Stolen Art Watch, Picasso's From Sprengel Museum, Ransom Demand Paid In Serbia

Stolen Picasso back - there was a ransom?

The distinguished gentleman from the - kind, especially British and discreet in every way: "I can not make any comment at the moment," says Richard Ellis, at the moment there are no comments on anything. The art detective, acting on behalf of Axa Insurance, in which the two Picassos were insured from Hanover, made the images found and threaded a deal that will bring the paintings in the foreseeable future according to his native Hanover, Sprengel Museum.


Hanover. The pictures had appeared in Serbia, there is, from the Swiss prosecutor's office. "They are safe," said the Swiss prosecutor Charles Fässler. Made possible that has a "private person investigation." Here too, nothing concrete. For example, whether the perpetrators are caught? They work reliably with the Serbian authorities. Serbian newspapers have reported that the works of art at least, not yet in possession of the Serbian police.

All hold very cloudy. Also on whether a ransom has been shed. 2008, the two paintings, "Tete de cheval" were (, horse head ') and "Verre et Pichet" (glass and pitcher ") - stolen - the pictures are great with no frame 73 by 60 centimeters and 35.2 centimeters 27.2 times been (see info below). That they appear only after three and a half years already, is in similar plastic screws rather unusual.

It is possible then the following sequence. The robbers turn perhaps only to the insurance company: you have the pictures, and compensation for some risk they were willing, the two Picassos out back. Actually, the insurance company would have an interest because, for example, would pay a million euro and thus would not get back the insurance money of 4.8 million francs (then three million euros). This is not so simple - it rejects the suggestion that they would not cooperate with criminals finally. And gives the art detective Richard "Dick" Ellis, who is charged with the replacement, the tip, the investigation could just take towards Serbia. If that is not already got it.

One can imagine how the other procedures in a thriller. Secret meetings in lobbies of luxury hotels, secret negotiations, adventurous hiding places where they can be convinced of the authenticity of the images.

Who is Dick Ellis?

Dick Ellis then tries, he is as a tough negotiator, to a reasonable sum. The insurance pays about the detective, the images go back to the museum, and the millions flow back to the insurance company - from then is a reasonable commission to the broker.

Who is this Dick Ellis, who was instrumental in the replacement of the pictures? The Briton is part of a group of specialists that are hidden behind the innocuous name of "Art Management Group." Which is based in London operating worldwide in terms of security and art theft of works of art and also deals with issues of conservation and research of art forgeries. Dick Ellis is here in the department "Security and Risk Management", he is the "specialist art crime investigator", so to take care of crimes that are happening around the art.

His career began at the Metropolitan Police classic, from 1989 he worked in the legendary "Art & Antiques Squad" by Scotland Yard, then he changed to the auction house Christie's and headed here, the security department. Since 2005 he has been at the "Art Management Group." The Sherlock Holmes in the art of investigators was involved in the recovery of Edvard Munch's "The Scream", the priceless picture had been stolen in 1994 from the National Gallery of Norway.

In general, Dick Ellis, in charge of replacement, not with the determination of the perpetrator. What is probably in this case, at the Picasso, happened.

traced Picasso's in Serbia!

Hanover - They were among the most valuable exhibits from the Sprengel Museum in Hanover. The Picasso painting "Tete de cheval" and "Verre et Pichet" (worth approximately € 4 million). After a spectacular art robbery , they were missing more than three years without a trace. Now the sensation: the paintings are back!

They were seized last week in Serbia - aufgespcürt by a detective!

The Sprengel Museum had to leave the paintings to the lake dam in the Swiss canton of Schwyz Pfäffikon culture - as a loan to a Picasso exhibition.

In February 2008 a gang broke into the museum, captured the priceless paintings from Hanover. Since then, art experts were searching all over Europe.

Now the decisive tip came from a "private person investigation," the Chief Prosecutor Charles Schwyzer Fässler.

It is thought to be the former Scotland Yard detective Richard "Dick" Ellis, in the scene as "James Bond of the art investigation" called: He has already dug whole gangs of thieves.

Apparently he felt the Picassos in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Sprengel Museum Director Professor Ulrich Krempel told BILD: "We are enormously pleased. I had never given up hope, always said that we get it back. "

On the bonds is not known, arrests are not supposed to have been.

Carding: "At a commissioned work for a millionaire I do not think so. Criminals often try to extort a ransom from the insurance company or to use images as collateral in drug deals. "

The insurance had paid the money for the Hannover after Picasso. Clutter: "We have created it, pay it back."

When the Picasso back in the Sprengel Museum hanging is still unclear. Clutter: "The paintings should be in good condition, but must first return to Switzerland, because they were robbed there."

Art Hostage Comments:

In 2010 Dick Ellis travelled to Serbia and was told by authorities and representatives of those holding the two Picasso's from the Sprengel Museum they would not be released without payments made to those holding the Picasso's as well as pay offs for some Serbian Police and Officials as well.

With this ringing in the ears of Dick Ellis he came back to the UK with his tail firmly between his legs. Dick Ellis made it clear he would be able to make any kind of recovery in Serbia or Montenegro and would not be forced to recommend any payments at all to anyone at all.

This year however, 2011,Dick Ellis had a change of heart and negotiations commenced with the current outcome of payments made in the same manner which saw over $5 million paid to criminals in the Turner recovery.

Will be interesting to see how Dick Ellis deals with the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act which could have been breached by Dick Ellis, even though the Picasso recovery was made in Serbia.

Dick Ellis may have broken UK Money Laundering laws if he accepts monies for his dealings in Serbia.

To be continued........................

Stolen Art Watch, Musée d'Art Moderne Paris Art Heist, Destroyed Or Bargining Chip

Picasso or Bust !!
If this turns out to BE one of my true continuous HAS Fears Become Reality!
This really throws a quite different light on All Those theories - unfounded
theories - that 'Organized Crime' is Responsible for this theft!
The paintings stolen from the Modern Art Museum were destroyed, according to Man of suspected stolen goods

What happened to the paintings by masters stolen in May 2010 to
Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris? Concealed, sold, or destroyed?
One of three suspects indicted in September claimed to have thrown the
paintings, including a Picasso and Modigliani, estimated at 100 million euros,
in the trash for disposal.

The five paintings were stolen on the night of 19 to 20 May 2010 without
the alarm system is triggered Museum.

In mid-September 2011, three men were arrested by the Brigade
Punishment of the crime (BRB) and indicted by a judge
Paris before being jailed in connection with this investigation.

The first, known as spider-man, is presented as the thief of
paintings. The second, a former Parisian antique dealer, denies that the
Sponsor of the flight. The third, who entrusted the paintings,
he claims to have destroyed in spring 2011.

Last May, the three men were arrested as part of a
another case of stolen paintings. If the first two were placed in
remand, the third, an expert on watches, had emerged
Free in custody.

After his arrest in September, he explained to investigators
have panicked after his detention and the detention of his friend
antiquarian. And said he had decided to get rid of paintings by
throwing it away.

If the story is true, five paintings of the greatest painters of the twentieth century
have therefore taken the path of a dumpster. However,
Investigations are continuing to verify the assertions of this
person. Indeed, the paintings could still be hidden pending
to be passed, according to a judicial source.

These five works are "Still life with candle holders" by Fernand Léger, "The
Pigeon Pea "by Pablo Picasso," La Pastorale "by Henri Matisse
"L'Olivier near Estaque" by Georges Braque, "The Woman with a Fan"
Amedeo Modigliani.

The alleged perpetrator of this spectacular flight says the former antique dealer himself
would have required the museum to steal a painting by Fernand Leger, for which
he would have been a potential buyer. That refutes the merchant who,
contrary, says that the thief he was offered the market.

To the investigators, "the man-spider" explains that he found in
the second marking the museum claimed that the painting was hung over
located at the place, but that was in its place another canvas
Cubist painter, "Still Life with chandeliers." But the operation is
maintained.

Once inside the museum, no alarm goes off, he won
four tables specifying the police that his evening stroll in
the walls of the museum lasted nearly two hours.

Just after this flight, the mayor of Paris had recognized a
malfunctioning part of the alarm system volume. Still, the
museum was equipped with a video-surveillance system, connected to a PC
where three security officers on duty did not see the thief who
appeared on the video images.

The five paintings will be donated to the former antiques dealer who, a few days
Later, confided to him who now claims to have destroyed.

Neither the lawyer of the latter, Toby or Me Caroline's advice
the former antique dealer and suspected thief, Laurent Binet and my David-Olivier
Kaminski, have sought to respond to questions from The Associated Press.

"The mayor of Paris forms the vows that the tables are found," he
said for his part counsel for the City of Paris, William Bourdon
recalling "the requirement of secrecy" prevailing in this type of file.

£100m masterpieces stolen from French museum 'crushed by rubbish truck'

Five stolen paintings including a Matisse, a Picasso and a Modigliani worth almost £100 million ended up in a street dustbin and were likely crushed by a rubbish truck, a suspect has reportedly told police.

Paris authorities and art lovers around the globe were appalled in May last year when a lone, hooded burglar managed to climb into the capital's Musée d'Art Moderne opposite the Eiffel Tower and help himself to the five celebrated oeuvres, which he cut from their frames and rolled up.

Thanks to a faulty alarm system and the doziness of three guards, he quietly made off with Dove with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso (painted in 1911), Pastoral by Henri Matisse (1906), Olive Tree near l'Estaque by Georges Braque (1906), Woman with Fan by Amedeo Modigliani (1919) and Still Life with Candlestick by Fernand Leger (1922).

The Art Loss Registry in London called the Pink Panther-style robbery "one of the biggest art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum".

Paris city hall put the total value of the haul at 100 million euros but some experts said they were worth twice that.

It took officers from the Serious Crime Brigade more than a year before placing three men - the alleged thief and two accomplices - under official investigation.

According to police sources cited by Le Journal du Dimanche, one of the alleged accomplices, a 34-year-old watch repairer known only as Jonathan B, told detectives that when the other two men were arrested in May, he "panicked and destroyed the canvasses before throwing them into a rubbish bin".

Detectives said that while they remained sceptical about his account, they could not "totally rule out" this catastrophic scenario. The destruction of such landmark masterpieces would be a major blow to international art heritage.

The first to be arrested was a Serb known only as Vrejan T, 43, nicknamed "Spiderman" and who was detained days after last year's heist over a separate art theft from a chic Paris apartment.

Under questioning, the suspect reportedly recounted how he loosened screws in a window at the Art Deco Palais de Tokyo housing the museum, returned a few nights later to remove the frame and sliced through a padlock on an iron grille.

He had initially gone there only to steal a Léger work to order, he said, but once inside, was "surprised" when the burglary alarm failed to sound.

Being a "veritable art lover," the Serb told police he then wandered around for another hour, eluding 30 closed circuit cameras to cherry pick four other masterpieces. "He found the Modigliani the most beautiful of all," a judicial source told the JDD.

Vrejan T reportedly told investigators he had stolen the Léger for Jean-Michel C, 56, an antiques dealer with a shop called Antiquités Bastille. He was arrested in May for selling other stolen art works.

Detectives told le JDD the Serb gave them his name as he never received the 40,000 euros promised for the Léger.

The antiques dealer denied his claims, and said the Serb left the works at his boutique without his consent. He said he then passed them onto the younger watchmaker, a recognised expert used by auction houses. He told police Jonathan B had mentioned potential Israeli buyers.

But the watchmaker told police he simply dumped the priceless works in a dustbin.

French art museums have come in for criticism in recent years after a spate of brazen robberies. Months before the modern art raid, a thief walked out of a gallery in Marseilles with Degas' The Chorus under his coat.

The FBI estimates the market for stolen art at £3 billion annually and Interpol has about 30,000 pieces of stolen art in its database.

Five masterpieces stolen from Paris museum in 'art heist of the century' could have been crushed in rubbish truck

Five world-famous paintings including ones by Picasso and Matisse worth up to £400million were crushed in a rubbish truck after being stolen, it has been claimed.

The masterpieces were all part of record-breaking haul from one of Paris's most prestigious galleries which was described by police as the 'Art Heist of the Century'.

If the claims - made by an underworld figure allegedly involved in the crime - prove true, then it will be one of the biggest catastrophes in the history of art.

In May last year a single 'cat-burglar' broke into the city's Museum of Modern Art, close to the Eiffel Tower, and got away with five pieces after cutting them from their frames.

Sleeping guards and a faulty alarm system failed to stop the hooded man as he made off with Dove with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso (1911), Pastoral by Henri Matisse (1906), Olive Tree near l'Estaque by Georges Braque (1906), Woman with Fan by Amedeo Modigliani (1919) and Still Life with Candlestick by Fernand Leger (1922).

The raid immediately leapt into crime folklore, with specialist police forces and private detective firms around the globe uniting to try and retrieve the paintings.

It took officers from the Serious Crime Brigade more than a year before placing three men - the alleged thief and two accomplices - under official investigation, but all the paintings remain missing.

Two unnamed men were finally arrested five months ago but, as soon as this happened, a third tried to destroy the evidence.

Identified as Jonathan B, a 34-year-old watch repairer, he told detectives that he 'panicked and destroyed the canvasses before throwing them into a rubbish bin.'

They then ended up in a crushing lorry and were destroyed beyond recognition, he claimed.

The first man to be arrested in May was a 43-year-old Serb 'art lover' known only as Vrejan T.

Nicknamed 'Spiderman', he was being held in connection with another art theft from a private flat in Paris.

Vrejan T. has already described in great detail how he got into the Modern Art Museum, which is housed in the Tokyo Palace in Paris, by loosening screws to a window during the day, and then returning late at night to get in.

Carrying tools to break padlocks and iron grille, he initially intended to steal a single Leger, but was pleasantly surprised when the burglar alarm did not go off.

For up to an hour, Vrejan T. managed to evade 30 CCTV cameras, while helping himself to his favourite works.

'He found the Modigliani the most beautiful of all,' a judicial source told the Journal Du Dimanche newspaper in Paris.

The third man in custody is Jean-Michel C., a 56-year-old Paris art dealer, who is said to have tried to sell other stolen works.

In an apparent classic example of the way criminals end up turning on each other, Vrejan T. is said to have reported Jean-Michel C. after he failed to receive some £36,000 for the Leger.

Police said they remained wary of the men's claims, but confirmed that they could 'not completely rule them out.'

The Museum of Modern Art has been a Paris landmark since it opened in 1961, and was considered one of the most secure in Europe.

Until the raid last May, the biggest unsolved art theft was one on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990.

Then, thieves disguised as police talked their way into the museum before handcuffing security guards and stealing 13 works of art valued at over $500 million.

The paintings have never been found.

Stolen Art Watch, Hot Art Grabs Art World By The Testicles, Squeezes Gently !!

Hot Art by Joshua Knelman

http://www.toronto.com/article/700064--hot-art-by-joshua-knelman

Out of work? Need some cash? You might want to think about boosting that valuable-looking piece of art you saw in your neighbour’s living room. Not that I approve of such a thing, but according to Toronto writer Joshua Knelman’s fascinating and gripping new book, Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives through the Secret World of Stolen Art, it’s quite likely you’ll get away with it.

You’d have to unload it, of course, to someone who knows the market. They’re the ones who will get it to the right people — seemingly respectable types who will pay top dollar without asking many, if any, questions. You’ll get paid immediately, but it will end up being a fraction of the top money, a sum which will likely be doled out months or years after you’ve lifted it, possibly with the bang of a gavel at an auction house. By then, the theft will be long forgotten, which is how an unwitting Steven Spielberg ended up hanging a stolen Norman Rockwell painting in his Beverly Hills mansion.

This is the sad theme that permeates Hot Art. As Knelman makes remarkably clear, the business of art is neither regulated nor particularly respectable. One detective he spoke to called it “one of the most corrupt, dirtiest industries on the planet,” which is a bit hyperbolic, but not far off. And the proof is in the book.

Knelman, an award-winning Toronto writer with a literary pedigree — his father Martin writes for this newspaper — is a very engaging storyteller and seems to have turned over every rock in his quest to make sense of the nonsensical business that is the art world. (The chapters covering the wit and wisdom of Paul, a reformed art thief from England, are particularly captivating.)

How nonsensical is it? The notion of documenting transactions that involve thousands, even millions of dollars, seems to elude those doing the transacting. This, naturally, throws legal ownership into question, an astonishing fact for a multi-billion dollar international industry. “You wouldn’t sell a $5-million plane without a document, would you?” the head of the FBI’s Art Crime Team says. “With art there is no document.”

Secrecy and handshakes are the grease that lubricates the rails that move art, both legally and illegally. When a museum is burglarized those in charge often won’t report it. Not only is it too embarrassing, it’s also not “conducive to their relationships with collectors and donors.” Needless to say, it’s hard to find works of art if you don’t know they’re missing. Actually, it’s hard to find them even if you do know they’re missing.

Not many resources have been poured into combating art theft, which overwhelmingly involves works that are not world famous and easily fly under the radar, contrary to the image the dashing Pierce Brosnan gives in The Thomas Crown Affair, which, according to Knelman, is as misleading a film about art theft you’ll find. (For one thing, thieves are much more proletariat.)

In Canada, for the longest time, there was only one dedicated art detective, Alain Lacoursière of the Sûreté du Québec. (He retired in 2008, but was succeeded by three full-time art investigators, though they only work in Quebec.) So recovery rates tended to be quite low and still are.

In the U.S. it’s thought to be anywhere from below five per cent to nine per cent. In Quebec, whose black market is estimated at about $20-million annually, it’s in the neighbourhood of 15 per cent. But the art capital of Canada is Toronto, and it has no dedicated art theft unit, nor are there any dollar estimates of how big its black market is.

More resources have been put into recovering stolen works of art, but Knelman says the bad guys are still winning, despite important tools such as the Art Loss Register and other databases. (As of May 2011, 659 Picassos, 397 Mirós, 347 Chagalls, 313 Dalís, 216 Warhols, and 199 Rembrandts were listed by the ALR as either missing or stolen.)

Still, the question must be asked: Does any of this matter? Knelman touches on this issue here and there and obviously he feels it does. For most people, those who don’t marvel at Monet’s moody interiors or Rembrandt’s bold strokes, it’s hard to know how any of this has any meaning. Obviously, looting something like the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad is an ugly travesty. But does the lifting of a Group of Seven painting from Sir-Lots-of-Money’s foyer affect anyone but Sir-Lots-of-Money? Should more resources be put into finding stolen pieces of art or so-called real criminals? For me, I’d rather keep things the way they are. It makes for fabulous reading.

James Macgowan is a freelance writer.

Stolen Art Watch, Picasso's From Sprengel Museum Recovered In Serbia

The Picasso painting Tete de cheval went missing in 2008 from a Swiss gallery. Swiss authorities say it has been recovered in Serbia. Swiss Police/Associated Press

Stolen Picassos recovered in Serbia

Two stolen Pablo Picasso paintings worth millions of dollars have been found in Serbia, Swiss broadcaster SF said citing a Swiss prosecutor.

The works, Tête de cheval (Head of a Horse), created by Picasso in 1962 and Verre et pichet (Glass and Pitcher), painted in 1944, were stolen from an exhibition in the town of Pfaeffikon, near Zurich, in February 2008. The paintings were on loan from the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany, at the time of the theft.

“I can tell you with pride and joy that after three-and-a-half years of investigative work we have located both stolen Picasso paintings,” Schwyz cantonal prosecutor Charles Faessler told SF on Friday.

Faessler said that Switzerland had officially requested Serbia to return the paintings, which had been found intact in a safe location.

However, he provided no information on the exact location of the paintings or possible suspects in the theft.

The Sprengel Museum has promised a reward for the recovery of the paintings.

Stolen Picasso Paintings Found

Swiss broadcaster SF is reporting that two stolen Pablo Picasso paintings worth millions of dollars have been found in Serbia.

SF cites a Swiss prosecutor saying the oil paintings, stolen three years ago, are in a safe location.

In a program aired Friday, prosecutor Charles Faessler told said that Switzerland has submitted a request to Serbia for the paintings to be returned.

He provided no information on the exact location of the paintings or possible suspects in the theft.

The works, Tête de cheval (Head of horse), created by Picasso in 1962 and Verre et pichet (Glass and pitcher), painted in 1944, were stolen from an exhibition in the small town of Pfaeffikon, near Zurich, in February 2008.

They had been loaned there by the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany.

Art Hostage Comments:

Serbian Police do not have the Picasso's yet. They are still being held in a secure location, but a deal of sorts has already been done. Time will tell if all parties have kept to their respective word.

Over the summer Art Hostage was well aware of this activity in Serbia.

Stolen Art Watch, Joshua Knelman Lifts Verneer Of Art Crime, Vermeer !!

Steal locally, sell globally

Joshua Knelman paints a vivid canvas of the art world’s dirty secrets in Hot Art

In his new book Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art, Toronto journalist Joshua Knelman writes that one Canadian city in particular occupies a place of distinction in the art crime world. Guess which one.

Bingo. Knelman says that, thanks to our ports, proximity to the world’s biggest art market in New York City, cultural connections to Europe and sophisticated organized crime network, Montreal is among the most important transit points for stolen art. “I found [the link between stolen art and the Hells Angels] surprising, and so did the SQ,” says the author from his Toronto home. “With most of the detectives I spoke to [in Montreal], organized crime didn’t come up. A delicate link was made, but that was something new. It was an interesting little window into how a billion-dollar market can be exploited.”

But Montreal, he points out, is also home to one of only two local police forces on the continent, in our case the SQ, with a dedicated art theft squad. The LAPD is the other.

In Knelman’s fun, fast-paced book, the city is just one stop a stolen piece of art can make on its way along shadowy, circuitous trips from victim to thief to middleman to dealer to end buyer. The journey can span thousands of miles, entire oceans and who knows how many borders. And usually, once a piece is gone, it’s gone forever. Until it reappears on the market, somewhere, somehow.

“One of the things I wanted to make abundantly clear in the book is, this is an epic game of hide and seek,” says the author from his Toronto home. “And there’s no doubt in my mind that the thieves are winning. It can take years, a generation, for these items to come up again.”

There are several contributing factors that make art theft both lucrative and fairly easy, Knelman writes. First and foremost is a lack of police resources. While a small number of police forces worldwide, and Interpol, have art crime units, they are usually underfunded and working in isolation. There is little communication among them, and, although he writes that the situation is changing, this accounts for the meager recovery rate, estimated at between five and 15 per cent. Second, the difficulty in tracking lost pieces. Even if a piece is reported stolen, it can be extremely difficult for anyone, including a cop, to follow the paper trail leading back to the original thief, thanks to the unregulated art market.

And third is the reticence of victims themselves to report the work stolen. Galleries fear their reputations will be damaged, and private individuals don’t want the embarrassment. It’s a vicious circle, and one that Knelman does an admirable job explaining—even if his conclusion is disheartening. “There’s a fully globalized black market for art,” he says. A stolen work “can go from local to global in a heartbeat.”

He describes his book in part as a coming-of-age story, following as it does two sides of the same coin. One is LAPD detective Donald Hrycyk, whose steep learning curve into the wild world of art is as dizzying as it is dense; the other is Paul Hendry/Walsh/Turbo Paul/Turbocharger, a retired English middleman dealing in stolen art. Their stories of how they entered their respective fields, how they navigated their sudden educations and the detailed explanations of their jobs make the backbone of the book. And veering as it does between Washington DC, New York, Philadel­phia, Cairo, Brighton and London made writing it, says Knelman, “the adventure of a lifetime.”

Stolen Art Watch, Art Related Crime In The Hood

Surveillance video released by the police of a home-invasion robbery on East 51st Street

A Gun, ‘Don’t Look at My Face,’ and Then They Hit the Safe

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/a-gun-dont-look-at-my-face-and-then-they-hit-the-safe/

Before he could react, George Bardwil had a gun pointed in his face.

It was Monday afternoon when Mr. Bardwil, a linen manufacturer, answered a call at his garden apartment on East 51st Street in Manhattan and was confronted by two robbers — one armed with a black semiautomatic handgun.

The gunman said, “ ‘Don’t look at my face,’ ” said Mr. Bardwil, 59, who is semiretired from his decades-old family-run business, Bardwil Industries, which makes tables linens, place mats, napkins and bath towels.

The robbers pushed their way into the first-floor residence in the five-story brownstone between Second and First Avenues in Turtle Bay, next door to the Laotian mission to the United Nations. They used twine and phone cords to bind the hands of Mr. Bardwil and two friends who were visiting and stole their wallets, cellphones and watches, according to Mr. Bardwil and the police.

Then, as the armed man stood guard over the victims, in the living room, the second robber paused, put black gloves on his hands and made his way to a safe in the bedroom. His movements were tracked by one of 15 security cameras Mr. Bardwil said he had installed in his house several months ago.

A housekeeper came into the apartment while the home invasion was in progress, said Mr. Bardwil. The armed assailant rushed her, threw his hand over her mouth and pushed her to the floor of the living room along with the other victims, he said.

The whole ordeal took less than five minutes, Mr. Bardwil said on Tuesday.

When the criminals left, Mr. Bardwil and the others wriggled out of their binds and called the police. Mr. Bardwil looked in the safe. He said the men had taken several watches worth $50,000 to $100,000 each, including a diamond-encrusted Louis Vuitton watch; paper money from the 1920s worth about $20,000; and antique jewelry, including an Art Deco diamond bracelet given to him by his grandmother.

Mr. Bardwil said there were signs the robbers knew what they were doing: they were able to slip into the building’s vestibule undetected; they seemed to know precisely where the safe was; and they knew where to find the controls for the surveillance cameras, which one of them disabled. People with information about the robbers are asked to contact the Police Department’s Crime Stoppers unit.

Mr. Bardwil said he was not sure if he had left the safe open or if the robber cracked it or knew the combination.

He could not immediately place a monetary value of the items taken, but he was in the process of putting together a list for detectives on Tuesday.

In retrospect, Mr. Bardwil said, things could have been worse.

“Nobody was hurt,” he said. “It’s just a bunch of junk as far as I’m concerned.”

Police: Man turned self in over artwork theft

An Oyster Bay man apparently listened to his conscience -- and called 911 Tuesday to say he wanted to turn himself in for stealing about $100,000 worth of art from his landlord, police said.

Nassau County police said James Watt, 51, made the call from Theodore Roosevelt Park and told them he had sold the items he said he'd stolen from the 58-year-old woman.
More to follow.....................

Whatever prompted him to do it, Nassau Police say 51-year-old James Watt of Oyster Bay called 911 to turn himself in.

“He does like his landlord. He felt very bad. He had been doing apparently well, then relapsed,” police Lt. William Carrey told WCBS 880 reporter Sophia Hall.

Police say Watt told them he stole a number of pieces of art from his landlord, including statues and paintings. The artworks were worth approximately $100,000.

Police say Watt sold the stolen art to Coin Galleries of Oyster Bay. There’s no word on how much he sold them for.

Watt faces grand larceny charges. He’s being arraigned today.

Art Hostage Comments:

As Art Related crime is reported more in the media it can become a self fulfilling prophecy and feed off itself.

When times are hard and workers that are lucky enough to have a job in the domestic industry cannot make ends meet, then the criminal underworld step in to get intelligence about the wealthy employers of such hired help.

Criminals are now realising that retail premises are protected with security and CCTV etc and the odds of getting caught is becoming greater, even if the initial theft is successful. So now thieves are turning their attention to the private residences of people who may have valuable art and antiques in their home.

First, less security in private homes, less cataloging of art an antiques in private homes, and also private art and antiques theft is a property crime which authorities do not devote diminishing resources to.

Stolen Art Watch, Brighton Knocker Boy Lee "Groundhog Day" Collins Arrested, Again & Again

A Notorious Brighton Antiques Dealer
is accused of three thefts.  

Lee Collins, 44, from Brighton, has been charged with stealing valuables from three homes in London earlier this year. He is accused of stealing items from two homes in June and another between March and April. Collins, of The Heights, off Dyke Road Avenue, will appear at Brent Magistrates’ Court on Friday, October 14.

Art Hostage Comments:

Mr Collins is accused of taking Silver candelabra and a diamond engagement ring from one home, and jewellery from another, in Stanmore in June. He is also accused of taking a George Braque print from a home in The Grove, Highgate, between March and April.

Lee "Groundhog Day" Collins History

Bogus antiques dealer conned elderly woman

A dodgy antiques dealer talked his way into an elderly woman's home and stole her treasured jewellery.
Josephine Cutcliffe had a necklace and earrings set swiped by smooth-talking Lee Collins.

The jewellery had been handed down through the family from Mrs Cutcliffe's grandmother and she intended to pass it on to her grandchildren.

Collins is now facing a prison sentence after a jury at Portsmouth Crown Court found him guilty of theft.

Collins had called at the 88-year-old's home in Havelock Road, Warsash, unannounced, asking if she had any old books to give away.
Thinking he was from the local bookshop she invited him.
Once inside he asked if she had any old jewellery. Mrs Cutcliffe, who was in the army during the war, agreed to let him have some broken bits and pieces.
But when her back was turned Collins helped himself to the jewellery she had refused to sell.

She has never got them back. Mrs Cutcliffe said: 'I loved those things and I would never have sold them.
Now they're gone.

'He was a very ordinary, respectable looking man but I can't believe how stupid I was, I feel a fool. 'The police said he was a low-life and I can think of some other words for him.'

Collins had advertised himself as Westdene Galleries, based in Sussex, and hired a company to provide him with a London telephone number. In truth his outfit was a one-man band run from his home in Brighton, and he had previous convictions for theft and burglary.

In 2008 he stole a barometer from 79-year-old Jennifer Fennel after visiting her home, claiming to be an antiques dealer called Mr Roberts. He was on bail for that offence when he stole from Mrs Cutcliffe in February last year. Collins, 43, of Dyke Road Avenue, Brighton, had denied stealing the necklace and earrings, claiming the pensioner had sold them to him.

He said he had been an antiques dealer for 20 years and claimed Mrs Cutcliffe was confused. 'I may be elderly but I'm not confused,' she said. 'Having to go to court was hard. 'I felt like I was on trial and I couldn't believe what an ordeal it was but now I feel it was worthwhile.'

Releasing Collins on bail to be sentenced on April 30 Judge Peter Henry said: 'I make it clear that I want the probation service to look at all options and it may well be that there will be a custodial sentence as a result of this conviction.'
Lee Colins was jailed for Ten Months on April 30th 2010

HISTORY OF OFFENDING
Judge Peter Henry took the step of allowing the jury to hear about one of Lee Collins' previous convictions. They were told how he had stolen from Jennifer Fennel, 79, after claiming to be an antiques dealer called Mr Roberts.

But the jury did not find out until after the trial that Collins had also been convicted of four burglaries and two charges of making off without payment.

After the verdict PC Salena Bishop, from the Fareham and Gosport priority crime team, said: 'This victim was a vulnerable elderly lady. She found giving evidence quite an ordeal and hopefully this will make it all worthwhile.'

Stolen Art Watch, Hot Art, The Official Art Related Crime Bible !!

Catalogued, admired and stolen

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/hot-art-by-joshua-knelman/article2186394/

An art thief named Paul (no last name, yet) provided Joshua Knelman with an overview of art theft during a three-year period beginning in early 2008 in Brighton, England. Paul’s thieving ways present a knowledgeable link to this shadowy subject that Knelman relates in the thief’s deadpan, quirky Brit humour spiked occasionally with crude street talk.

Paul learned his trade as a teenager in Brighton from “knockers.” Born poor in England’s vacation spot of the wealthy, he had only one chance to live like them, and that was to steal from them. Hence he “joined the fraternity of knockers,” petty thieves who knock on doors offering a pound or two for granny’s old glass beads, or a thief may con his way inside and snag a painting off the wall. He then scurries off to one of the numerous antique dealers on Brighton’s famous Lanes where a dealer buys the stolen loot and sells it to an unsuspecting collector.

Soon Paul was paying knockers to steal for him, which after 15 years ranked him as a “major handler of millions of dollars of stolen art and antiquities.”

In 2008, the art world was rocked by two spectacular heists, both in Switzerland, five days apart. On Feb. 6, two Pablo Picasso paintings valued at $10-million were stolen from a small Swiss art gallery. And on Feb. 11, a famous Impressionist museum in Zurich was hit by armed thieves who stormed off with four major works by Cezanne, Degas, Monet and Van Gogh.

Whether art is stolen by petty thugs or armed professionals, the cycle is consistent. The thief steals a painting, fences it to a dealer who sells it, and with that transaction the case goes cold. A stolen $6,000 Rolex watch is traceable, but a million-dollar painting is not; it has no serial number. One of the world’s most famous stolen works of art, a priceless Vermeer taken from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990, is still missing.

Knelman asked Paul if he had ever “stolen any famous paintings from a museum.” Paul laughed. “Do you think I’m a … moron?” The big stuff is what he called “headache art,” because it gives everyone involved a headache. It is easy to steal, but hard to unload. Paul dealt in the $10,000 art range, which does not attract attention from the police or the media.

In the 1980s, stolen art grew to an estimated $4-billion to $6-billion, the fourth-largest black market in the world after drugs, money laundering and weapons, according to Interpol and UNESCO. The Art Loss Register, founded in London in the 1990s, lists more than 100,000 works of stolen art. Only 2 per cent have been recovered. In 2001, the register listed as missing or stolen 659 Picassos, 397 Miros, 347 Chagalls, 313 Salvador Dalis, 216 Warhols and 199 Rembrandts. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Stolen Art File is small by comparison, with only 6,500 listings.

Toronto lawyer Bonnie Czegledi became one of the early investigators into stolen art. In 2006, she said, “There are only a handful of detectives who have the experience to investigate art theft properly.” Yet countries worldwide were being looted of their art for markets in New York and London. FBI agent Robert K. Whitman estimated that art market in New York alone is worth an estimated $200-billion annually. “That’s everything – antique markets, art fairs, auction house revenue, gallery sales.” And he added, “That market is totally unregulated.”

Organized crime has entered the lucrative field of stolen art. Knelman covers Montreal’s Hells Angels’ involvement with stolen art in the style of a detective novel. He is at his best reporting work done by the FBI, Interpol, Scotland Yard, the RCMP and U.S. and Canadian city police forces in their efforts to recover stolen art. Too often, however, Knelman assumes a novelistic tone in which extraneous detail slows the pace. And, periodically, his narrative takes on the thug vernacular, which undermines his authority.

Disappointing for me, Knelman gives short shrift to historic stolen art and wartime plunder. There is nothing about a notorious shipment of looted treasures from Cuba that came to Toronto after the Cuban revolution. And, significantly, nothing about art that goes missing, lost or stolen when left with an art dealer, auction house or art patron at the time of the artist’s death.

A final note. Knelman lost contact for a time with Paul, a.k.a. Paul Walsh and Paul Hendry. Sure enough, he had been nicked. Knelman last saw him when he was on parole, writing a blog, cracking jokes, driving a Mercedes – not too inconvenienced by his electronic anklet.

Stolen Art Watch, Paris Musee d'Art Moderne Raid, Arrests Not Recovery, Yet !!

Woman held for $130 million Paris art haul

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20111001-302649.html

PARIS - Three people are being held in connection with the theft of paintings worth at least 100 million US dollars (S$130 million) from a Paris gallery last year, but the works are still missing, a legal official said Saturday.

The three, a woman suspected of taking part in the theft and two people suspected of handling stolen goods, were arrested and charged over the robbery of the five paintings, by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger and Amedeo Modigliani, and placed in custody on September 16, the official said.

A lone burglar sheared off a gate padlock and broke a window to get into the city-run Musee d'Art Moderne in the brazen operation during the night of May 19 last year.

The paintings were found to be missing just as the museum, a major tourist attraction near the Eiffel Tower, was about to open.

Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe later said one of the museum's alarms had been "partly malfunctioning" since the end of March, and that it was still awaiting repair when the thieves struck.

The stolen Picasso alone - the cubist "Dove with Green Peas," which the Spanish artist created in 1912 - is worth some 25 million euros (S$44 million), according to the mayor's deputy for culture, Christophe Girard.

The others were French contemporary Matisse's "Pastoral" from 1905, Braque's "Olive Tree near Estaque", Modigliani's "Woman with a Fan" and Leger's "Still Life with Candlestick".

City hall put the total value of the haul at 100 million euros, but some experts said they were worth twice that, while admitting they were totally unsaleable openly. Girard said the thief managed to slip past three nightwatchmen on duty.

"To get into the museum so fast by disassembling a window, choose five specific works and then slip out unnoticed by the guards, that is quite impressive," he said.

Three men investigated over $130-million French art heist

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Three+investigated+over+million+French+heist/5488710/story.html#ixzz1ZYUjiY53

Three men are being formally investigated over the theft of five famous paintings by artists including Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse from a French museum, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Saturday, in a heist worth $130 million.

The artworks, stolen from Paris’s Museum of Modern Art 18 months ago after the alarm system failed to trigger, have still not been recovered, said an official from the prosecutor’s office.

Picasso’s cubist Dove With Green Peas, one of the snatched paintings, was worth $28 million, according to estimates given by the museum at the time of the heist.

The other paintings included Matisse’s Pastorale, Georges Braque’s Olive Tree Near l’Estaque, Amedeo Modigliani’s Woman on the Range and Fernand Leger’s Still Life With Candlesticks.

The three men were arrested on Sept. 16 and will be detained in jail pending the formal investigation. One of the men is suspected of taking part in the theft and the other two of handling the stolen goods.

A special unit of the interior ministry, the BRB, is in charge of the investigation.

Art Hostage Comments:

BRB knew who was involved and one of those arrested has revealed they handled the Paris paintings and held them for a short time post theft.

Also, it transpires one of those arrested has said they acted on orders from **** who I won't name at this stage.

The inside info was the key to the Paris theft and as Art Hostage said at the time, the South Suburbs of Paris was a key factor as well.