Art Theft/ Cash machine Bank raid gang put behind bars
By Matt Wilkinson
A gang has been jailed for a total of more than 30 years after a foiled bank robbery in a small Oxfordshire town.
The six men, normally involved in high value art thefts, crashed a stolen JCB into the Burford branch of Lloyds TSB in Sheep Street, in April last year, attempting to steal the cash machine, but fled empty-handed after the digger broke.
"Should have gone to Spec-savers" "Should have stuck to art theft"
Police arrested the six men - one from Eynsham and the rest from Kent - only 15 minutes after the botched raid.
This means that Police were watching Alan Johnson, waiting for him to go and collect his soldiers.
Alan "Jimmy" Johnson, 53, of Eynsham, was the last of the gang to be sentenced yesterday when he was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
continued... Alan Jimmy Johnson could not recover the really high value stolen artworks his gang sold on to criminal art dealers. These Mr Big's said they want to be paid a profit before they release high value stolen artworks.
Investigating officer DS Howard Berry, of Witney CID, said: "These people are organised criminals prepared to travel long distances to commit serious crime in isolated rural locations, if not high value art thefts from Stately homes, then they will turn to stealuing cash ATM's from the walls of banks.
"On that night, the residents of Burford woke up to a frightening experience seeing a gang of men in balaclavas attacking a bank with a stolen JCB in a well-planned attempt to extract a cash machine.
"This was a serious offence and the sentences from court reflect our view."
Johnson, whose address was given as a traveller camp on the A4095 at Eynsham, and four other members of the gang all changed their pleas and admitted conspiracy to steal as a trial was about to begin last Monday.
Sentencing Johnson yesterday, Judge Anthony Hall said the gang waited until the last minute before they realised the game was up.
He said: "They were going down like nine-pins when other defendants were pleading guilty at the door of the court.
"There was no evidence to distinguish between their roles.
"If you (Johnson) had entered a plea of guilty earlier and not at the door of the court I would have given you a greater credit."
Johnson called out to the judge from behind the glass screen in the dock as he was being sent down.
Before he was led away, he said: "If I'd been given the opportunity to plea I would have done that."
Alan Jimmy Johnson was led to believe that if he could facilitate the return of stolen high value artworks he would be in line for a reduced sentence, he failed to secure any significant pieces, so he gets Four and a Half years.
Nicolas Gerasimidis, defending, told the court Johnson was not a major player in organising the raid. Yeah right!!! One minute Alan Jimmy Johnson is the self styled Art crime godfather, next he is just and innocent man collecting friends. If Mr Johnson is to create a lying/bollocks story, at least make it plausable.
He was caught in a layby near Eynsham, meeting co-defendants after driving four of the robbers away from the raid in his Jeep Cherokee.
Mr Gerasimidis said: "His role was effectively offering help to persons that he knew. He wasn't involved in stealing any of the vehicles used."
The rest of the gang all came from Tunbridge Wells in Kent and were jailed on Friday.
George Smith, 38, and Matthew Cook, 30, were jailed for four-and-a-half years each after admitting conspiracy to steal, on the morning of their trial.
Dominic Edwards, 28, received four years after admitting his involvement a week before the trial was to begin.
Steven Thornton, 32, who also entered a guilty plea at the start of the trial, was jailed for seven years and eight months on two counts of conspiracy to steal, and driving offences.
Stephen Boyd was sentenced to five years after he was found guilty of conspiracy to steal on Thursday following a four-day trial at Oxford Crown Court.
8:58am Tuesday 24th October 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Issued: Friday, 20 October 2006, 17:24:22
Operation Haul - update
Five men were sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday (19/10) in connection with Operation Haul.
These men are part of the Art Crime gangs targeting Stately/Country homes for high value museum quality artworks. Targetting cash machines is just another line of criminal activity for these crime gangs.
The men were arrested near Burford, Oxfordshire, in April for the attempted theft of an ATM machine using two stolen vehicles.
George Smith, aged 38, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent was sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment.
Stephen Boyd, aged 49, from Reading was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Steven Thornton, aged 32, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, was sentenced to seven years and eight months imprisonment.
Mathew Cook, aged 30, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment.
Dominic Edwards, aged 28, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
A sixth man is due to be sentenced on Monday (23/10).
How To Prevent High Value Art Theft, Minimal Cost!!!!
It is impossible to stop these career criminals from comitting crime, however, if existing sentencing guidelines in British law are enforced for high value art theft, then these criminals will stop targeting Stately/Country homes and comitt crime in other areas.
If the message is clear, anyone convicted of high value art theft will be given a mandatory 10 years jail sentence, then High value art theft will look less attractive.
A scheme in America that makes it a federal offence to steal high value artworks from public buildings and museums, leaving criminals facing 25 to life if they are caught. This has stemed the theft of priceless artworks from public buildings and museums although security at many Muesums and public buildings leaves something to be desired.
If applied in Britain, the criminals would think twice before embarking on stealing high value artworks from public buildings and museums, the museums would not have to update their security, although this is recommended however expensive, and the public will enjoy access to unique priceless artworks on display, furthering everyone's cultural learning.
Operation Haul - update
Five men were sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday (19/10) in connection with Operation Haul.
These men are part of the Art Crime gangs targeting Stately/Country homes for high value museum quality artworks. Targetting cash machines is just another line of criminal activity for these crime gangs.
The men were arrested near Burford, Oxfordshire, in April for the attempted theft of an ATM machine using two stolen vehicles.
George Smith, aged 38, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent was sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment.
Stephen Boyd, aged 49, from Reading was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Steven Thornton, aged 32, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, was sentenced to seven years and eight months imprisonment.
Mathew Cook, aged 30, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years imprisonment.
Dominic Edwards, aged 28, from the Tunbridge Wells area of Kent, was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
A sixth man is due to be sentenced on Monday (23/10).
How To Prevent High Value Art Theft, Minimal Cost!!!!
It is impossible to stop these career criminals from comitting crime, however, if existing sentencing guidelines in British law are enforced for high value art theft, then these criminals will stop targeting Stately/Country homes and comitt crime in other areas.
If the message is clear, anyone convicted of high value art theft will be given a mandatory 10 years jail sentence, then High value art theft will look less attractive.
A scheme in America that makes it a federal offence to steal high value artworks from public buildings and museums, leaving criminals facing 25 to life if they are caught. This has stemed the theft of priceless artworks from public buildings and museums although security at many Muesums and public buildings leaves something to be desired.
If applied in Britain, the criminals would think twice before embarking on stealing high value artworks from public buildings and museums, the museums would not have to update their security, although this is recommended however expensive, and the public will enjoy access to unique priceless artworks on display, furthering everyone's cultural learning.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Issued: Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 13:38:49
"Operation Haul curbs art crime gangs"
"All evidence to the contrary"
Police appeal after Art and Antiques burglary - Maidenhead
Less than one week since Mark Warwick and police were revelling in their supposed glory of smashing the art crime gangs, we now see another theft of antique clocks and watches.
This will be followed by many others in the coming months.
The "Hitting corks in a barrel" approach continues!!!!!!!!!
Art Hostage is proved right yet again!!!!
Police are appealing for information after a group of burglars broke into the home of an elderly man in Maidenhead on Monday (16/10).
The offenders gained entry to the property in Wootton Way, at about 10pm, by forcing the front door.
The 79-year-old victim was in bed at the time and, after forcing their way in, the offenders removed a telephone from its socket to prevent him from calling the police or making contact with anyone else.
The group, of about six men, then searched his home, stealing a number of antique clocks and watches before leaving through the front door.
DS Simon Powell, officer in the case, said: “We urge anyone who heard or saw anything they think was suspicious in that area on Monday to call the police.
“We would also like to hear from anyone who has been offered any antique clocks or watches for sale.”
Police are investigating the possibility that the same group is also responsible for a second incident, which also occurred in the Punt Hill area of Maidenhead.
In this later incident, which occurred sometime between 11.55pm on Monday (16/7) and 5.15am on Tuesday (17/10), the offenders forced a front door to get in before searching the property.
Police are also investigating reports of a group of youths knocking on doors in the area on the same night.
Insp John McDonald, of the neighbourhood team at Maidenhead, said: “These offences were particularly despicable, being against some of the most vulnerable in our community.
“If anyone has any information about either offence, or the group of youths knocking on doors that night, they should phone police. All calls will be treated as confidential.” "And those who provide information to police will be hung out to dry when they are of no more use to law enforcement"
Antiques Trade Gazette
14 arrests, but still no sign of huge haul
Stolen art and antiques valued at tens of millions remain at large despite the arrests of 14 people in connection with a string of burglaries at English stately homes. Police have asked the antiques trade to remain vigilant.
The ongoing investigation is part of Operation Haul, an initiative involving police from five forces launched in 2005 to look at the activities of an extremely violent and intimidating crime network operating throughout the south of England. Police from Thames Valley, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire helped in the arrests. “We had a common problem, we had a common issue we needed to deal with. We came together and we actually worked together to solve this,” said Detective Superintendent Mark Warwick of Thames Valley Police.
However, while detectives claimed to have smashed an arts and antiques ring, so far little of the stolen goods – with a collective value of more than £100m – have been recovered. Police are hoping that inquiries over the next few days could lead to more being seized but, in the belief that most of the stolen property has been sold on, detectives urged antiques dealers to be alert. For example, none of the gold boxes from Waddesdon Manor have surfaced after four years.
The one breakthrough remains the stash of 140 objects discovered in underground storage on wasteland close to Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of March. As widely reported, the recovered objects, packed in straw inside dustbins, represented close to 40 per cent of the total volume taken in Britian’s largest domestic robbery at Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire.
However, ATG have learnt that the recovered items are only a fraction of the total value of the stolen objects and the Ramsbury silver, 13 Golden Age English table clocks and two remarkable barometers are among the many pieces still at large.
The thieves/handlers gave back the "Shit" broken not wanted crap, to see what would be given in reward money and favours relating to jail time for those awaiting sentence.
To retrieve the high value stolen artworks there needs to be involvement with the private sector, but then again Law Enforcement is not bothered about recovery.
"Operation Haul curbs art crime gangs"
"All evidence to the contrary"
Police appeal after Art and Antiques burglary - Maidenhead
Less than one week since Mark Warwick and police were revelling in their supposed glory of smashing the art crime gangs, we now see another theft of antique clocks and watches.
This will be followed by many others in the coming months.
The "Hitting corks in a barrel" approach continues!!!!!!!!!
Art Hostage is proved right yet again!!!!
Police are appealing for information after a group of burglars broke into the home of an elderly man in Maidenhead on Monday (16/10).
The offenders gained entry to the property in Wootton Way, at about 10pm, by forcing the front door.
The 79-year-old victim was in bed at the time and, after forcing their way in, the offenders removed a telephone from its socket to prevent him from calling the police or making contact with anyone else.
The group, of about six men, then searched his home, stealing a number of antique clocks and watches before leaving through the front door.
DS Simon Powell, officer in the case, said: “We urge anyone who heard or saw anything they think was suspicious in that area on Monday to call the police.
“We would also like to hear from anyone who has been offered any antique clocks or watches for sale.”
Police are investigating the possibility that the same group is also responsible for a second incident, which also occurred in the Punt Hill area of Maidenhead.
In this later incident, which occurred sometime between 11.55pm on Monday (16/7) and 5.15am on Tuesday (17/10), the offenders forced a front door to get in before searching the property.
Police are also investigating reports of a group of youths knocking on doors in the area on the same night.
Insp John McDonald, of the neighbourhood team at Maidenhead, said: “These offences were particularly despicable, being against some of the most vulnerable in our community.
“If anyone has any information about either offence, or the group of youths knocking on doors that night, they should phone police. All calls will be treated as confidential.” "And those who provide information to police will be hung out to dry when they are of no more use to law enforcement"
Antiques Trade Gazette
14 arrests, but still no sign of huge haul
Stolen art and antiques valued at tens of millions remain at large despite the arrests of 14 people in connection with a string of burglaries at English stately homes. Police have asked the antiques trade to remain vigilant.
The ongoing investigation is part of Operation Haul, an initiative involving police from five forces launched in 2005 to look at the activities of an extremely violent and intimidating crime network operating throughout the south of England. Police from Thames Valley, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire helped in the arrests. “We had a common problem, we had a common issue we needed to deal with. We came together and we actually worked together to solve this,” said Detective Superintendent Mark Warwick of Thames Valley Police.
However, while detectives claimed to have smashed an arts and antiques ring, so far little of the stolen goods – with a collective value of more than £100m – have been recovered. Police are hoping that inquiries over the next few days could lead to more being seized but, in the belief that most of the stolen property has been sold on, detectives urged antiques dealers to be alert. For example, none of the gold boxes from Waddesdon Manor have surfaced after four years.
The one breakthrough remains the stash of 140 objects discovered in underground storage on wasteland close to Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of March. As widely reported, the recovered objects, packed in straw inside dustbins, represented close to 40 per cent of the total volume taken in Britian’s largest domestic robbery at Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire.
However, ATG have learnt that the recovered items are only a fraction of the total value of the stolen objects and the Ramsbury silver, 13 Golden Age English table clocks and two remarkable barometers are among the many pieces still at large.
The thieves/handlers gave back the "Shit" broken not wanted crap, to see what would be given in reward money and favours relating to jail time for those awaiting sentence.
To retrieve the high value stolen artworks there needs to be involvement with the private sector, but then again Law Enforcement is not bothered about recovery.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Issued: Monday, 16 October 2006, 12:44:56
Operation Haul - update- Stately Homes art raids!!
A further four men have been charged over the weekend in connection with Operation Haul.
Danny O’Loughlin, aged 30, Albert David Johnson, aged 31, Richard Steven Samuel Johnson, aged 31 and Michael Nicholls, aged 27, all from Cheltenham, will appear before Reading magistrates on Thursday (19/10) charged with conspiracy to steal ATM machines and conspiracy to commit burglary.
A further six people arrested last Tuesday (10/10) and being held in Gloucester have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
So, four of the Johnson clan have been charged with various offences!!!
Wonder if this will curb high value art thefts from Stately Homes and country houses?
Somehow, I don't think so and there is the small matter of recovering the high value artworks still outstanding.
Operation Haul - update- Stately Homes art raids!!
A further four men have been charged over the weekend in connection with Operation Haul.
Danny O’Loughlin, aged 30, Albert David Johnson, aged 31, Richard Steven Samuel Johnson, aged 31 and Michael Nicholls, aged 27, all from Cheltenham, will appear before Reading magistrates on Thursday (19/10) charged with conspiracy to steal ATM machines and conspiracy to commit burglary.
A further six people arrested last Tuesday (10/10) and being held in Gloucester have been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
So, four of the Johnson clan have been charged with various offences!!!
Wonder if this will curb high value art thefts from Stately Homes and country houses?
Somehow, I don't think so and there is the small matter of recovering the high value artworks still outstanding.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Stately Homes crime gang, arrests Update!!!!!!!!!!
Operation Haul - update
Ricky Johnson, aged 53, (brother of Alan "Jimmy" Johnson) from Cheltenham, has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary and will be appearing before Reading Magistrates this afternoon.
Interesting to note, Ricky Johnson said when convicted of overcharging pensioners for shoddy work, said he was following the guidence of Jesus, "Jesus works in mysterious ways"See "Lord Lag..." article below
A further five people have been arrested this morning in connection with Operation Haul and will be questioned by detectives today.
Another four people have been released on police bail until December.
Ends.
Those Art and Antiques dealers who have bought high value stolen art from Jimmy and Ricky Johnson have been busy hiding those stolen artworks.
These top end criminals know full well that they will be implicated so the high value artworks aquired will be buried until there can be a way found to allow them to surface.
It is interesting to note, that when art crime gang members sell their ill gotten gains to friendly art dealers, the dealers themselves become targets.
There have been instances when art dealers who buy stolen art have been targeted by the crime gangs and have been robbed of the stolen artworks. They obviously cannot report this to police so the Art Crime gang get to sell the stolen art twice.
When art thieves get arrested and charged they often try and bargin a lighter sentence by informing on the art dealers they have sold stolen art too.
If becomes common knowledge among art loss investigators who has what stolen art.
Trouble is getting the artworks off the criminal art dealers is the hard part, not just because of the unrealistic demands of the criminal art dealers , but also becuse of the unrealistic demands of law enforcement, who want to leave private investigstors exposed to arrest, violence from the criminal underworld and out of pocket!!!!!
Operation Haul - update
Ricky Johnson, aged 53, (brother of Alan "Jimmy" Johnson) from Cheltenham, has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary and will be appearing before Reading Magistrates this afternoon.
Interesting to note, Ricky Johnson said when convicted of overcharging pensioners for shoddy work, said he was following the guidence of Jesus, "Jesus works in mysterious ways"See "Lord Lag..." article below
A further five people have been arrested this morning in connection with Operation Haul and will be questioned by detectives today.
Another four people have been released on police bail until December.
Ends.
Those Art and Antiques dealers who have bought high value stolen art from Jimmy and Ricky Johnson have been busy hiding those stolen artworks.
These top end criminals know full well that they will be implicated so the high value artworks aquired will be buried until there can be a way found to allow them to surface.
It is interesting to note, that when art crime gang members sell their ill gotten gains to friendly art dealers, the dealers themselves become targets.
There have been instances when art dealers who buy stolen art have been targeted by the crime gangs and have been robbed of the stolen artworks. They obviously cannot report this to police so the Art Crime gang get to sell the stolen art twice.
When art thieves get arrested and charged they often try and bargin a lighter sentence by informing on the art dealers they have sold stolen art too.
If becomes common knowledge among art loss investigators who has what stolen art.
Trouble is getting the artworks off the criminal art dealers is the hard part, not just because of the unrealistic demands of the criminal art dealers , but also becuse of the unrealistic demands of law enforcement, who want to leave private investigstors exposed to arrest, violence from the criminal underworld and out of pocket!!!!!
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Police arrest gang blamed for art and antiques thefts at stately homes
· Fourteen held in dawn raids by five forces
· Many items still missing in multimillion-pound thefts
Sandra Laville
Wednesday October 11, 2006
The Guardian
Detectives claimed yesterday to have smashed a gang of arts and antiques thieves responsible for looting tens of millions of pounds worth of property from stately homes in Britain. More than 100 police officers from five forces were involved in the raids and 14 people seized.
A trifle premature to think police have smashed this or any other Art and Antiques crime gang.
This is just another cynical headline grab by Police, lets see the next batch of high value art thefts coming soon!!!!!!!
For four years the audacious burglaries at some of Britain's best-known stately homes in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire have embarrassed police and left leading insurers in the art world smarting from multimillion-pound payouts for antiques, curios and paintings from leading collections.
Victims such as Lord Rothschild have called in private detectives to find their stolen property, with little success.
The truth is that Lord Rothschold has been offered his gold boxes etc back by those of us investigating stolen art, Thames Valley Police agreed to allow the Rothschild collection to surface, however, Scotland Yard stepped in and forbid any recoveries of stolen art, effectively slapping down Thames Valley Police as the "Country Yokels"
But senior officers claimed yesterday that their operation had ended the activities of the gang, which they said was responsible for at least 10 raids on stately homes, including the theft of £30m of antiques from Ramsbury Manor near Marlborough, in what is believed to be Britain's biggest domestic burglary.
Wishful thinking on behalf of Police,This is just another demonstration of the failed "Hitting corks in a barrel" approach, so, now comes the backlash, there will be a spate of further high value art thefts to show the art crime gangs are still operating with impunity and there will be occasions whereby highly important works of art are damaged, acid thrown over canvases etc, just to show that the Police can never win, perverse as this may seem.
The Guardian has learned that yesterday's raids came after a man whom detectives claim is the "godfather" of organised art and antique crime in the south-west, pleaded guilty at Oxford crown court on Monday to conspiracy to steal from cash machines. Alan "Jimmy" Johnson, the leader of an Irish-born travelling family from Gloucestershire, has been pursued for several years by police investigating the art and antiques thefts.
Johnson, who is in Leicester prison awaiting sentence for the cash machine conspiracy, admits he has targeted country homes for antiques but vigorously denies any part in the spate of stately home raids and has claimed he is being made a scapegoat.
To be fair to Alan "Jimmy" Johnson, he has been talking to Ex Art Detective Charlie Hill, who has been passing information to Police. Jimmy Johnson and David Dudon have been spilling the beans to Charlie Hill about art thefts and stealing bronze sculptures. Charlie Hill has been stifled in making any kind of art recoveries so he has been trying to set up those with access to high value stolen art, this strategy is fraught with danger and we now see Jimmy Johnson being "Hung out to dry" by Charlie Hill and law enforcement.
To dump all of this on Jimmy Johnson is a travesty,######, aka, as ##### from Southern England has been giving information to Police about the art crime gangs, which include Irish Gypsy criminals from Limerick, Dublin etc.
########, holds a Gypsy/Traveller event each year in the grounds of his manor, where Gypsies and travellers from all over Britain and Ireland gather, it is at these events ###### gets most inside information to pass to Police.
While ########, enjoys the fruits of dealing in stolen artworks, because of the pass given to him by his Mason Police friends, others within the travelling community are hounded and arrested, as we see with the raids carried out in the Thanmes Valley.
To all travelling, Irish, and British Gypsies, Dundon/McCarthy, Johnson, Sheehy, Kent clans, Newark boys etc
YOU HAVE "SEWER RATS" IN YOUR RANKS
Two years ago Jimmy Johnson offered his services to Lord Rothschild to help him find millions of pounds worth of miniature gold boxes and works of art lost in a smash and grab raid at Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, Bucks, in 2003. No property was recovered, because Scotland Yard blocked any return of the Rothschild collection, it is still out there waiting to be recovered if authorities would take their heads out of the sand and employ the services of those of us able to recover these and other stolen art collections.
Thames Valley police said the dawn raids in an operation codenamed Haul involved "a show of strength", although officers were not armed.
Police are questioning the gang, thought to number more than 21, over conspiracy to commit 23 offences including burglaries from stately homes and country houses, shops, hotels and a string of thefts from cash machines.
Detective Superintendent Mark Warwick, the senior investigating officer, said: "The crimes being investigated include some of the highest profile and highest value burglaries this country has ever seen. I think we have totally nullified the effects of the gang and disrupted their network." Police believe the thieves visited the stately homes - which were open to the public - to carry out reconnaissance missions in advance of the raids. Targets are still being evaluated by criminals and the vulnerable ones will be robbed, dispite the boasts of Mark Warwick, ask Mark Warwick why the Rothschild collection has not been recovered?
Several of the burglaries, including the raid on Lord Rothschild's home, Waddesdon Manor, involved the use of 4x4 vehicles, with a metal stake attached to the roof to ram heavily bolted gates and doors.
In last February's attack on Ramsbury Manor, the 17th century home of Harry Hyams, a reclusive property tycoon and art collector who built Centre Point in London, the burglars broke in through a downstairs window at about 10.40pm and seized items worth about £30m. The property houses a world-famous collection of fine art, including that of Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt. Harry Hyams was told that the art crime gang were planning a return to his house for a second haul of artworks, Mr Hyams, alarmed by this is living in fear.
The Hyams raid was because of good inside information provided to the art crime gang, Harry Hyams has the light swtiches in his house placed in unusual places, the thieves knew this and together with other inside knowledge enabled the raid to be successful. Police were offered intelligence about Harry Hyams and other targets, but refused to pay for the intelligence, thus Mr Hyams was robbed, as will others on the "List"
Despite the arrests, detectives said yesterday they were not confident of recovering substantial amounts of the art and antiques stolen. Because police will not allow anyone to recover those works of art in a way that see's reward monies paid to art loss investigators, some of which are former Police Officers.
They claim to have found a third of the property involved, including 140 items worth £12m from Ramsbury Manor which were discovered this year in an underground cellar on waste ground near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Police did not discover these items, they were led to them as a demonstration of goodwill by Art Loss investigators who convinced the criminals to hand back the less saleable artworks stolen from Harry Hyams. Unfortunetly Police did not keep their word and authorise payment to the law abiding art loss investigators, another demonstation of Law enforcement acting in a disengenious manner.
So, the "Mexican stand off" is back inplace.
Experts said the artefacts have probably been sold on in India, Russia and China.
Some and some, all the artworks are available and if Police take their heads out of the sand they could be party to a series of recoveries that end with a "Sting in the tail"
Sarah Jackson, of the Art Loss register, Britain's biggest database of stolen art, said: "A lot of this property will be passed around between criminal gangs and not surface in the antiques trade at all.
"It may be swapped for stolen cars or a stash of cocaine. It becomes another form of currency."
She said sales catalogues of major art and antiques houses were checked against the register and her team worked with police to recover items. But many of the collections involved in Operation Haul appear to have disappeared. Fabia Bromovsky, spokeswoman for Lord Rothschild, said: "We have found no trace of the property that was stolen. We have absolutely no idea where it has gone." Fabia, Fabia, come on tell the truth, you and Lord Rothschild know where the artworks are and who has control of them, it is Police who have told you not to privetly recover them.
Anne Gascoigne, owner of a 14th century manor house in Stanton Harcourt, Witney, Oxfordshire, which has been raided twice in three years, said apart from a couple of items, there was no trace of any of her priceless collection of 18th century silver soup tureens, ice buckets and vegetable dishes, given to her family by George III.
Yes there is, a dealer from Brighton Sussex has got the main silver pieces, it can be revcovered, arrests can be made, but Police will not allow this to happen and monies to be paid to the private sector.
Robert Hiscox, of Hiscox insurers, which has paid out to several clients as a result of the multimillion pound raids, said yesterday: "If police have caught them, that is good news."
Robert Hiscox, said this with his tounge firmly in his cheek.
Related articles
03.02.2006: Mansion art haul may be Britain's biggest
02.02.2006: £20m art theft riddle solved in court
02.02.2006: Stealing beauty
28.01.2006: Artful dodgers
Missing masterpieces: a virtual gallery, by Jonathan Jones
Special reports
Art theft
Crime
Useful links
The world's most wanted art
Art Loss Register
Invaluable
Object ID: international standard for describing art
Sotheby's
Christie's
Metropolitan police
Swift-find: online registry of valuables
Carabinieri: searchable database of looted art (in Italian)
14 arrested over £80m raids on stately homes
By Nick Britten and Richard Savill Telegraph
(Filed: 11/10/2006)
Police investigating a series of multi-million pound raids at some of Britain's grandest stately homes believe they have broken a major crime network after arresting 14 people yesterday.
Hole in Black Hill and stolen goods
Stolen antiques were found in a hole at an old nursery in Black Hill, including property, above, from Ramsbury Manor
An operation involving five forces rounded up some "extremely violent" criminals alleged to have been involved in a 17-month spree of thefts from at least five stately homes, as well as a string of business premises, hotels, shops and cash machines. Remember "Official Warning" article below!!!
One of the homes targeted by the gang was Ramsbury Manor in Wiltshire, home of the property tycoon Harry Hyams. In February, thieves stole art valued at £30 million in what is believed to be Britain's biggest domestic robbery.
Because the value of art and antiques theft is extremely difficult to assess, detectives believe that the worth of goods taken during the crime spree could be approaching £80 million.
More than 100 officers swooped yesterday on three addresses in Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. One of the targets was a caravan site in Evesham, Worcs, and some of those arrested are believed to be from a well-known gipsy family.
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Last night they were being questioned about 23 raids and police said that with the gang numbering more than 21, further arrests were expected.
The properties included Woolley Park House in Berkshire, Stanton Harcourt Manor, Oxfordshire, Rendcombe Manor, Gloucestershire, and Ombersley Court in Worcester, some of which are open to the public. So far, only goods worth £10 million have been recovered and detectives believe most of the art and antiques were stolen to order.
The arrests were part of Operation Haul. Established in October 2005 in response to a rise in the number of violent, high-value burglaries, it brought together the police forces of Thames Valley, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
Police making an arrest
West Mercia police making an arrest at Cleeve Prior
Seven people were arrested during the early morning raids in Cleeve Prior, Evesham, six were arrested in Gloucestershire and one in Oxfordshire.
Francis Habgood, the assistant chief constable of Thames Valley police, said: "The crime being investigated by Operation Haul include some of the highest profile and highest value burglaries this country has seen.
These arrests should demonstrate that where criminality does not recognise police force boundaries, neither do we – we will work together very closely to ensure that suspects are identified and brought to justice."
Police described the thieves as "extremely violent". Det Supt Mark Warwick, of Thames Valley police, said that a "great deal" of the stolen property had been sold on. Around a third of the haul had been recovered and he hoped that inquiries over the next few days could lead to more being seized.
Mr Warwick added: "This was a criminal gang that needed to be dismantled and we needed to make sure they were disabled in terms of their activity. I think we have totally nullified the effects of the gang and disrupted their network."
Police have recovered around half of the antiques stolen from Ramsbury Manor but the whereabouts of many of the goods from the other homes remain a mystery. Detectives urged antiques dealers to keep a watchful eye out for anything suspicious.
The first stately home to be burgled, in October 2005, was Obersley Court, the ancestral home of the Sandys family. It was, according to legend, chosen by the Nazis for use as a headquarters from which they would have mounted an attack on Birmingham following an invasion.
A month later, on Nov 16, thieves targeted Stanton Harcourt manor in Witney, Oxon. The manor, which is open to the public from March to September, was built between 1380 and 1470, and its Pope's Tower was lent to the celebrated poet Alexander Pope between 1717 and 1718 as he worked on his translation of the Iliad.
The Harcourts are the only surviving family of the Norman Conquest in Oxfordshire.
Within a week thieves hit Rendcomb Manor, near Cirencester, which houses a music college.
After targeting Ramsbury manor last Feb 1, they waited until April 25 before stealing from Woolley Park House in Chaddleworth, a private residence owned by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.
· Fourteen held in dawn raids by five forces
· Many items still missing in multimillion-pound thefts
Sandra Laville
Wednesday October 11, 2006
The Guardian
Detectives claimed yesterday to have smashed a gang of arts and antiques thieves responsible for looting tens of millions of pounds worth of property from stately homes in Britain. More than 100 police officers from five forces were involved in the raids and 14 people seized.
A trifle premature to think police have smashed this or any other Art and Antiques crime gang.
This is just another cynical headline grab by Police, lets see the next batch of high value art thefts coming soon!!!!!!!
For four years the audacious burglaries at some of Britain's best-known stately homes in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Worcestershire have embarrassed police and left leading insurers in the art world smarting from multimillion-pound payouts for antiques, curios and paintings from leading collections.
Victims such as Lord Rothschild have called in private detectives to find their stolen property, with little success.
The truth is that Lord Rothschold has been offered his gold boxes etc back by those of us investigating stolen art, Thames Valley Police agreed to allow the Rothschild collection to surface, however, Scotland Yard stepped in and forbid any recoveries of stolen art, effectively slapping down Thames Valley Police as the "Country Yokels"
But senior officers claimed yesterday that their operation had ended the activities of the gang, which they said was responsible for at least 10 raids on stately homes, including the theft of £30m of antiques from Ramsbury Manor near Marlborough, in what is believed to be Britain's biggest domestic burglary.
Wishful thinking on behalf of Police,This is just another demonstration of the failed "Hitting corks in a barrel" approach, so, now comes the backlash, there will be a spate of further high value art thefts to show the art crime gangs are still operating with impunity and there will be occasions whereby highly important works of art are damaged, acid thrown over canvases etc, just to show that the Police can never win, perverse as this may seem.
The Guardian has learned that yesterday's raids came after a man whom detectives claim is the "godfather" of organised art and antique crime in the south-west, pleaded guilty at Oxford crown court on Monday to conspiracy to steal from cash machines. Alan "Jimmy" Johnson, the leader of an Irish-born travelling family from Gloucestershire, has been pursued for several years by police investigating the art and antiques thefts.
Johnson, who is in Leicester prison awaiting sentence for the cash machine conspiracy, admits he has targeted country homes for antiques but vigorously denies any part in the spate of stately home raids and has claimed he is being made a scapegoat.
To be fair to Alan "Jimmy" Johnson, he has been talking to Ex Art Detective Charlie Hill, who has been passing information to Police. Jimmy Johnson and David Dudon have been spilling the beans to Charlie Hill about art thefts and stealing bronze sculptures. Charlie Hill has been stifled in making any kind of art recoveries so he has been trying to set up those with access to high value stolen art, this strategy is fraught with danger and we now see Jimmy Johnson being "Hung out to dry" by Charlie Hill and law enforcement.
To dump all of this on Jimmy Johnson is a travesty,######, aka, as ##### from Southern England has been giving information to Police about the art crime gangs, which include Irish Gypsy criminals from Limerick, Dublin etc.
########, holds a Gypsy/Traveller event each year in the grounds of his manor, where Gypsies and travellers from all over Britain and Ireland gather, it is at these events ###### gets most inside information to pass to Police.
While ########, enjoys the fruits of dealing in stolen artworks, because of the pass given to him by his Mason Police friends, others within the travelling community are hounded and arrested, as we see with the raids carried out in the Thanmes Valley.
To all travelling, Irish, and British Gypsies, Dundon/McCarthy, Johnson, Sheehy, Kent clans, Newark boys etc
YOU HAVE "SEWER RATS" IN YOUR RANKS
Two years ago Jimmy Johnson offered his services to Lord Rothschild to help him find millions of pounds worth of miniature gold boxes and works of art lost in a smash and grab raid at Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury, Bucks, in 2003. No property was recovered, because Scotland Yard blocked any return of the Rothschild collection, it is still out there waiting to be recovered if authorities would take their heads out of the sand and employ the services of those of us able to recover these and other stolen art collections.
Thames Valley police said the dawn raids in an operation codenamed Haul involved "a show of strength", although officers were not armed.
Police are questioning the gang, thought to number more than 21, over conspiracy to commit 23 offences including burglaries from stately homes and country houses, shops, hotels and a string of thefts from cash machines.
Detective Superintendent Mark Warwick, the senior investigating officer, said: "The crimes being investigated include some of the highest profile and highest value burglaries this country has ever seen. I think we have totally nullified the effects of the gang and disrupted their network." Police believe the thieves visited the stately homes - which were open to the public - to carry out reconnaissance missions in advance of the raids. Targets are still being evaluated by criminals and the vulnerable ones will be robbed, dispite the boasts of Mark Warwick, ask Mark Warwick why the Rothschild collection has not been recovered?
Several of the burglaries, including the raid on Lord Rothschild's home, Waddesdon Manor, involved the use of 4x4 vehicles, with a metal stake attached to the roof to ram heavily bolted gates and doors.
In last February's attack on Ramsbury Manor, the 17th century home of Harry Hyams, a reclusive property tycoon and art collector who built Centre Point in London, the burglars broke in through a downstairs window at about 10.40pm and seized items worth about £30m. The property houses a world-famous collection of fine art, including that of Titian, Rubens and Rembrandt. Harry Hyams was told that the art crime gang were planning a return to his house for a second haul of artworks, Mr Hyams, alarmed by this is living in fear.
The Hyams raid was because of good inside information provided to the art crime gang, Harry Hyams has the light swtiches in his house placed in unusual places, the thieves knew this and together with other inside knowledge enabled the raid to be successful. Police were offered intelligence about Harry Hyams and other targets, but refused to pay for the intelligence, thus Mr Hyams was robbed, as will others on the "List"
Despite the arrests, detectives said yesterday they were not confident of recovering substantial amounts of the art and antiques stolen. Because police will not allow anyone to recover those works of art in a way that see's reward monies paid to art loss investigators, some of which are former Police Officers.
They claim to have found a third of the property involved, including 140 items worth £12m from Ramsbury Manor which were discovered this year in an underground cellar on waste ground near Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Police did not discover these items, they were led to them as a demonstration of goodwill by Art Loss investigators who convinced the criminals to hand back the less saleable artworks stolen from Harry Hyams. Unfortunetly Police did not keep their word and authorise payment to the law abiding art loss investigators, another demonstation of Law enforcement acting in a disengenious manner.
So, the "Mexican stand off" is back inplace.
Experts said the artefacts have probably been sold on in India, Russia and China.
Some and some, all the artworks are available and if Police take their heads out of the sand they could be party to a series of recoveries that end with a "Sting in the tail"
Sarah Jackson, of the Art Loss register, Britain's biggest database of stolen art, said: "A lot of this property will be passed around between criminal gangs and not surface in the antiques trade at all.
"It may be swapped for stolen cars or a stash of cocaine. It becomes another form of currency."
She said sales catalogues of major art and antiques houses were checked against the register and her team worked with police to recover items. But many of the collections involved in Operation Haul appear to have disappeared. Fabia Bromovsky, spokeswoman for Lord Rothschild, said: "We have found no trace of the property that was stolen. We have absolutely no idea where it has gone." Fabia, Fabia, come on tell the truth, you and Lord Rothschild know where the artworks are and who has control of them, it is Police who have told you not to privetly recover them.
Anne Gascoigne, owner of a 14th century manor house in Stanton Harcourt, Witney, Oxfordshire, which has been raided twice in three years, said apart from a couple of items, there was no trace of any of her priceless collection of 18th century silver soup tureens, ice buckets and vegetable dishes, given to her family by George III.
Yes there is, a dealer from Brighton Sussex has got the main silver pieces, it can be revcovered, arrests can be made, but Police will not allow this to happen and monies to be paid to the private sector.
Robert Hiscox, of Hiscox insurers, which has paid out to several clients as a result of the multimillion pound raids, said yesterday: "If police have caught them, that is good news."
Robert Hiscox, said this with his tounge firmly in his cheek.
Related articles
03.02.2006: Mansion art haul may be Britain's biggest
02.02.2006: £20m art theft riddle solved in court
02.02.2006: Stealing beauty
28.01.2006: Artful dodgers
Missing masterpieces: a virtual gallery, by Jonathan Jones
Special reports
Art theft
Crime
Useful links
The world's most wanted art
Art Loss Register
Invaluable
Object ID: international standard for describing art
Sotheby's
Christie's
Metropolitan police
Swift-find: online registry of valuables
Carabinieri: searchable database of looted art (in Italian)
14 arrested over £80m raids on stately homes
By Nick Britten and Richard Savill Telegraph
(Filed: 11/10/2006)
Police investigating a series of multi-million pound raids at some of Britain's grandest stately homes believe they have broken a major crime network after arresting 14 people yesterday.
Hole in Black Hill and stolen goods
Stolen antiques were found in a hole at an old nursery in Black Hill, including property, above, from Ramsbury Manor
An operation involving five forces rounded up some "extremely violent" criminals alleged to have been involved in a 17-month spree of thefts from at least five stately homes, as well as a string of business premises, hotels, shops and cash machines. Remember "Official Warning" article below!!!
One of the homes targeted by the gang was Ramsbury Manor in Wiltshire, home of the property tycoon Harry Hyams. In February, thieves stole art valued at £30 million in what is believed to be Britain's biggest domestic robbery.
Because the value of art and antiques theft is extremely difficult to assess, detectives believe that the worth of goods taken during the crime spree could be approaching £80 million.
More than 100 officers swooped yesterday on three addresses in Oxfordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. One of the targets was a caravan site in Evesham, Worcs, and some of those arrested are believed to be from a well-known gipsy family.
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Last night they were being questioned about 23 raids and police said that with the gang numbering more than 21, further arrests were expected.
The properties included Woolley Park House in Berkshire, Stanton Harcourt Manor, Oxfordshire, Rendcombe Manor, Gloucestershire, and Ombersley Court in Worcester, some of which are open to the public. So far, only goods worth £10 million have been recovered and detectives believe most of the art and antiques were stolen to order.
The arrests were part of Operation Haul. Established in October 2005 in response to a rise in the number of violent, high-value burglaries, it brought together the police forces of Thames Valley, West Mercia, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
Police making an arrest
West Mercia police making an arrest at Cleeve Prior
Seven people were arrested during the early morning raids in Cleeve Prior, Evesham, six were arrested in Gloucestershire and one in Oxfordshire.
Francis Habgood, the assistant chief constable of Thames Valley police, said: "The crime being investigated by Operation Haul include some of the highest profile and highest value burglaries this country has seen.
These arrests should demonstrate that where criminality does not recognise police force boundaries, neither do we – we will work together very closely to ensure that suspects are identified and brought to justice."
Police described the thieves as "extremely violent". Det Supt Mark Warwick, of Thames Valley police, said that a "great deal" of the stolen property had been sold on. Around a third of the haul had been recovered and he hoped that inquiries over the next few days could lead to more being seized.
Mr Warwick added: "This was a criminal gang that needed to be dismantled and we needed to make sure they were disabled in terms of their activity. I think we have totally nullified the effects of the gang and disrupted their network."
Police have recovered around half of the antiques stolen from Ramsbury Manor but the whereabouts of many of the goods from the other homes remain a mystery. Detectives urged antiques dealers to keep a watchful eye out for anything suspicious.
The first stately home to be burgled, in October 2005, was Obersley Court, the ancestral home of the Sandys family. It was, according to legend, chosen by the Nazis for use as a headquarters from which they would have mounted an attack on Birmingham following an invasion.
A month later, on Nov 16, thieves targeted Stanton Harcourt manor in Witney, Oxon. The manor, which is open to the public from March to September, was built between 1380 and 1470, and its Pope's Tower was lent to the celebrated poet Alexander Pope between 1717 and 1718 as he worked on his translation of the Iliad.
The Harcourts are the only surviving family of the Norman Conquest in Oxfordshire.
Within a week thieves hit Rendcomb Manor, near Cirencester, which houses a music college.
After targeting Ramsbury manor last Feb 1, they waited until April 25 before stealing from Woolley Park House in Chaddleworth, a private residence owned by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Man accused over burglary spree
Little Fish
A 20-year-old man has been charged in connection with a string of raids on homes across the country.
Samuel Smith-Hutchinson, from Cheltenham, has been accused of burglary and aggravated vehicle taking.
He will appear before Reading magistrates on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, police arrested 14 people suspected of stealing about £30m through robberies on country homes and cash machines.
The arrests, part of Operation Haul, were made in Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
West Mercia, Thames Valley, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire forces were involved.
Police said the robberies included some of the highest profile and highest value burglaries ever seen in England.
Some evidence against this Little Fish may be DNA collected from the returned artworks stolen from Harry Hyams Ramsbury Manor Wiltshire home.
Jimmy Johnson via Charlie Hill should have realised the authorities would check the returned artworks for DNA, still all part of the ploy for Jimmy Johnson to recieve a lighter sentence.
Law Enforcement targeted Jimmy Johnson in order to demand he facilitate the return of stolen high value art rather than allow Jimmy Johnson to collect a reward for facilitating the return of stolen art.
Unfortunetly this tactic only results in lesser artworks being returned, leaveing the truly unique artworks outstanding.
If lighter jail sentences are the carrot for the return of high value stolen artworks then perhaps this may allow some of the most valuable pieces to surface.
However, the private sector will be needed to identify those who have access to high value stolen art.
Little Fish
A 20-year-old man has been charged in connection with a string of raids on homes across the country.
Samuel Smith-Hutchinson, from Cheltenham, has been accused of burglary and aggravated vehicle taking.
He will appear before Reading magistrates on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, police arrested 14 people suspected of stealing about £30m through robberies on country homes and cash machines.
The arrests, part of Operation Haul, were made in Worcestershire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
West Mercia, Thames Valley, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire forces were involved.
Police said the robberies included some of the highest profile and highest value burglaries ever seen in England.
Some evidence against this Little Fish may be DNA collected from the returned artworks stolen from Harry Hyams Ramsbury Manor Wiltshire home.
Jimmy Johnson via Charlie Hill should have realised the authorities would check the returned artworks for DNA, still all part of the ploy for Jimmy Johnson to recieve a lighter sentence.
Law Enforcement targeted Jimmy Johnson in order to demand he facilitate the return of stolen high value art rather than allow Jimmy Johnson to collect a reward for facilitating the return of stolen art.
Unfortunetly this tactic only results in lesser artworks being returned, leaveing the truly unique artworks outstanding.
If lighter jail sentences are the carrot for the return of high value stolen artworks then perhaps this may allow some of the most valuable pieces to surface.
However, the private sector will be needed to identify those who have access to high value stolen art.
Friday, September 29, 2006
Official Warning!!
In order to prevent a gun battle, and the potential loss of life, the gangs who have high value stolen art in their possession,or their control.
(You know who you are, and so does Law enforcement, Gardai, FBI, Scotland Yard Art Squad!!)
i.e.:
Da Vinci stolen from Scotland,£30-50 million
Paintings, including Vermeer stolen from Gardner Museum Boston, St Patrick's day 1990 £300 million
Cezanne stolen from Oxford 2000 £4-6 million
White Duck stolen from Norfolk 1994??
£5 million
Harry Hyams stolen art collection £40 million
Waddesten Manor Rothschild gold boxes.£100million
Henry Moore bronze £3.5 million
Many other stolen high value artworks.
Any attempt to hand back any of these high value art works for any, I repeat any, reward money will result in either arrests, or at the very least not a single dime, penny, euro will be paid.
My advice to you Handlers of High Value Stolen Art is to either hand the artworks back for free, or wrap them up and wait until their is a change of heart and law that will allow these artworks to be handed back in an honest way, without the set up's being planned as we speak.
My warning is because if a set up is carried through there will be a shoot out that could result in innocent people being caught in the crossfire.
Remember:
"No reward money will ever be paid for stolen high value artworks and anyone who says otherwise is lying."
*********************************************************
Stolen £5m Titian found in carrier bag after seven-year hunt
Nicholas Pyke
Friday August 23, 2002
The Guardian
The seven-year hunt for a stolen Titian masterpiece worth more than £5m has ended with the discovery of the painting, safe inside a plastic carrier bag.
The work, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, by the 16th century Venetian master, was taken from the first floor state drawing room of Lord Bath's Longleat estate in Wiltshire in January 1995.
Yesterday it emerged that the painting, which has lost its frame but is otherwise intact, had been discovered in the Greater London area in a plastic shopping bag after a search led by the leading art detective and former Scotland Yard officer Charles Hill, who is now security adviser to the Historic Houses Association.
A £100,000 reward was offered for information leading to its safe return following the theft. But details of what has happened with the reward and the recovery itself have not been revealed until now for what are described as operational reasons. Two years after the theft it was reported that Longleat received a ransom demand for the painting.
Painted on a wooden panel 2ft wide, the picture is one of Titian's most famous and depicts the Virgin Mary cradling Jesus as an infant with Joseph looking on.
It was bought by the 4th Marquis of Bath at auction from Christie's in 1878.
Speaking yesterday, Longleat's general manager Tim Moore said he was delighted the work had been found intact. "It has been a long and difficult process but we are all extremely pleased that the painting is finally safe," he said.
"Mr Hill is the leading expert in his field and he has remained confident throughout that the picture would eventually turn up.
"He was appointed to recover the painting, he has succeeded and we are extremely grateful for all his hard work."
The painting will undergo conservation work before being returned to its country home, but it is not thought to be badly damaged.
Lord Bath, who is in France, was said to be delighted at the news of the painting's safe recovery. He said: "I will wait until I have been able to see it with my own eyes before I get too excited or make any further comments."
What Charlie Hill actually did was to go to the Marquis directly and obtain £15,000 cash as deposit.
This was given to David Dudon, who passed it on.
The Titian was then returned, via coach stop, then the other £85,000 was escrowed to Dudon.
Law Enforcement was so upset at Charlie Hill the Metropolitan Police commissioner David Verness issued a fatwa against Charlie Hill and he was told that if he ever tried to recover stolen art in this way again he would be arrested.
Charlie Hill has been dropped by AXA and all the other art loss firms because he would not be party to set ups.
As you will read below Charlie tried to recover the Gold boxes in the same way as the Titian but failed because law enforcement threatened to metaphorically, "Fuck him in the ass" if he did, if you will excuse the vernacular.
The lord, the lag and the stolen antiques
Rich man Lord Rothschild joins thief in attempt to recover family treasures
Sandra Leville
Saturday August 28, 2004
The Guardian
It is a tale of the lord, the lag and the search for the lost antiques. In an unlikely alliance, one of the world's richest and most privileged men has joined forces with a notorious thief, a man who graduated from approved school to commit his life to plundering the treasures of the wealthy.
More than a year on from an audacious smash and grab raid on his family home at Waddesdon Manor near Aylesbury, Lord Jacob Rothschild, a member of one of the most influential dynasties in modern Europe, has accepted the services of a well known criminal in a final attempt to recover the tens of millions of pounds worth of his heritage which was stolen in the burglary.
For the Old Etonian philanthropist, whose family influence stretches from merchant banking to the upmarket Baron de Rothschild wines, it is a last resort, an effort to succeed where the police and private investigators have failed and track down one of the world's rarest collections of 18th-century miniature gold boxes.
For Alan "Jimmy" Johnson, the product of a north Wales children's home whose roots trace back to Irish Gypsy travelling stock, it is a chance to clear his name.
When five masked men smashed a 4x4 vehicle into the walls of Waddesdon Manor, a National Trust-run stately home, and made off with the antiques in just four minutes last summer, the burglary made headlines across the world. Although there are similar collections at the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Waddesdon collection was considered the rarest, and a devastated Lord Rothschild offered a reward of £50,000 for its return.
Detectives blamed one man for the burglary; Jimmy Johnson, a 51-year-old Traveller, "antiques expert" and criminal. Johnson is known to police across the country. He has been arrested for everything from murder, to armed robbery and stealing caravans and admits he has targeted country homes for antiques.
But this time there was one problem with the police theory - Johnson was in prison at the time of the burglary, something he told detectives when they interviewed him several times in jail.
As police continued their hunt for the antiques the Johnson family were mentioned in a House of Lords debate on rural crime, Jimmy Johnson's name was passed to Lord Rothschild as the man responsible for his burglary and 200 police officers raided the family's caravan encampment in the Cotswolds.
"I sat in my cell and thought, 'How do you say this is nothing to do with me?'" Johnson told the Guardian.
"It seemed to me that certain villains were using my name to take the dairy [blame] off themselves. (Apprently, the gang responsible were a rival Irish Gang from the West of Ireland, Limerick??)
"I decided that I had to fight back. I have never informed on anyone in my life, never grassed anyone up, but the only thing I could do was find out who actually did this, get the stuff and give it back to Lord Rothschild."
On his release from prison eight weeks ago, Johnson turned up at Waddesdon Manor asking to see Lord Rothschild.
"He was covered in gold chains and tattoos and still had his probation tag on, he caused quite a stir I can tell you," a Waddesdon source said.
Despite his incongruous presence in the genteel surroundings, Lord Rothschild's aides offered him tea in bone china cups and over several meetings listened as he protested his innocence and promised to find their antiques.
"What he offered was to get our property back, 100% legitimately with the knowledge of the police," said the source.
"He told us he has been wrongly accused and he wanted to make sure that we were helped. At first we were very wary, but he is an extremely charming human being. He is well read and yes, cultured, and really he is probably our last hope."
Armed with a letter showing that what he was doing was with the full knowledge of Lord Rothschild and senior Thames Valley police officers, Johnson's search led him to the back streets of Catford, the stalls of Bermondsey market in south-east London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Yorkshire and Alicante in Spain. A dealer in India was also offered some gold boxes as well as certain Russian Mafia figures in Spain.
Scotland Yard pulled the plug and slapped down Thames Valley Police, threatening to arrest anyone recovering the gold boxes.
Along the way he was accused of being a grass but rationalised his breaching of the criminal code. "People like Lord Rothschild and every judge in the country were thinking that I am some sort of Don Corleone," he said. "I thought I would rather have villains as enemies."
This suposed code between criminals is a myth, the only "Stand up" guys who never trade info with law enforcement go to jail for a long time.
Johnson now believes he is within days of returning the boxes to Lord Rothschild and is likely to receive a substantial reward if he does so.
Charlie Hill, one of the leading private investigators into stolen art who is working with him and Waddesdon Manor, said there might be disquiet within some at the National Trust at paying money to the likes of Jimmy Johnson.
But he said: "There is a big difference between a reward and a ransom. It is reasonable for him to be paid a reward to cover his outlay, he is not the thief and he is not the handler. And without a doubt he is the best hope we have."
Exploits of a family business
Descendants of Albert Johnson, an Irish Gypsy and Muriel Slender, the Johnson clan numbers around 60, most of whom live in caravans in the Cotswolds.
At their head is Jimmy Johnson, father of five and grandfather of seven. His exploits include a rooftop demonstration at Horfield prison and an 18-hour protest at the top of a 10-metre tree during a severe gale to complain about his wrongful conviction for stealing a caravan. He was cleared at the court of appeal a year later. Recently released after serving four years for burglary, he lives in a caravan outside Reading with his wife, Sharon.
Ricky Johnson, Jimmy's brother, was jailed for conning pensioners out of £160,000 by persuading them to pay for work carried out by his building company.
When convicted he blamed Jesus. "I hope these people (pensioners) can find it in their hearts to understand that Christ works in mysterious ways and I follow his guiding voice."
When Judge Gabriel Hutton retired from the bench at Gloucester crown court, the Johnson's watched from the gallery as barristers paid tribute. At the end Ricky stood up to add: "May I say, from this side m'Lord, thank you for fairness."
Lord Rothschild, Jimmy Johnson and Charlie Hill were told by Law enforcement that if they recovered any high value stolen art such as the Gold boxes from Rothschild without arrests, no money would be paid and both would face arrest and charges brought against both Hill and Johnson., and even charges against Lord Rothschild for paying a reward.
August 28, 2003
Leonardo stolen in Scottish raid
What a year for brazen thefts of major masterpieces! Quite aside from archaeological artefacts, there's been Cellini's saltcellar, and now Leonardo's Madonna of the Yarnwinder. Here are some links: Telegraph, BBC, Independent, along with further Google News listings.
And in case you've forgotten, it's Leonardo, not "Da Vinci".
UPDATE: Looks like the thieves were caught on video. Here are some pictures.
THE Sunday Times offers a progress report:
Martin Kemp, professor of art history at Oxford University, yesterday confirmed that following recent x-ray research, he believed [the] Madonna with the Yarnwinder was a “prime original” .
His authentication of the work elevates its status and consequently its price [read: "value" -- D.]. Many had believed the painting was started by da Vinci [sic] but completed by one of his students.
Insurers believe the painting, which could now sell on the open market for between £80m and £150m, was stolen from the Duke’s Dumfriesshire home, Drumlanrig Castle, by an Irish gang who had no idea of its true value. They say the gang may have planned the theft to upstage rivals responsible for the theft of art worth £50m from Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, in June.
The “Johnson Gang”, who are originally from Co Longford, are also thought to have stolen Titian’s Rest on the Flight to Egypt from the Marquis of Bath’s Longleat home in 1995. The £5m painting was recovered after a £100,000 reward was paid last year.
“We believe it is a gang of Irish gypsies from Limerick area, who are known to us,” said a source close to the insurance company. Charles Hill, a fine art detective and the former head of Scotland Yard’s fine art unit, said the Madonna theft had the characteristics of a gang of travellers that have been known to police and investigators for some time. “Their style is quite unmistakeable,” said Hill. “They have adopted the style of the Johnson Gang and are quite daring. They have progressed from DSS fraud to car crime and now to this. They do it because it is so easy. It earns them notoriety and is a trophy crime.”
Irish gang jailed in UK for £1.5m social security fraud
By MELVYN HOWE and MARTINA DEVLIN
A GANG of Irish fraudsters who turned welfare benefit crime into a career, swindling around £1.5m, were jailed in London yesterday for a massive social security scam.
The Limerick men including a father and three sons used dozens of bogus identities and spent most days visiting post offices across the city pocketing their haul in one of Britain's biggest benefit frauds.
Jobseekers' allowances, Income Support and sickness, housing and invalidity benefits were all targeted in what the judge branded an ``extensive, well organised, professional fraud that struck at the heart of the welfare system''.
It took investigators an intensive 10-month surveillance operation to track down the team.
Some of the gang used so many different names they needed ``crib sheets'' to remind themselves who they were supposed to be on a given day, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.
Ringleader Thomas Augustine Sheehy (61), imprisoned for four years after being described as a ``principal'', frequently returned to Ireland to spend his ill-gotten gains before going back to Britain for more booty. Altogether he pocketed stg£48,996.
After he and his sons plus the other gang members were arrested in simultaneous raids across east London last June, investigators noticed more than 100 claims ``suddenly stopped''.
Passing sentence, Judge Nicholas Coleman said: ``You saw the welfare system, realised how simple it was to defraud it and decided to live high on the hog of the dishonestly-obtained benefits. I am told that this is the largest investigation undertaken by the DSS.
``In your own individual ways you were professional fraudsmen. To a greater or lesser extent you were engaged in the full-time occupation of making fraudulent claims.''
The six, together with another man not before the court, variously pleaded guilty to 73 charges of false accounting involving stg£115,000. But investigators believed total losses could amount to stg£1.2m.
Sheehy senior's three sons Denis (26) who lived with his father in Romford Road, Manor Park, east London; Kevin (28) of Withenshaw Road, Dagenham; and Thomas Christopher (35) of Bigland Street, Whitechapel, who also admitted one count of money laundering were each jailed for three years.
Thomas Whelan (30) of Sherwood Gardens, Isle of Dogs, received three years for the false accounting offences, with 18 months to run consecutively for possessing a handgun and three rounds of ammunition.
Thomas Patterson (29) of Goresbrook Road, Dagenham was imprisoned for two years. James Mulqueen (22) of Barking Road, Plaistow who skipped bail after admitting two charges of false accounting involving stg£194 of bogus claims was jailed for a year in his absence.
There are reports of up to £1 million reward offered for the Da Vinci, Mark Dalrymple, who has never stated exactly how much reward, is the loss adjuster on the Da Vinci case, unfortunetly the reward is uncollectable for me.
I was offered the Da Vinci if I put my marker on it for £100,000, then handed it back for the reward, in the same fashion as Charlie Hill recovered the Titian.
I declined, as I intend to stay within the law, however bad those laws are.
Mark Dalrymple told me not to bother as Law enforcement would not sanction any payment of reward monies without arrests and convictions, even then the likelyhood is law enforcement would not sanction a reward payment at all!
When a reward is offered there are the "Subject to" conditions, which concern condition of returned work of art and value, the primary condition is a so-called "COMFORT LETTER" from the police, stating that the person claiming the reward may be paid by the insurers/losers with the express consent of law enforcement. In order for anyone claiming a reward to get a "Comfort Letter" from police they first have to be registered as an "Informant", or "Human Source", as they are now called.
Rules on Registered Informants/Human Sources
Those who wish to destroy their lives and become informants are treated in the following manner.
First the potential Informant/Human Source meets two police officers from the "Source Unit" they only identify themselves by a psydenum such as Dick, or Bill, this prevents any fall back when the Informant gets "Hung out to Dry" The Informant never knows the real identity of his Handling officers.
Second, Police officers always make the following statement to potential Informants:
"You (the Informant) give us everything, we, (Police) give you nothing"
Third, and most importantly, when information is given to the Police by the Informant, they must tell the Police who gave them that information.
The police then duly go to that source and try and recruit that source, negating the previous informant, hence "Hung out to dry".
The Police Officers then bulldoze their way through informants getting information along the way leaving a trail of shattered lives for those who become sewer rats, Informants.
The current life expectencey for an informant is one year, the police will argue that the brief use of informants prevents corruption of its officers.
However, the amount of good quality intelligence recieved by law enforcement has been reduced by 90% in the last two years.
Losing £100,000 wouldn't hurt as much as being arrested for handing back the Da Vinci in good faith!
So, from the horses mouth, the reward for the Da Vinci, is ,uncollectable Fact!!!!
The 2002 Proceeds of Crime act in Britain has put paid to any hand backs.
Even if someone followed instructions from Law Enforcement and set up those with the Da Vinci, then Law Enforcement arrested those handling the Da Vinci, the informant would not be paid very much and would be "Hung out to Dry" by Law Enforcement once Da Vinci is recovered.
Law Enforcement in Britain is the same as the U.S. dishonest, duplicitous, and disingenuous.
Whether in America, Ireland, Europe, those of us trying to honourably facilitate the return of stolen high value art have all come to the conclusion that we will either get Fucked, Arrested, or Both by Law Enforcement in the present climate.
Until there is a real change of heart, art lovers will be held Art Hostage by the criminals, but especially by Law Enforcement.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Art Smuggler Offers Italy Mystery Masterpiece `X' to End Trial
By Vernon Silver
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A convicted antiquities smuggler has offered to return a previously unknown ancient masterpiece known as ``Object X'' to Italy in exchange for reducing the jail time and fines he faces for supplying loot to U.S. museums.
A famous artist from the ancient world whose work compares to that of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci created Object X, says the convicted art dealer, Giacomo Medici, who is free while awaiting appeal. The object, which may be a statue, vase, or something else -- he's not saying -- is worth millions, he says.
``It's something they can only dream about,'' Medici, 68, says of the Italian officials with whom he's negotiating to cut his 10-year prison sentence and 10-million euro ($12.8 million) fine. ``And only I can bring it to them.''
Medici's case is part of a broader prosecution that includes Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, who is on trial in Rome for conspiracy and receiving smuggled art. She denies the charges.
The mystery masterpiece, if it exists, risks never coming to light if Medici and prosecutor Paolo Ferri fail to reach an agreement by Oct. 4, when a Rome court is scheduled to hear Medici's appeal. Italian law bars plea bargaining after an appeal starts, Ferri says.
A sticking point is that Medici wants a guarantee that the market value of the work, referred to as Object X by both sides in the talks, will wipe out his fine. The prosecutor says he wants to see the object before making promises.
Dubious Prosecutor
``It could be a bluff,'' says Ferri, who says he'd rather lose Medici's masterpiece than get duped. ``I'm sorry if it's important.''
Medici, describing the proposal over a lunch of grilled calamari in Rome, refuses to say where the object is or how quickly he can get his hands on it. ``It could be a flight from Australia or three hours by train from Naples,'' he says.
The Getty, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts agreed this year to return antiquities to Italy based in part on evidence from Medici's December 2004 conviction for conspiracy, smuggling and receiving stolen antiquities.
Among the objects Medici was convicted for smuggling is a 2,500-year-old krater vase for mixing wine, painted by the Greek artist Euphronios, purchased by the Met in 1972 for $1 million. The Met agreed in February to give the pot and 20 other antiquities back to Italy.
Medici, a stocky, balding man, says the object he's offering is worth as much as the Euphronios krater, which the Met considered the finest Greek vase in its collection.
Ancient Goddess?
He says he's leaving Italian officials to wonder if Object X is another painted vase or a bronze by Lysippos, the personal sculptor of Alexander the Great, an ivory head or a 2,300-year- old goddess carved by the Greek master Praxiteles.
Equivalent objects have been valued at more than 10 million euros in the international antiquities market. Such a masterpiece has eluded Italian police who've searched Medici's homes over the past decade, breaking down walls in search of hidden compartments.
On Sept. 20, prosecutor Ferri offered to reduce Medici's sentence to six years and to use Object X to offset the 10- million euro fine, but he wouldn't guarantee that it would wipe out the whole debt, Medici says. In return, Medici would drop his appeal, letting the conviction stand.
Ferri says he can't comment on details of continuing talks but doesn't dispute Medici's general account. A six-year sentence would likely result in probation with no jail time, Ferri and Medici say.
Medici's Appeal
For Italy, such a deal would eliminate the risk of the court overturning Medici's conviction and endangering future talks with museums and other smuggling prosecutions.
Medici's lawyers have filed a 78-page appeal at the Rome Tribunal that says the evidence doesn't prove Medici handled the objects or that the antiquities were stolen from archaeological sites in Italy. The appeal, obtained by Bloomberg News, also says procedural violations should lead to the case's dismissal.
Ferri has filed a point-by-point rebuttal of the appeal, which by law he cannot make public, he says. The prosecutor says Medici's appeal is based mostly on technical issues and not on the substance of the charges.
Medici argues that he'll be exonerated by a rational look at the case, which consists mostly of photographs seized from his Geneva warehouse. The photos depict antiquities in various states of restoration before they arrived at the Met, Getty and other museums.
He says people often sent him photos of objects to appraise as an art expert.
``It's unjust to convict someone for trafficking in an object just because he has photos,'' says Medici, who traveled the world buying and selling antiquities before the court seized his passport in 2004.
The prosecutor says Medici's latest promise to come up with a masterpiece shows the conviction hasn't kept the Roman dealer from the antiquities trade.
``It means he's continuing to traffic,'' Ferri says.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Silver in Rome at vtsilver@bloomberg.net
By Vernon Silver
Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- A convicted antiquities smuggler has offered to return a previously unknown ancient masterpiece known as ``Object X'' to Italy in exchange for reducing the jail time and fines he faces for supplying loot to U.S. museums.
A famous artist from the ancient world whose work compares to that of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci created Object X, says the convicted art dealer, Giacomo Medici, who is free while awaiting appeal. The object, which may be a statue, vase, or something else -- he's not saying -- is worth millions, he says.
``It's something they can only dream about,'' Medici, 68, says of the Italian officials with whom he's negotiating to cut his 10-year prison sentence and 10-million euro ($12.8 million) fine. ``And only I can bring it to them.''
Medici's case is part of a broader prosecution that includes Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, who is on trial in Rome for conspiracy and receiving smuggled art. She denies the charges.
The mystery masterpiece, if it exists, risks never coming to light if Medici and prosecutor Paolo Ferri fail to reach an agreement by Oct. 4, when a Rome court is scheduled to hear Medici's appeal. Italian law bars plea bargaining after an appeal starts, Ferri says.
A sticking point is that Medici wants a guarantee that the market value of the work, referred to as Object X by both sides in the talks, will wipe out his fine. The prosecutor says he wants to see the object before making promises.
Dubious Prosecutor
``It could be a bluff,'' says Ferri, who says he'd rather lose Medici's masterpiece than get duped. ``I'm sorry if it's important.''
Medici, describing the proposal over a lunch of grilled calamari in Rome, refuses to say where the object is or how quickly he can get his hands on it. ``It could be a flight from Australia or three hours by train from Naples,'' he says.
The Getty, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts agreed this year to return antiquities to Italy based in part on evidence from Medici's December 2004 conviction for conspiracy, smuggling and receiving stolen antiquities.
Among the objects Medici was convicted for smuggling is a 2,500-year-old krater vase for mixing wine, painted by the Greek artist Euphronios, purchased by the Met in 1972 for $1 million. The Met agreed in February to give the pot and 20 other antiquities back to Italy.
Medici, a stocky, balding man, says the object he's offering is worth as much as the Euphronios krater, which the Met considered the finest Greek vase in its collection.
Ancient Goddess?
He says he's leaving Italian officials to wonder if Object X is another painted vase or a bronze by Lysippos, the personal sculptor of Alexander the Great, an ivory head or a 2,300-year- old goddess carved by the Greek master Praxiteles.
Equivalent objects have been valued at more than 10 million euros in the international antiquities market. Such a masterpiece has eluded Italian police who've searched Medici's homes over the past decade, breaking down walls in search of hidden compartments.
On Sept. 20, prosecutor Ferri offered to reduce Medici's sentence to six years and to use Object X to offset the 10- million euro fine, but he wouldn't guarantee that it would wipe out the whole debt, Medici says. In return, Medici would drop his appeal, letting the conviction stand.
Ferri says he can't comment on details of continuing talks but doesn't dispute Medici's general account. A six-year sentence would likely result in probation with no jail time, Ferri and Medici say.
Medici's Appeal
For Italy, such a deal would eliminate the risk of the court overturning Medici's conviction and endangering future talks with museums and other smuggling prosecutions.
Medici's lawyers have filed a 78-page appeal at the Rome Tribunal that says the evidence doesn't prove Medici handled the objects or that the antiquities were stolen from archaeological sites in Italy. The appeal, obtained by Bloomberg News, also says procedural violations should lead to the case's dismissal.
Ferri has filed a point-by-point rebuttal of the appeal, which by law he cannot make public, he says. The prosecutor says Medici's appeal is based mostly on technical issues and not on the substance of the charges.
Medici argues that he'll be exonerated by a rational look at the case, which consists mostly of photographs seized from his Geneva warehouse. The photos depict antiquities in various states of restoration before they arrived at the Met, Getty and other museums.
He says people often sent him photos of objects to appraise as an art expert.
``It's unjust to convict someone for trafficking in an object just because he has photos,'' says Medici, who traveled the world buying and selling antiquities before the court seized his passport in 2004.
The prosecutor says Medici's latest promise to come up with a masterpiece shows the conviction hasn't kept the Roman dealer from the antiquities trade.
``It means he's continuing to traffic,'' Ferri says.
To contact the reporter on this story: Vernon Silver in Rome at vtsilver@bloomberg.net
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Ripped from the Walls (and the Headlines)
By Robert M. Poole
www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/july/ripped.
At 1:24 a.m. on March 18, 1990, as St. Patrick’s Day stragglers wobbled home for the night, a buzzer sounded inside the IsabellaStewartGardnerMuseum. One of two hapless museum guards answered it, saw what he thought were two Boston policemen outside the Palace Road entrance, and opened the door on the biggest art theft in U.S. history.
The intruders, who had apparently filched the uniforms, overpowered the guards and handcuffed them. They wrapped the guards’ heads in duct tape, leaving nose holes for breathing, and secured the men to posts in the basement. After disarming the museum’s video cameras, the thieves proceeded to take apart one of this country’s finest private art collections, one painstakingly assembled by the flamboyant Boston socialite Isabella Gardner at the end of the 19th century and housed since 1903 in the Venetian-style palazzo she built to display her treasures “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever.”
But as the poet Robert Burns warned long ago, the best laid schemes of mice and men “gang aft agley”—an insight no less applicable to heiresses. Less than a century elapsed before Mrs. Gardner’s high-minded plans for eternity began to crumble. Up a flight of marble stairs on the second floor, the thieves went to work in the Dutch Room, where they yanked one of Rembrandt’s earliest (1629) self-portraits off the wall. They tried to pry the painted wooden panel out of its heavy gilded frame, but when Rembrandt refused to budge, they left him on the floor, a little roughed up but remarkably sturdy at age 376. They crossed worn brown tiles to the south side of the room and cut two other Rembrandts out of their frames, including the Dutch master’s only known seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (opposite), and a double portrait titled A Lady and Gentleman in Black (Table of Contents, p. 6). From an easel by the windows, they lifted The Concert (p. 97), a much-loved oil by Johannes Vermeer, and a Govaert Flinck landscape, long thought to have been painted by Rembrandt, whose monogram had been forged on the canvas. Before the intruders departed, they snapped up a bronze Chinese beaker from the Shang era (1200-1100 b.c.) and a Rembrandt etching, a self-portrait the size of a postage stamp.
A hundred paces down the corridor and through two galleries brimming with works by Fra Angelico, Bellini, Botticelli and Raphael, the thieves stopped in a narrow hallway known as the Short Gallery. There, under the painted gaze of Isabella Stewart Gardner herself, they helped themselves to five Degas drawings. And in a move that still baffles most investigators, they tried to wrestle a flag of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard from its frame and, failing, settled for its bronze eagle finial. Then, back on the ground floor, the thieves made one last acquisition, a jaunty Manet oil portrait of a man in a top hat, titled Chez Tortoni (p. 103). By some miracle, they left what is possibly the most valuable painting in the collection, Titian’s Europa, untouched in its third-floor gallery
The raiders’ leisurely assault had taken nearly 90 minutes. Before departing the museum that night, they left the guards with a promise: “You’ll be hearing from us in about a year.”
But the guards never heard a word, and 16 years later the case remains unsolved, despite wide-ranging probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assists from Scotland Yard, museum directors, friendly dealers, Japanese and French au- thorities, and a posse of private investigators; despite hundreds of interviews and new offers of immunity; despite the Gardner Museum’s promise of a $5 million reward; despite a coded message the museum flashed to an anonymous tipster through the financial pages of the Boston Globe; despite oceans of ink and miles of film devoted to the subject; despite advice from psychics and a tip from an informant who claims that one of the works, Vermeer is rumbling around in a trailer in the West of Ireland to avoid detection.
There have been enough false sightings of the paintings— in furniture stores, seedy antiques marts and tiny apartments— to turn Elvis green with envy. In the most tantalizing of these, a Boston Herald reporter was driven to a warehouse in the middle of the night in 1997 to see what purported to be Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The reporter, Tom Mashberg, had been covering the theft and was allowed to view the painting briefly by flashlight. When he asked for proof of authenticity, he was given a vial of paint chips that were later confirmed by experts to be Dutch fragments from the 17th century—but not from the Rembrandt seascape. Then the painting, whether real or fake, melted from view again. Since then, there has been no sign of the missing works, no arrests, no plausible demands for ransom. It is as if the missing stash—now valued as high as $500 million— simply vanished into the chilly Boston night, swallowed up in the shadowy world of stolen art.
That world, peopled by small-time crooks, big-time gangsters, unscrupulous art dealers, convicted felons, money launderers, drug merchants, gunrunners and organized criminals, contributes to an underground market of an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion a year. While the trade in stolen art does not rival the black market in drugs and guns, it has become a significant part of the illicit global economy.
Some 160,000 items—including paintings, sculptures and other cultural objects—are currently listed by the Art Loss Register, an international organization established in 1991 to track lost or stolen art around the world. Among the objects on their list today are the 13 items snatched from the GardnerMuseum as well as 42 other Rembrandt paintings, 83 Rembrandt prints and an untitled painting attributed to Vermeer that has been missing since World War II. The register records more than 600 stolen Picassos and some 300 Chagalls, most of them prints. An additional 10,000 to 12,000 items are added each year, according to Alexandra Smith, operations director for the London-based registry, a company financed by insurers, leading auction houses, art dealers and trade associations.
Such registries, along with computer-based inventories maintained by the FBI and Interpol, the international police agency, make it virtually impossible for thieves or dealers to sell a purloined Van Gogh, Rembrandt or any other wellknown work on the open market. Yet the trade in stolen art remains a brisk one.
In recent years, big-ticket paintings have become a substitute for cash, passing from hand to hand as collateral for arms, drugs or other contraband, or for laundering money from criminal enterprises. “It would appear that changes in the banking laws have driven the professional thieves into the art world,” says Smith of the Art Loss Register. “With tighter banking regulations, it has become difficult for people to put big chunks of money in financial institutions without getting noticed,” she explains. “So now thieves go out and steal a painting.”
Although the theft of a Vermeer or a Cézanne may generate the headlines, the illicit art market is sustained by amateurs and minor criminals who grab targets of opportunity— the small, unspectacular watercolor, the silver inkstand, the antique vase or teapot—most from private homes.These small objects are devilishly hard to trace, easy to transport and relatively painless to fence, though the returns are low. “If you have three watercolors worth £3,000,” Smith says, “you are likely to get only £300 for them on the black market.” Even so, that market brings more money to thieves than stolen radios, laptops and similar gear. “Electronics have become so affordable that the market for them has dried up,” Smith adds, “and those who go after these things have learned that art is better money than computers.”
Smith and others who track stolen art are clearly irritated by the public’s misconception that their world is populated by swashbucklers in black turtlenecks who slip through skylights to procure paintings for secretive collectors. “I’m afraid it’s a lot more mundane than that,” says Lynne Richardson, former manager of the FBI’s National Art Crime Team. “Most things get stolen without much fanfare. In museums it’s usually somebody with access who sees something in storage, thinks it’s not being used and walks off with it.”
Glamorous or not, today’s art crooks are motivated by a complex of urges. In addition to stealing for the oldest reason of all—money—they may also be drawn by the thrill of the challenge, the hope of a ransom, the prospect of leverage in plea bargaining and the yearning for status within the criminal community. A few even do it for love, as evidenced by the case of an obsessed art connoisseur named Stephane Breitwieser. Before he was arrested in 2001, the French waiter went on a seven-year spree in Europe’s museums, amassing a collection valued as high as $1.9 billion. He reframed some of the works, cleaned them up and kept them in his mother’s small house in eastern France; there, according to court testimony, he would close the door and glory in his private collection, which included works by Bruegel, Watteau, Boucher and many others. He never sold a single piece. Finally collared in Switzerland for stealing an old bugle, he attempted suicide in jail when informed that his mother had destroyed some of his paintings to hide his crimes. Breitwieser spent two years jailed in Switzerland before being extradited to France, where he was sentenced to a 26- month prison term in January 2005.
What continues to perplex those investigating the Gardner mystery is that no single motive or pattern seems to emerge from the thousands of pages of evidence gathered over the past 15 years. Were the works taken for love, money, ransom, glory, barter, or for some tangled combination of them all? Were the raiders professionals or amateurs? Did those who pulled off the heist hang on to their booty, or has it passed into new hands in the underground economy? “I would be happy to knock it down to one or two theories,” says FBI special agent Geoffrey J. Kelly, who has been in charge of the Gardner investigation for three years. He acknowledges that the bureau has left the book open on a maddening array of possibilities, among them: that the Gardner theft was arranged by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to raise money or to bargain for the release of jailed comrades; that it was organized by James J. “Whitey” Bulger, who was Boston’s ruling crime boss and a top-echelon FBI informant at the time of the heist; that it was inspired by Myles J. Connor Jr., an aging rocker who performed with Roy Orbison before he gained fame as New England’s leading art thief.
Connor, who claims to have pulled off no less than 30 art thefts in his career, was in jail when the GardnerMuseum was raided; but he boasts that he and a now deceased friend, Bobby Donati, cased the place several years before, and that Donati did the deed. Connor came forward after the museum increased its reward from $1 million to $5 million in 1997, saying he could find the missing artwork in exchange for immunity, part of the reward and release from prison. Authorities considered but ultimately rejected his offer. Connor believes that the Gardner spoils have passed into other, unknown hands. “I was probably told, but I don’t remember,” he says, citing a heart attack that affected his memory
Some investigators speculate that the theft may have been carried out by amateurs who devoted more time to planning the heist than they did to marketing the booty; when the goods got too hot to handle, they may have panicked and destroyed everything. It is a prospect few wish to consider, but it could explain why the paintings have gone unseen for so long. It would also be a depressingly typical denouement: most art stolen in the United States never reappears—the recovery rate is estimated to be less than 5 percent. In Europe, where the problem has been around longer and specialized law enforcement agencies have been in place, it is about 10 percent
Meanwhile, the FBI has managed to eliminate a few lines of inquiry into the Gardner caper. The two guards on duty at the time of the theft were interviewed and deemed too unimaginative to have pulled it off; another guard, who disappeared from work without picking up his last paycheck, had other reasons to skip town in a hurry; a former museum director who lived in the Gardner, entertaining visitors at all hours, was also questioned. He died of a heart attack in 1992, removing himself from further interrogation. Agents also interviewed a bumbling armored truck robber, as well as an exconvict from California who arrived in Boston before the theft and flew home just after it, disguised as a woman; it turned out that he had been visiting a mistress.
Special agent Kelly offers a tight smile: “There have been a lot of interesting stories associated with the case,” he says. “We try to investigate every one that seems promising.” Just the week before, in fact, he had traveled to Paris with another agent to probe rumors that a former chief of the financially troubled entertainment conglomerate Vivendi Universal had acquired the Gardner paintings, an allegation the official denies.
“In a bank robbery or an armored car robbery, the motivation is fairly easy to decipher,” says Kelly. “They want the money. The motivation in an art theft can be much more difficult to figure out.” The Gardner thieves were professional in some ways, amateurish in others: spending 90 minutes inside the museum seems unnecessarily risky, but the way they got in was clever. “It shows good planning,” says Kelly. “They had the police uniforms. They treated the guards well. That’s professional.” The thieves also knew the museum well enough to recognize that its most famous paintings were in the Dutch Room. Once there, though, they betrayed a bushleague crudeness in slashing the paintings from their frames, devaluing them in the process. “Given that they were in the museum for an hour and a half, why did they do that?” Kelly wonders.
And what of the wildly uneven range of works taken? “There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it,” he adds. Why bother with the Degas sketches? “And to overlook Titian’s Europa? And to spend such an inordinate amount of time trying to get the Napoleonic flag off the wall and then to settle for the finial?”
Perhaps most telling—and in some ways most unsettling— is the ominous silence since March 18, 1990. Kelly believes, and most other investigators agree, that the long hush suggests professional thieves who moved their stash with efficiency and who now control it with disciplined discretion. If the thieves had been amateurs, Kelly posits, “somebody would have talked by now or somehow those paintings would have turned up.”
It is not unusual for art thieves to hang on to prominent paintings for a few years, allowing time for the public excitement and investigative fervor to fade, for the artwork to gain in value and for both federal and state statutes of limitation to run their course. As a result of the Gardner case, Senator Edward M. Kennedy introduced the “Theft of Major Artwork” provision to the 1994 Crime Act, a new law making it a federal offense to obtain by theft or fraud any object more than 100 years old and worth $5,000 or more; the law also covers any object worth at least $100,000, regardless of its age, and prohibits possession of such objects if the owner knows them to be stolen. Even with such laws in force, the FBI’s Kelly says that some criminals keep paintings indefinitely as an investment against future trouble and to bargain down charges against them, or, as he puts it, as a get-out-ofjail- free card.
“It’s quite possible the paintings are still being held as collateral in an arms deal, a drug deal or some other criminal venture,” says Dick Ellis, a prominent investigator who retired in 1999 from Scotland Yard’s highly regarded Art and Antiques Unit. “Until the debt is paid off, they will remain buried. That is why nobody has heard of the paintings for 15 years. That is a long time, but it may be a big debt.”
Wherever the paintings may be, GardnerMuseum director Anne Hawley hopes that they are being well cared for. “It is so important that the art is kept in safe condition,” she says. “The works should be kept at a steady humidity of 50 percent—not more or less—and a steady temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They need a stable environment,” she adds, sounding like the concerned mother of a kidnapped child. “They should be kept away from light and they should be wrapped in acid-free paper.” While it is common practice for art thieves to roll up canvases for easy transport, Hawley pleads that the works be unrolled for storage to avoid flaking or cracking the paint. “Otherwise the paintings will be compromised and their value decreased. The more repainting that needs to be done when they are returned, the worse it will be for the integrity of the paintings.” (The museum had no theft insurance at the time of the heist, largely because the premiums were too high. Today the museum has not only insurance but an upgraded security and fire system.)
Like others who work in the palace Isabella Gardner built, Hawley, who had been on the job for just five months at the time of the theft, takes the loss personally. “For us, it’s like a death in the family,” she says. “Think of what it would mean to civilization if you could never hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony again. Think if you lost access to a crucial piece of literature like Plato’s Republic. Removing these works by Rembrandt and Vermeer is ripping something from the very fabric of civilization.”
In 1998—eight years into the investigation—Hawley and all of Boston woke up to the news that the local FBI office had been corrupted by a long partnership with Whitey Bulger, the crime boss and FBI informant who had been a suspect all along. Because Bulger and his associates had helped the FBI bring down Boston’s leading Italian crime family (which incidentally opened up new turf for Bulger), he was offered protection. Bulger happily took advantage of the opportunity to expand his criminal empire, co-opting some of his FBI handlers in the process. Abureau supervisor took payments from him, and a star agent named John Connolly warned him of impending wiretaps and shielded him from investigation by other police agencies
When an honest prosecutor and a grand jury secretly charged Bulger in 1995 with racketeering and other crimes, Connolly tipped Bulger that an arrest was imminent, and the gangster skipped town. He has been on the run ever since. Connolly is now serving a ten-year prison sentence for conspiring with Bulger, and some 18 agents have been implicated in the scandal. As new details emerged in court proceedings, begun in 1998, the charges against Bulger have multiplied to include conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and 18 counts of murder.
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/july/ripped.php?page=1
Against this sordid background, it is easy to understand why some critics remain skeptical about the bureau’s ability to solve the case. “Their investigation was possibly corrupted and compromised from the start,” says the Gardner’s Hawley. “We assumed that things were proceeding according to schedule—then this came up!” While she praises Geoffrey Kelly as a diligent investigator and allows that the FBI’s Boston office has cleaned itself up, she has taken the remarkable step of inviting those with information about the Gardner theft to contact her—not the FBI. “If people are afraid to step forward or hesitant to speak with the FBI, I encourage them to contact me directly, and I will promise anonymity,” she says. “I know that there’s a child, a mother, a grandmother, or a lover—someone out there—who knows where the pieces are. Anyone who knows this has an ethical and moral responsibility to come forward.The most important thing is to get the art back, not to prosecute the people who took it.”
With that, at least, the FBI’s Kelly agrees. “The primary importance is to get the paintings back,” he says. “The secondary importance is to know where they’ve been since March 18, 1990. We want to get the message out that there is a $5 million reward, that the U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts has stated that he would entertain immunity negotiations for the return of the paintings. The reward, coupled with the immunity offer, really make this a good time to get these paintings back to the museum, where they belong.”
Meanwhile, the specter of Whitey Bulger continues to haunt the case. Just outside Kelly’s office, a photograph of the gangster hangs on the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted list. The possibility of Bulger’s complicity “has been around since day one,” says Kelly. “But we haven’t come across any evidence relevant to that theory.”
Might rogue agent John Connolly have tipped Bulger off about the Gardner investigation? “I am not aware of that,” Kelly answers
With or without Connolly’s involvement, there have been reports that two Bulger associates—Joseph Murray of Charleston and Patrick Nee of South Boston—claimed they had access to the stolen paintings in the early 1990s. Both Murray and Nee, who were convicted in 1987 of attempting to smuggle guns from New England to the Irish Republican Army, have been linked to the Gardner theft by informants, but Kelly says that no evidence supports those claims. Murray is dead now, shot by his wife in 1992. And Nee, who returned to South Boston on his release from prison in 2000, denies any involvement in the theft.
“The paintings are in the West of Ireland,” says British investigator Charles Hill, “and the people holding them are a group of criminals—about the hardest, the most violent and the most difficult cases you are ever likely to encounter. They have the paintings, and they don’t know what to do with them. All we need to do is convince them to return them. I see that as my job.” Although Hill stresses that his comments are speculative, they are informed by his knowledge of the case and the characters involved.
It would be easy to dismiss Charles Hill were it not for his experience and his track record at solving hard-to-crack art cases. The son of an English mother and an American father, Hill went to work as a London constable in 1976 and rose to the rank of detective chief inspector in Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit. After a 20-year career at the yard, he retired and became a private investigator specializing in stolen art. He has been involved in a string of high-profile cases, helping to recover Titian’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt, which had been missing for seven years; Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid; Goya’s Portrait of Dona Antonia Zarate; and Edvard Munch’s The Scream, among other works. (Another version of The Scream, stolen from Oslo’s MunchMuseum last year, is still missing.)
Hill believes that the Gardner paintings arrived in Ireland sometime between 1990 and 1995, shipped there by none other than Whitey Bulger. “Being extremely clever, knowing that he could negotiate the paintings for money or for a bargaining chip, he took them,” says Hill. “Only Bulger could have done it at the time. Only Bulger had the bureau protecting him. Moving the pictures was easy—most probably in a shipping container with no explosives or drugs for a dog to sniff. He thought Ireland meant safety for him and the museum’s stuff.”
But Bulger had not bargained on being charged with multiple murders, which made him less than welcome in Ireland’s West Country and helpless to bargain down the charges against him. “He went to Ireland hoping to hide out there,” says Hill. “When they threw him out, they hung on to his things, not knowing what to do with them.”
Hill says he is in delicate negotiations that may lead him to the Irish group holding the paintings. “I have someone who says he can arrange for me to visit them,” he explains. “If you will forgive me, I would rather not tell you their names right now.” Hill adds that the group, while not part of the IRA, has links with it.
A few scraps of evidence support an Irish connection. On the night of the theft—St. Patrick’s Day—one of the intruders casually addressed a guard as “mate,” as in: “Let me have your hand, mate.” Hill thinks it unlikely that a Boston thug or any other American would use that term; it would more likely come from an Irishman, Australian or Briton. Hill also connects the eclectic array of objects stolen to the Irish love of the horse. Most of the Degas sketches were equestrian subjects, “an iconic Irish image,” he says. As for the Napoleonic flag, they settled for the finial—perhaps as a tribute of sorts to the French general who tried to link up with Irish rebels against Britain
So in Hill’s view, all roads lead to Ireland. “It’s awful for the FBI,” he says. “When the paintings are found here, it is going to be another terrible embarrassment for them. It will show that Whitey pulled off the largest robbery of a museum in modern history—right under their noses.” Hill pauses for a moment. “Don’t be too hard on them, now.”
Back in Mrs. Gardner’s museum, the crowds come and go. On a late winter day, sunlight splashes the mottled pink walls of the palazzo’s inner court, where orchids bloom and schoolchildren sit with their sketchbooks, serenaded by water tumbling into an old stone pool placed there by Isabella Stewart Gardner. In her instructions for the museum that bears her name, she decreed that within the marble halls of her palace, each Roman statue, each French tapestry, each German silver tankard, each folding Japanese screen, and each of the hundreds of glorious paintings she loved so well should remain forever just as she had left them
That is why today, upstairs on the second floor in the Dutch Room, where Rembrandt’s roughed up 1629 self-portrait has been returned to its rightful place on the north wall, the painter stares out across the room, his eyes wide and brows arched, regarding a ghastly blank space where his paintings ought to be. All that’s left are the empty frames.
By Robert M. Poole
www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/july/ripped.
At 1:24 a.m. on March 18, 1990, as St. Patrick’s Day stragglers wobbled home for the night, a buzzer sounded inside the IsabellaStewartGardnerMuseum. One of two hapless museum guards answered it, saw what he thought were two Boston policemen outside the Palace Road entrance, and opened the door on the biggest art theft in U.S. history.
The intruders, who had apparently filched the uniforms, overpowered the guards and handcuffed them. They wrapped the guards’ heads in duct tape, leaving nose holes for breathing, and secured the men to posts in the basement. After disarming the museum’s video cameras, the thieves proceeded to take apart one of this country’s finest private art collections, one painstakingly assembled by the flamboyant Boston socialite Isabella Gardner at the end of the 19th century and housed since 1903 in the Venetian-style palazzo she built to display her treasures “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever.”
But as the poet Robert Burns warned long ago, the best laid schemes of mice and men “gang aft agley”—an insight no less applicable to heiresses. Less than a century elapsed before Mrs. Gardner’s high-minded plans for eternity began to crumble. Up a flight of marble stairs on the second floor, the thieves went to work in the Dutch Room, where they yanked one of Rembrandt’s earliest (1629) self-portraits off the wall. They tried to pry the painted wooden panel out of its heavy gilded frame, but when Rembrandt refused to budge, they left him on the floor, a little roughed up but remarkably sturdy at age 376. They crossed worn brown tiles to the south side of the room and cut two other Rembrandts out of their frames, including the Dutch master’s only known seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (opposite), and a double portrait titled A Lady and Gentleman in Black (Table of Contents, p. 6). From an easel by the windows, they lifted The Concert (p. 97), a much-loved oil by Johannes Vermeer, and a Govaert Flinck landscape, long thought to have been painted by Rembrandt, whose monogram had been forged on the canvas. Before the intruders departed, they snapped up a bronze Chinese beaker from the Shang era (1200-1100 b.c.) and a Rembrandt etching, a self-portrait the size of a postage stamp.
A hundred paces down the corridor and through two galleries brimming with works by Fra Angelico, Bellini, Botticelli and Raphael, the thieves stopped in a narrow hallway known as the Short Gallery. There, under the painted gaze of Isabella Stewart Gardner herself, they helped themselves to five Degas drawings. And in a move that still baffles most investigators, they tried to wrestle a flag of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard from its frame and, failing, settled for its bronze eagle finial. Then, back on the ground floor, the thieves made one last acquisition, a jaunty Manet oil portrait of a man in a top hat, titled Chez Tortoni (p. 103). By some miracle, they left what is possibly the most valuable painting in the collection, Titian’s Europa, untouched in its third-floor gallery
The raiders’ leisurely assault had taken nearly 90 minutes. Before departing the museum that night, they left the guards with a promise: “You’ll be hearing from us in about a year.”
But the guards never heard a word, and 16 years later the case remains unsolved, despite wide-ranging probes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assists from Scotland Yard, museum directors, friendly dealers, Japanese and French au- thorities, and a posse of private investigators; despite hundreds of interviews and new offers of immunity; despite the Gardner Museum’s promise of a $5 million reward; despite a coded message the museum flashed to an anonymous tipster through the financial pages of the Boston Globe; despite oceans of ink and miles of film devoted to the subject; despite advice from psychics and a tip from an informant who claims that one of the works, Vermeer is rumbling around in a trailer in the West of Ireland to avoid detection.
There have been enough false sightings of the paintings— in furniture stores, seedy antiques marts and tiny apartments— to turn Elvis green with envy. In the most tantalizing of these, a Boston Herald reporter was driven to a warehouse in the middle of the night in 1997 to see what purported to be Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee. The reporter, Tom Mashberg, had been covering the theft and was allowed to view the painting briefly by flashlight. When he asked for proof of authenticity, he was given a vial of paint chips that were later confirmed by experts to be Dutch fragments from the 17th century—but not from the Rembrandt seascape. Then the painting, whether real or fake, melted from view again. Since then, there has been no sign of the missing works, no arrests, no plausible demands for ransom. It is as if the missing stash—now valued as high as $500 million— simply vanished into the chilly Boston night, swallowed up in the shadowy world of stolen art.
That world, peopled by small-time crooks, big-time gangsters, unscrupulous art dealers, convicted felons, money launderers, drug merchants, gunrunners and organized criminals, contributes to an underground market of an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion a year. While the trade in stolen art does not rival the black market in drugs and guns, it has become a significant part of the illicit global economy.
Some 160,000 items—including paintings, sculptures and other cultural objects—are currently listed by the Art Loss Register, an international organization established in 1991 to track lost or stolen art around the world. Among the objects on their list today are the 13 items snatched from the GardnerMuseum as well as 42 other Rembrandt paintings, 83 Rembrandt prints and an untitled painting attributed to Vermeer that has been missing since World War II. The register records more than 600 stolen Picassos and some 300 Chagalls, most of them prints. An additional 10,000 to 12,000 items are added each year, according to Alexandra Smith, operations director for the London-based registry, a company financed by insurers, leading auction houses, art dealers and trade associations.
Such registries, along with computer-based inventories maintained by the FBI and Interpol, the international police agency, make it virtually impossible for thieves or dealers to sell a purloined Van Gogh, Rembrandt or any other wellknown work on the open market. Yet the trade in stolen art remains a brisk one.
In recent years, big-ticket paintings have become a substitute for cash, passing from hand to hand as collateral for arms, drugs or other contraband, or for laundering money from criminal enterprises. “It would appear that changes in the banking laws have driven the professional thieves into the art world,” says Smith of the Art Loss Register. “With tighter banking regulations, it has become difficult for people to put big chunks of money in financial institutions without getting noticed,” she explains. “So now thieves go out and steal a painting.”
Although the theft of a Vermeer or a Cézanne may generate the headlines, the illicit art market is sustained by amateurs and minor criminals who grab targets of opportunity— the small, unspectacular watercolor, the silver inkstand, the antique vase or teapot—most from private homes.These small objects are devilishly hard to trace, easy to transport and relatively painless to fence, though the returns are low. “If you have three watercolors worth £3,000,” Smith says, “you are likely to get only £300 for them on the black market.” Even so, that market brings more money to thieves than stolen radios, laptops and similar gear. “Electronics have become so affordable that the market for them has dried up,” Smith adds, “and those who go after these things have learned that art is better money than computers.”
Smith and others who track stolen art are clearly irritated by the public’s misconception that their world is populated by swashbucklers in black turtlenecks who slip through skylights to procure paintings for secretive collectors. “I’m afraid it’s a lot more mundane than that,” says Lynne Richardson, former manager of the FBI’s National Art Crime Team. “Most things get stolen without much fanfare. In museums it’s usually somebody with access who sees something in storage, thinks it’s not being used and walks off with it.”
Glamorous or not, today’s art crooks are motivated by a complex of urges. In addition to stealing for the oldest reason of all—money—they may also be drawn by the thrill of the challenge, the hope of a ransom, the prospect of leverage in plea bargaining and the yearning for status within the criminal community. A few even do it for love, as evidenced by the case of an obsessed art connoisseur named Stephane Breitwieser. Before he was arrested in 2001, the French waiter went on a seven-year spree in Europe’s museums, amassing a collection valued as high as $1.9 billion. He reframed some of the works, cleaned them up and kept them in his mother’s small house in eastern France; there, according to court testimony, he would close the door and glory in his private collection, which included works by Bruegel, Watteau, Boucher and many others. He never sold a single piece. Finally collared in Switzerland for stealing an old bugle, he attempted suicide in jail when informed that his mother had destroyed some of his paintings to hide his crimes. Breitwieser spent two years jailed in Switzerland before being extradited to France, where he was sentenced to a 26- month prison term in January 2005.
What continues to perplex those investigating the Gardner mystery is that no single motive or pattern seems to emerge from the thousands of pages of evidence gathered over the past 15 years. Were the works taken for love, money, ransom, glory, barter, or for some tangled combination of them all? Were the raiders professionals or amateurs? Did those who pulled off the heist hang on to their booty, or has it passed into new hands in the underground economy? “I would be happy to knock it down to one or two theories,” says FBI special agent Geoffrey J. Kelly, who has been in charge of the Gardner investigation for three years. He acknowledges that the bureau has left the book open on a maddening array of possibilities, among them: that the Gardner theft was arranged by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to raise money or to bargain for the release of jailed comrades; that it was organized by James J. “Whitey” Bulger, who was Boston’s ruling crime boss and a top-echelon FBI informant at the time of the heist; that it was inspired by Myles J. Connor Jr., an aging rocker who performed with Roy Orbison before he gained fame as New England’s leading art thief.
Connor, who claims to have pulled off no less than 30 art thefts in his career, was in jail when the GardnerMuseum was raided; but he boasts that he and a now deceased friend, Bobby Donati, cased the place several years before, and that Donati did the deed. Connor came forward after the museum increased its reward from $1 million to $5 million in 1997, saying he could find the missing artwork in exchange for immunity, part of the reward and release from prison. Authorities considered but ultimately rejected his offer. Connor believes that the Gardner spoils have passed into other, unknown hands. “I was probably told, but I don’t remember,” he says, citing a heart attack that affected his memory
Some investigators speculate that the theft may have been carried out by amateurs who devoted more time to planning the heist than they did to marketing the booty; when the goods got too hot to handle, they may have panicked and destroyed everything. It is a prospect few wish to consider, but it could explain why the paintings have gone unseen for so long. It would also be a depressingly typical denouement: most art stolen in the United States never reappears—the recovery rate is estimated to be less than 5 percent. In Europe, where the problem has been around longer and specialized law enforcement agencies have been in place, it is about 10 percent
Meanwhile, the FBI has managed to eliminate a few lines of inquiry into the Gardner caper. The two guards on duty at the time of the theft were interviewed and deemed too unimaginative to have pulled it off; another guard, who disappeared from work without picking up his last paycheck, had other reasons to skip town in a hurry; a former museum director who lived in the Gardner, entertaining visitors at all hours, was also questioned. He died of a heart attack in 1992, removing himself from further interrogation. Agents also interviewed a bumbling armored truck robber, as well as an exconvict from California who arrived in Boston before the theft and flew home just after it, disguised as a woman; it turned out that he had been visiting a mistress.
Special agent Kelly offers a tight smile: “There have been a lot of interesting stories associated with the case,” he says. “We try to investigate every one that seems promising.” Just the week before, in fact, he had traveled to Paris with another agent to probe rumors that a former chief of the financially troubled entertainment conglomerate Vivendi Universal had acquired the Gardner paintings, an allegation the official denies.
“In a bank robbery or an armored car robbery, the motivation is fairly easy to decipher,” says Kelly. “They want the money. The motivation in an art theft can be much more difficult to figure out.” The Gardner thieves were professional in some ways, amateurish in others: spending 90 minutes inside the museum seems unnecessarily risky, but the way they got in was clever. “It shows good planning,” says Kelly. “They had the police uniforms. They treated the guards well. That’s professional.” The thieves also knew the museum well enough to recognize that its most famous paintings were in the Dutch Room. Once there, though, they betrayed a bushleague crudeness in slashing the paintings from their frames, devaluing them in the process. “Given that they were in the museum for an hour and a half, why did they do that?” Kelly wonders.
And what of the wildly uneven range of works taken? “There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it,” he adds. Why bother with the Degas sketches? “And to overlook Titian’s Europa? And to spend such an inordinate amount of time trying to get the Napoleonic flag off the wall and then to settle for the finial?”
Perhaps most telling—and in some ways most unsettling— is the ominous silence since March 18, 1990. Kelly believes, and most other investigators agree, that the long hush suggests professional thieves who moved their stash with efficiency and who now control it with disciplined discretion. If the thieves had been amateurs, Kelly posits, “somebody would have talked by now or somehow those paintings would have turned up.”
It is not unusual for art thieves to hang on to prominent paintings for a few years, allowing time for the public excitement and investigative fervor to fade, for the artwork to gain in value and for both federal and state statutes of limitation to run their course. As a result of the Gardner case, Senator Edward M. Kennedy introduced the “Theft of Major Artwork” provision to the 1994 Crime Act, a new law making it a federal offense to obtain by theft or fraud any object more than 100 years old and worth $5,000 or more; the law also covers any object worth at least $100,000, regardless of its age, and prohibits possession of such objects if the owner knows them to be stolen. Even with such laws in force, the FBI’s Kelly says that some criminals keep paintings indefinitely as an investment against future trouble and to bargain down charges against them, or, as he puts it, as a get-out-ofjail- free card.
“It’s quite possible the paintings are still being held as collateral in an arms deal, a drug deal or some other criminal venture,” says Dick Ellis, a prominent investigator who retired in 1999 from Scotland Yard’s highly regarded Art and Antiques Unit. “Until the debt is paid off, they will remain buried. That is why nobody has heard of the paintings for 15 years. That is a long time, but it may be a big debt.”
Wherever the paintings may be, GardnerMuseum director Anne Hawley hopes that they are being well cared for. “It is so important that the art is kept in safe condition,” she says. “The works should be kept at a steady humidity of 50 percent—not more or less—and a steady temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They need a stable environment,” she adds, sounding like the concerned mother of a kidnapped child. “They should be kept away from light and they should be wrapped in acid-free paper.” While it is common practice for art thieves to roll up canvases for easy transport, Hawley pleads that the works be unrolled for storage to avoid flaking or cracking the paint. “Otherwise the paintings will be compromised and their value decreased. The more repainting that needs to be done when they are returned, the worse it will be for the integrity of the paintings.” (The museum had no theft insurance at the time of the heist, largely because the premiums were too high. Today the museum has not only insurance but an upgraded security and fire system.)
Like others who work in the palace Isabella Gardner built, Hawley, who had been on the job for just five months at the time of the theft, takes the loss personally. “For us, it’s like a death in the family,” she says. “Think of what it would mean to civilization if you could never hear Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony again. Think if you lost access to a crucial piece of literature like Plato’s Republic. Removing these works by Rembrandt and Vermeer is ripping something from the very fabric of civilization.”
In 1998—eight years into the investigation—Hawley and all of Boston woke up to the news that the local FBI office had been corrupted by a long partnership with Whitey Bulger, the crime boss and FBI informant who had been a suspect all along. Because Bulger and his associates had helped the FBI bring down Boston’s leading Italian crime family (which incidentally opened up new turf for Bulger), he was offered protection. Bulger happily took advantage of the opportunity to expand his criminal empire, co-opting some of his FBI handlers in the process. Abureau supervisor took payments from him, and a star agent named John Connolly warned him of impending wiretaps and shielded him from investigation by other police agencies
When an honest prosecutor and a grand jury secretly charged Bulger in 1995 with racketeering and other crimes, Connolly tipped Bulger that an arrest was imminent, and the gangster skipped town. He has been on the run ever since. Connolly is now serving a ten-year prison sentence for conspiring with Bulger, and some 18 agents have been implicated in the scandal. As new details emerged in court proceedings, begun in 1998, the charges against Bulger have multiplied to include conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and 18 counts of murder.
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/july/ripped.php?page=1
Against this sordid background, it is easy to understand why some critics remain skeptical about the bureau’s ability to solve the case. “Their investigation was possibly corrupted and compromised from the start,” says the Gardner’s Hawley. “We assumed that things were proceeding according to schedule—then this came up!” While she praises Geoffrey Kelly as a diligent investigator and allows that the FBI’s Boston office has cleaned itself up, she has taken the remarkable step of inviting those with information about the Gardner theft to contact her—not the FBI. “If people are afraid to step forward or hesitant to speak with the FBI, I encourage them to contact me directly, and I will promise anonymity,” she says. “I know that there’s a child, a mother, a grandmother, or a lover—someone out there—who knows where the pieces are. Anyone who knows this has an ethical and moral responsibility to come forward.The most important thing is to get the art back, not to prosecute the people who took it.”
With that, at least, the FBI’s Kelly agrees. “The primary importance is to get the paintings back,” he says. “The secondary importance is to know where they’ve been since March 18, 1990. We want to get the message out that there is a $5 million reward, that the U.S. attorney for the district of Massachusetts has stated that he would entertain immunity negotiations for the return of the paintings. The reward, coupled with the immunity offer, really make this a good time to get these paintings back to the museum, where they belong.”
Meanwhile, the specter of Whitey Bulger continues to haunt the case. Just outside Kelly’s office, a photograph of the gangster hangs on the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted list. The possibility of Bulger’s complicity “has been around since day one,” says Kelly. “But we haven’t come across any evidence relevant to that theory.”
Might rogue agent John Connolly have tipped Bulger off about the Gardner investigation? “I am not aware of that,” Kelly answers
With or without Connolly’s involvement, there have been reports that two Bulger associates—Joseph Murray of Charleston and Patrick Nee of South Boston—claimed they had access to the stolen paintings in the early 1990s. Both Murray and Nee, who were convicted in 1987 of attempting to smuggle guns from New England to the Irish Republican Army, have been linked to the Gardner theft by informants, but Kelly says that no evidence supports those claims. Murray is dead now, shot by his wife in 1992. And Nee, who returned to South Boston on his release from prison in 2000, denies any involvement in the theft.
“The paintings are in the West of Ireland,” says British investigator Charles Hill, “and the people holding them are a group of criminals—about the hardest, the most violent and the most difficult cases you are ever likely to encounter. They have the paintings, and they don’t know what to do with them. All we need to do is convince them to return them. I see that as my job.” Although Hill stresses that his comments are speculative, they are informed by his knowledge of the case and the characters involved.
It would be easy to dismiss Charles Hill were it not for his experience and his track record at solving hard-to-crack art cases. The son of an English mother and an American father, Hill went to work as a London constable in 1976 and rose to the rank of detective chief inspector in Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit. After a 20-year career at the yard, he retired and became a private investigator specializing in stolen art. He has been involved in a string of high-profile cases, helping to recover Titian’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt, which had been missing for seven years; Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid; Goya’s Portrait of Dona Antonia Zarate; and Edvard Munch’s The Scream, among other works. (Another version of The Scream, stolen from Oslo’s MunchMuseum last year, is still missing.)
Hill believes that the Gardner paintings arrived in Ireland sometime between 1990 and 1995, shipped there by none other than Whitey Bulger. “Being extremely clever, knowing that he could negotiate the paintings for money or for a bargaining chip, he took them,” says Hill. “Only Bulger could have done it at the time. Only Bulger had the bureau protecting him. Moving the pictures was easy—most probably in a shipping container with no explosives or drugs for a dog to sniff. He thought Ireland meant safety for him and the museum’s stuff.”
But Bulger had not bargained on being charged with multiple murders, which made him less than welcome in Ireland’s West Country and helpless to bargain down the charges against him. “He went to Ireland hoping to hide out there,” says Hill. “When they threw him out, they hung on to his things, not knowing what to do with them.”
Hill says he is in delicate negotiations that may lead him to the Irish group holding the paintings. “I have someone who says he can arrange for me to visit them,” he explains. “If you will forgive me, I would rather not tell you their names right now.” Hill adds that the group, while not part of the IRA, has links with it.
A few scraps of evidence support an Irish connection. On the night of the theft—St. Patrick’s Day—one of the intruders casually addressed a guard as “mate,” as in: “Let me have your hand, mate.” Hill thinks it unlikely that a Boston thug or any other American would use that term; it would more likely come from an Irishman, Australian or Briton. Hill also connects the eclectic array of objects stolen to the Irish love of the horse. Most of the Degas sketches were equestrian subjects, “an iconic Irish image,” he says. As for the Napoleonic flag, they settled for the finial—perhaps as a tribute of sorts to the French general who tried to link up with Irish rebels against Britain
So in Hill’s view, all roads lead to Ireland. “It’s awful for the FBI,” he says. “When the paintings are found here, it is going to be another terrible embarrassment for them. It will show that Whitey pulled off the largest robbery of a museum in modern history—right under their noses.” Hill pauses for a moment. “Don’t be too hard on them, now.”
Back in Mrs. Gardner’s museum, the crowds come and go. On a late winter day, sunlight splashes the mottled pink walls of the palazzo’s inner court, where orchids bloom and schoolchildren sit with their sketchbooks, serenaded by water tumbling into an old stone pool placed there by Isabella Stewart Gardner. In her instructions for the museum that bears her name, she decreed that within the marble halls of her palace, each Roman statue, each French tapestry, each German silver tankard, each folding Japanese screen, and each of the hundreds of glorious paintings she loved so well should remain forever just as she had left them
That is why today, upstairs on the second floor in the Dutch Room, where Rembrandt’s roughed up 1629 self-portrait has been returned to its rightful place on the north wall, the painter stares out across the room, his eyes wide and brows arched, regarding a ghastly blank space where his paintings ought to be. All that’s left are the empty frames.
Friday, September 22, 2006
FBI Collusion Prevents Stolen Vermeer Being Recovered Summer 2002
Dear Alex Jones
please find below my latest efforts in trying to recover the stolen Vermeer from Boston.
Dick Ellis, ex head of Scotland Yards Art Squad, mentioned below, has been using Brig Gordon Kerr as his man with Irish experience to try and convince those with the Vermeer to hand it back.
I am sure your new contributor, an expert on the seedier side of the Irish Republican movement, especially those who have been duplicitous, to say the least, can enlighten you to Gordon Kerr's history.
The direct control of the stolen Vermeer being held by Thomas Slab Murphy has been confirmed by three sources of mine, three from Dick Ellis, Brigadier Gordon Kerr, Peter Watson the art crime writer and one other.
Three sources of Charlie Hill, Jimmy Johnson, David Dudon, and one other in America have also confirmed that Thomas Slab Murphy has control of the Vermeer from his South Armagh enclave.
All of these sources also confirm that the FBI are continuing to be complicit in pursuing Whitey Bulger, however, when Bob Mueller retires the impetus may increase, although the FBI would relish the death of Whitey Bulger in exile.
Whitey Bulger has been writing a diary about his criminal life and if this can be retrieved from the safety deposit box, (Whitey may try and get it to his family), it will finally expose the real truth of the FBI collusion in Boston and beyond.
Whitey Bulger has always maintained that if he is captured he will never make a courtroom, he will be murdered before he gets to tell the truth about how deep the FBI collusion went, and still goes.
27 E-mails sent to FBI Headquarters about the dealings with Whitey Bulger, they knew all along about Whitey Bulger's murderous crime spree.
Feel free to drop a dime to the Feds, ask for their comment on Mike Wilson and how he allowed the stolen Vermeer to escape.
Your attention in this will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
Copy of E-mails sent to President, Vice- President, Ted Kennedy, Peter King, Anne Hawley (Director, Gardner Museum, Boston)
Dear Mr President,
Oh what webs they weave, in your name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The FBI Actions in the Gardner and Whitey Bulger cases appear to be a case of
"The Foxes guarding the hen house"
After consulting with certain law enforcement officials in Europe and within the U.S. my assessment, based upon their opinions, is perhaps it may be time for FBI Director Robert Mueller to retire.
Your consideration in this matter is greatly appreciated.
A job for KR!!!!!!!!
Yours
Gardner Art Heist Latest
Dear Anne,
I am known by the name ************ and appear alongside the late Harold Smith in the film Stolen.
Although FBI Agent Mike Wilson described me to you as "Not being a credible witness" in 2002, this was because Dick Ellis and I had met him at the London American Embassy and were not very happy at FBI Agent Mike Wilson's failure to secure the Vermeer from the Dublin hotel room where it was shown to him and Colin (the informant)
I am sure you have not been made aware of the blatant failure of FBI Agent Michael Wilson to recover the Vermeer in summer 2002 and I do want you to know of my continuing efforts to bring the Vermeer home to Boston.
I have been negotiating with the IRA, namely Thomas Slab Murphy's man who runs the real estate portfolio for Slab, and just lately have had my findings confirmed by an ex-British Intelligence officer who has been directly connected to Irish Republican activities for many years.
The assessment below is done with an honesty that has gained me credit within the underworld because I have refused to offer false promises of rewards.
The people who I am talking to are fully aware that any monies paid would be post recovery of Vermeer and it is other favours that will allow the Vermeer to surface.
I thought my latest assessment of the Gardner Case may interest you.
For those interested in the great Gardner Art Heist St Patrick's Day 1990, Whitey Bulger, FBI collusion preventing Gardner art being recovered!!!!!!!!!
The Gardner Art Heist is rather more sad because the stolen art, Vermeer in particular were not insured. The $5 million reward offered is bogus as the Gardner does not have $5 million waiting to be collected.
Anne Hawley, director of Gardner museum is adamant and not one dime will ever be paid for the return of said art. Relayed to ex-Scotland Yard Art Chief Dick Ellis and Fine art loss adjuster Mark Dalrymple.
However, there was an opportunity to recover the Vermeer in 2002, when it was shown to FBI Agent Mike Wilson and a senior Irish official in a Dublin hotel room. After being totally satisfied they were looking at the real deal, they checked certain things to verify its authenticity.
No deal could be reached,(Whitey Bulger,'s spectre lurking in the background) (Irish govt refused to sanction Vermeer being recovered on Irish soil) Then, to add insult to injury, the criminals were allowed to leave , WITH, the Vermeer, which remains outstanding.
FBI Agent Michael Wilson was castigated by FBI bosses upon his return to the U.S. late summer 2002 and was moved off the Gardner case before retiring!!!! (Check with Feds, they will not deny this, also Charlie Hill, who facilitated Colin the informer to arrange the meeting in the Dublin hotel room.)
Gardner art was sent to Ireland by Whitey Bulger and Joseph Murray before Whitey Bulger fled murder charges in Dec 1994. Whitey Bulger then gave the Vermeer to a lifelong friend of Joe Murray (Whitey's host in Ireland) and leader of the INLA, who has since died. Monies were lent against the Vermeer from a West of Ireland gangster group, or Clan as they like to be called.
Currently the Vermeer is in the control of Thomas Slab Murphy, IRA Chief of Staff, (confirmed by ex-senior Brit Intelligence Officer) who is willing to facilitate the return of the Vermeer in exchange for Sinn Fein being allowed to fund raise in America again, as well as Tom Murphy being allowed to pay some back-taxes, tax demand 5.4 million euros, and retire. I have always advocated favours other than money will be the way to recover the stolen Gardner art and will prevent the Gardner museum from being held liable for $5 million, although a "Subject to" clause in the reward offer does give Anne Hawley a get out. This will also prevent Whitey Bulger from collecting on the stolen Gardner Art!!!!
So, if FBI Agent Robert Wittman, Mitchell Reiss and Ted Kennedy are sincere about recovering the Vermeer and also sincere in prompting Sinn Fein towards supporting Policing, then they should contact Thomas Slab Murphy at Home Place, Larkin's Road, Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, South Armagh/County Louth, Republic of Ireland. Until then the American people are denied one of Vermeer's best pictures, "The Concert", "The art of painting" being his best!!!!! For back-story see: www.stolenthefilm.com for details.
Another important dividend of the Vermeer being returned courtesy of the Irish Republican Movement, as a thankyou for all the support given by Irish America during the struggle, is Malachy McAllister is allowed to remain in the United States with his family. Hope the delay in reaching a decision about Malachy is due to his co-operation in helping facilitate the return of the Vermeer to Boston.
Whitey Bulger meeting his brother William in Ireland, which military intelligence have photo's of is yet another example of duplicitous actions of the Feds.
However, the Brits may not have shared this info with the Feds, to be fair.
The lack of impetus in arresting Whitey Bulger comes from the perceived fear that Whitey Bulger will implicate Robert Mueller as being complicit about murders that happened in the 1980's when he was a D.A. in Boston.
Everytime the FBI Bulger Squad are set to leave Boston for Ireland in pursuit of Whitey Bulger, Whitey is tipped off so he can leave Ireland only to return when the coast is clear. Whitey spends time in France as they will not extradite him because of the death penalty if he is ever captured in France.
With regards FBI Agent Mike Wilson, Dick Ellis and I met with him at the London American embassy during summer 2002.
Perhaps the Gardner Museum may be interested to know of the chance missed by Feds to recover the Vermeer Summer 2002?????
Makes one wonder "Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys"
Anne, I beg you to consider writing to General Thomas Slab Murphy at Home Place, Larkin's road, Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, County Louth/South Armagh to seek his intercession in the recovery of the Vermeer and to inform him that you are going to arrive in Ireland( In True Belle Gardner fashion) immanently and will be staying at the Ballymascanlon Hotel Dundalk, where you will be seeking an audience with Mr Tom Slab Murphy.
If you display Belle Gardner traits you will, I am sure, be granted an audience with Tom Slab Murphy, who will I am sure, be pragmatic, and sympathetic, then offer to make enquiries in the facilitating of the Vermeer being discovered in a confession box before returning to the Museum.
To set the wheels in motion you will then have to report to Senator Kennedy in his role as trustee, who will in turn contact Martin Ferris and see what kind of reward may be appropriate for Tom Slab Murphy.
As stated before, something arranged about reducing the tax demand against Slab, Sinn Fein allowed to fund raise( this is going to happen soon anyway it is on the agenda for Congress)
The Vermeer will I am sure appear just like the Scream and Madonna, only this time the symbolism of the Confession box will add to the incredible journey of the Vermeer.
Before you dismiss my request out of hand I want you to consider what practical plans have others offered???
Although outrageous, your pro-active action in going to Ireland will only serve as a constant reminder of the pioneering spirit of Belle Gardner lives on through her museum and the staff who work there.
Furthermore, In my opinion FBI Agent Robert Wittman is "Straight as a gun barrel" and would be the best person to liaise with in your future dealings about the Gardner theft.
I am not acquainted with Geoff Kelly but Harold Smith described Bob Wittman as "One of the finest FBI Agents I have come across"
Sure, pass this to Bob Wittman and ask him about FBI Agent Michael Wilson, his assessment of the Vermeer being in the control of Tom Slab Murphy, and his thoughts on you "Taking the Bull by the horns"
Before making a decision on what your course of action will be, go to the Sergeant portrait and pause, ask yourself what Belle Gardner would advise you to do, then, in the words of Nike, "Just do it"
Kind regards
please find below my latest efforts in trying to recover the stolen Vermeer from Boston.
Dick Ellis, ex head of Scotland Yards Art Squad, mentioned below, has been using Brig Gordon Kerr as his man with Irish experience to try and convince those with the Vermeer to hand it back.
I am sure your new contributor, an expert on the seedier side of the Irish Republican movement, especially those who have been duplicitous, to say the least, can enlighten you to Gordon Kerr's history.
The direct control of the stolen Vermeer being held by Thomas Slab Murphy has been confirmed by three sources of mine, three from Dick Ellis, Brigadier Gordon Kerr, Peter Watson the art crime writer and one other.
Three sources of Charlie Hill, Jimmy Johnson, David Dudon, and one other in America have also confirmed that Thomas Slab Murphy has control of the Vermeer from his South Armagh enclave.
All of these sources also confirm that the FBI are continuing to be complicit in pursuing Whitey Bulger, however, when Bob Mueller retires the impetus may increase, although the FBI would relish the death of Whitey Bulger in exile.
Whitey Bulger has been writing a diary about his criminal life and if this can be retrieved from the safety deposit box, (Whitey may try and get it to his family), it will finally expose the real truth of the FBI collusion in Boston and beyond.
Whitey Bulger has always maintained that if he is captured he will never make a courtroom, he will be murdered before he gets to tell the truth about how deep the FBI collusion went, and still goes.
27 E-mails sent to FBI Headquarters about the dealings with Whitey Bulger, they knew all along about Whitey Bulger's murderous crime spree.
Feel free to drop a dime to the Feds, ask for their comment on Mike Wilson and how he allowed the stolen Vermeer to escape.
Your attention in this will be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely
Copy of E-mails sent to President, Vice- President, Ted Kennedy, Peter King, Anne Hawley (Director, Gardner Museum, Boston)
Dear Mr President,
Oh what webs they weave, in your name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The FBI Actions in the Gardner and Whitey Bulger cases appear to be a case of
"The Foxes guarding the hen house"
After consulting with certain law enforcement officials in Europe and within the U.S. my assessment, based upon their opinions, is perhaps it may be time for FBI Director Robert Mueller to retire.
Your consideration in this matter is greatly appreciated.
A job for KR!!!!!!!!
Yours
Gardner Art Heist Latest
Dear Anne,
I am known by the name ************ and appear alongside the late Harold Smith in the film Stolen.
Although FBI Agent Mike Wilson described me to you as "Not being a credible witness" in 2002, this was because Dick Ellis and I had met him at the London American Embassy and were not very happy at FBI Agent Mike Wilson's failure to secure the Vermeer from the Dublin hotel room where it was shown to him and Colin (the informant)
I am sure you have not been made aware of the blatant failure of FBI Agent Michael Wilson to recover the Vermeer in summer 2002 and I do want you to know of my continuing efforts to bring the Vermeer home to Boston.
I have been negotiating with the IRA, namely Thomas Slab Murphy's man who runs the real estate portfolio for Slab, and just lately have had my findings confirmed by an ex-British Intelligence officer who has been directly connected to Irish Republican activities for many years.
The assessment below is done with an honesty that has gained me credit within the underworld because I have refused to offer false promises of rewards.
The people who I am talking to are fully aware that any monies paid would be post recovery of Vermeer and it is other favours that will allow the Vermeer to surface.
I thought my latest assessment of the Gardner Case may interest you.
For those interested in the great Gardner Art Heist St Patrick's Day 1990, Whitey Bulger, FBI collusion preventing Gardner art being recovered!!!!!!!!!
The Gardner Art Heist is rather more sad because the stolen art, Vermeer in particular were not insured. The $5 million reward offered is bogus as the Gardner does not have $5 million waiting to be collected.
Anne Hawley, director of Gardner museum is adamant and not one dime will ever be paid for the return of said art. Relayed to ex-Scotland Yard Art Chief Dick Ellis and Fine art loss adjuster Mark Dalrymple.
However, there was an opportunity to recover the Vermeer in 2002, when it was shown to FBI Agent Mike Wilson and a senior Irish official in a Dublin hotel room. After being totally satisfied they were looking at the real deal, they checked certain things to verify its authenticity.
No deal could be reached,(Whitey Bulger,'s spectre lurking in the background) (Irish govt refused to sanction Vermeer being recovered on Irish soil) Then, to add insult to injury, the criminals were allowed to leave , WITH, the Vermeer, which remains outstanding.
FBI Agent Michael Wilson was castigated by FBI bosses upon his return to the U.S. late summer 2002 and was moved off the Gardner case before retiring!!!! (Check with Feds, they will not deny this, also Charlie Hill, who facilitated Colin the informer to arrange the meeting in the Dublin hotel room.)
Gardner art was sent to Ireland by Whitey Bulger and Joseph Murray before Whitey Bulger fled murder charges in Dec 1994. Whitey Bulger then gave the Vermeer to a lifelong friend of Joe Murray (Whitey's host in Ireland) and leader of the INLA, who has since died. Monies were lent against the Vermeer from a West of Ireland gangster group, or Clan as they like to be called.
Currently the Vermeer is in the control of Thomas Slab Murphy, IRA Chief of Staff, (confirmed by ex-senior Brit Intelligence Officer) who is willing to facilitate the return of the Vermeer in exchange for Sinn Fein being allowed to fund raise in America again, as well as Tom Murphy being allowed to pay some back-taxes, tax demand 5.4 million euros, and retire. I have always advocated favours other than money will be the way to recover the stolen Gardner art and will prevent the Gardner museum from being held liable for $5 million, although a "Subject to" clause in the reward offer does give Anne Hawley a get out. This will also prevent Whitey Bulger from collecting on the stolen Gardner Art!!!!
So, if FBI Agent Robert Wittman, Mitchell Reiss and Ted Kennedy are sincere about recovering the Vermeer and also sincere in prompting Sinn Fein towards supporting Policing, then they should contact Thomas Slab Murphy at Home Place, Larkin's Road, Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, South Armagh/County Louth, Republic of Ireland. Until then the American people are denied one of Vermeer's best pictures, "The Concert", "The art of painting" being his best!!!!! For back-story see: www.stolenthefilm.com for details.
Another important dividend of the Vermeer being returned courtesy of the Irish Republican Movement, as a thankyou for all the support given by Irish America during the struggle, is Malachy McAllister is allowed to remain in the United States with his family. Hope the delay in reaching a decision about Malachy is due to his co-operation in helping facilitate the return of the Vermeer to Boston.
Whitey Bulger meeting his brother William in Ireland, which military intelligence have photo's of is yet another example of duplicitous actions of the Feds.
However, the Brits may not have shared this info with the Feds, to be fair.
The lack of impetus in arresting Whitey Bulger comes from the perceived fear that Whitey Bulger will implicate Robert Mueller as being complicit about murders that happened in the 1980's when he was a D.A. in Boston.
Everytime the FBI Bulger Squad are set to leave Boston for Ireland in pursuit of Whitey Bulger, Whitey is tipped off so he can leave Ireland only to return when the coast is clear. Whitey spends time in France as they will not extradite him because of the death penalty if he is ever captured in France.
With regards FBI Agent Mike Wilson, Dick Ellis and I met with him at the London American embassy during summer 2002.
Perhaps the Gardner Museum may be interested to know of the chance missed by Feds to recover the Vermeer Summer 2002?????
Makes one wonder "Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys"
Anne, I beg you to consider writing to General Thomas Slab Murphy at Home Place, Larkin's road, Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, County Louth/South Armagh to seek his intercession in the recovery of the Vermeer and to inform him that you are going to arrive in Ireland( In True Belle Gardner fashion) immanently and will be staying at the Ballymascanlon Hotel Dundalk, where you will be seeking an audience with Mr Tom Slab Murphy.
If you display Belle Gardner traits you will, I am sure, be granted an audience with Tom Slab Murphy, who will I am sure, be pragmatic, and sympathetic, then offer to make enquiries in the facilitating of the Vermeer being discovered in a confession box before returning to the Museum.
To set the wheels in motion you will then have to report to Senator Kennedy in his role as trustee, who will in turn contact Martin Ferris and see what kind of reward may be appropriate for Tom Slab Murphy.
As stated before, something arranged about reducing the tax demand against Slab, Sinn Fein allowed to fund raise( this is going to happen soon anyway it is on the agenda for Congress)
The Vermeer will I am sure appear just like the Scream and Madonna, only this time the symbolism of the Confession box will add to the incredible journey of the Vermeer.
Before you dismiss my request out of hand I want you to consider what practical plans have others offered???
Although outrageous, your pro-active action in going to Ireland will only serve as a constant reminder of the pioneering spirit of Belle Gardner lives on through her museum and the staff who work there.
Furthermore, In my opinion FBI Agent Robert Wittman is "Straight as a gun barrel" and would be the best person to liaise with in your future dealings about the Gardner theft.
I am not acquainted with Geoff Kelly but Harold Smith described Bob Wittman as "One of the finest FBI Agents I have come across"
Sure, pass this to Bob Wittman and ask him about FBI Agent Michael Wilson, his assessment of the Vermeer being in the control of Tom Slab Murphy, and his thoughts on you "Taking the Bull by the horns"
Before making a decision on what your course of action will be, go to the Sergeant portrait and pause, ask yourself what Belle Gardner would advise you to do, then, in the words of Nike, "Just do it"
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