publish a list
of the works as quickly as possible. It’s a matter of great concern
that the prosecutors said they would not publish details.”
Mr Glasser added: “Art museums could have prepared an initial full
inventory including high resolution images and public provenance from
gallery and exhibition labels in around six weeks.”
He said a list could have been checked against records stored by art
experts based in Munich, with pieces ultimately returned to families
within two months of the initial discovery.
Ms Webber said the size of the haul would encourage survivors’ families who had previously given up hope of finding looted art.
She was “inundated” with requests from around the world for information about the recovered works.
“The emails have been very moving. There’s a real sense of hope because people had clearly previously given up,” Ms Webber said.
“It shows the potential for how much art is still missing and how
much stolen work is still in galleries. In a way it just encapsulates
the fact that there are so many looted artworks.”
She said that while the size of the discovery in Munich was
substantial, around 90 per cent of looted works still remain
unrecovered.
The Claims Conference, which works to distribute restitution payments
to Shoah survivors, also expressed its concerns over the handling of
the case.
Chairman Julius Berman said: “Had this discovery been made public at
the time it was found, families looking for their lost art would have
been able to potentially identify works within this collection.
“Publicising the existence of Nazi-looted art is essential to the
process of finding heirs. With the time that has been lost, every
possible effort must now be made to determine the original owners of
these artworks and locate them or their heirs.”
The artwork was found during a routine investigation by customs officials at the Munich flat of Cornelius Gurlitt.
He is the reclusive son of art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who was
recruited by the Nazis to collect artwork regarded as “degenerate” by
Hitler and the leaders of the Third Reich.
Mr Gurlitt’s current whereabouts are unknown.
Customs officials said the paintings had been “professionally stored”
in one room of the flat and that it had taken three days to remove
them. It is not known where the artwork is now being held.
Giving back the art stolen by Nazis
British doctor launches legal fight for art in looted Nazi trove which includes previously unknown works by Chagall and Matisse
- Dr Michael Hulton, 67, is the great-nephew of famous Jewish art collector Alfred Fleichtheim
- His galleries were ransacked after he fled from Berlin to London in 1933
- Dr Hulton says some of the 1,400 paintings found in Cornelius Gurlitt's Munich apartment belonged to his great-uncle
- This includes The Lion Tamer by Max Beckmann
Dr Michael Houlton is launching a legal bid to recover paintings he claims were looted from his family by the Nazis
A British doctor has launched a
legal battle to recover masterpieces looted from his family by the
Nazis that he believes form part of a $1 billion treasure trove of
paintings discovered in Germany.
Dr.
Michael Hulton, 67, is the great-nephew of Alfred Fleichtheim, a famous
Jewish art collector whose galleries were ransacked after he fled from
Berlin to London in 1933.
Now
working as an anaesthetist in San Francisco, Dr Hulton told the Mail
that his lawyers reached an agreement two years ago with Cornelius
Gurlitt - the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt, an art dealer who traded
plundered works for the Nazis – after he tried to sell a painting once
owned by Mr Fleichtheim for £720,000.
The painting – The Lion Tamer by Max
Beckmann – had been given to the collector by the artist himself in
return for 'living expenses.'
'I asked him at the time, "Are there any others?" We had no idea.’
It
wasn’t until Sunday when Dr. Hulton’s relatives sent him a BBC report
saying German customs officials had found 1,400 paintings in Guritt’s
cluttered Munich apartment that he realised he may have discovered what
happened to many more of his great uncle’s stolen collection.
Dr Hulton said he had not been contacted by the German authorities since the find last year.
He believes the hiudden cache of artworks it may contain other works by Beckmann.
Mr Flechteim also owned works by the likes of Picasso, Klee, Monet, Renoir and Matisse.
Sold: Dr Michael Hulton claims the painting The
Lion Tamer by Max Beckmann, which Gurlitt tried to sell for £750,000
before the collection was discovered, belonged to his great-uncle Alfred
Fleichtheim
Holding place: Cornelius Gurlitt, lived off the
collection and as a consequence he has managed to survive his entire
life without any official bank account, pension or insurance. Pictured:
The Munich apartment where officials discovered the hidden paintings
‘My German lawyer is certainly
very well known to the German authorities. At the very least it would
have been courteous for him to have been notified.
'They say they don’t want any Tom, Dick or Harry to turn up but with all due rerspect we are no Tom, Dick or Harry.
'It
is a matter of justice and family honour. It really hit a nerve. We
will be making a formal application in Germany to remind Munich that we
don’t consider the mater closed.
'I just wish my father was alive to see this, although he would be over 100 now.'
Remarkable: A painting from Henry Matisse called
Sitzende Frau (Sitting Woman) - one of the previously unknown works
found at Gurlitt's flat - is projected on a screen during a news
conference in Augsburg. It is worth an estimated £50-£60million
Never-before-seen: A painting of Otto Dix called Selbstportrait Rauchend (Selfportrait Smoking)
Control: Hitler only liked classical art and
held exhibitions of modern 'dissident' pieces to show German people what
not to like. Many of those paintings that appeared in those shows have
been found in Gurlitt's collection
Loot: American soldiers are pictured discovering one of the Nazi's enormous art stash during the war
