Stolen Art Watch, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Art Related Crime Continues Un-abated

 

 

Edgar Degas's 'Dancer adjusting her shoe'

Police believe stolen Degas has not left Cyprus

By Constantinos Psillides
SERGEI Tyulenev, the 55-year-old Russian suspected of involvement in the theft of a €6 million Edgar Degas picture, was remanded for eight days in custody on Monday by the Limassol District Court.
Police sources told the Cyprus Mail that the 55-year-old remains uncooperative with police investigators.
“He doesn’t answer any question pertaining to the case. He only responds to general questions,” said the source, adding that investigators think that the painting hasn’t left the island.
“Smuggling a painting out of the country is no easy feat. Since we almost apprehended all people apparently involved almost immediately, we think that the painting is still in Cyprus,” explained the police source.
The Russian surrendered himself to the police voluntarily. He walked into Paphos police station on Sunday where he was arrested and transferred to the Limassol Police Station.
Two Cypriot men, 53 and 44, are also in custody regarding the case.
The artwork is believed to be Degas’ pastel on paper, titled Dancer Adjusting Her Shoe, approximately 47cm by 61cm in size and dated late 19th century.
The picture was reported stolen by a 70-year-old art collector last week. The work  – along with other valuables worth €157,000 – was stolen from his home in Apaisia village in Limassol.
According to police sources, the two Cypriots are believed to have put Tyulenev, a Cypriot citizen and resident of Limassol, in touch with the 70-year-old, after the latter expressed interest in selling his estate and part of his vast art collection which included over 250 paintings from famous European painters, as well as sculptures, crystal and Victorian furniture.
The known art collector used to have an insurance policy on his valuable art collection. He did not have an alarm system installed.
However, following the Eurogroup’s decision in 2013 to seize deposits in Cyprus’ two biggest banks, the 70-year-old fell on hard times and cancelled his insurance policy, said the source.
He decided to sell his home and part of his collection, but specifically not the famous work from the great French impressionist which he had inherited.
The last person to show interest in the house and paintings was reportedly Tyulenev. The two Cypriot men arranged a meeting between the Russian and the 70-year-old at his home and then again last Monday at a lawyer’s office.
At the time of the burglary in Apaisia, the 70-year-old was with the Russian discussing the sale deal. Tyulenev reportedly told the seller that he wanted time for his lawyers to go over the contract. During this time, burglars gained entrance to the house by breaking through the front door, using a crowbar.
Russian national suspected of biggest art theft in history of Cyprus
NICOSIA, October 6. /TASS/. Russian national Sergei Tyulenev was arrested in Cyprus on Monday on suspicion of involvement in the theft of a painting by Edgar Degas that its 70-year-old owner from Limassol estimates at six million euros, a police source in Cyprus told TASS.
According to the source, Tyulenev, who is permanently residing in Cyprus, surrendered to police, turning up in the police office of Limassol with his lawyer on Sunday, after being put on the wanted list last week.
Police informed Interpol for the case the painting surfaced on the international art market.
Cyprus police said Tyulenev would spend eight days in custody for questioning. Cyprus media speculate that Tyulenev could be the mastermind of what is described as the biggest art theft in the history of Cyprus.
Two suspected accomplices of the Russian businessman were detained last week. Police spokesman Andreas Angelides told TASS on October 2 that there was no substantial evidence against the Russian businessman, and his apprehension was needed so that investigators could clarify some circumstances.

Arrest warrant issues for suspected art thief

By Stefanos Evripidou
POLICE ISSUED an arrest warrant yesterday for 55-year-old Sergei Tyulenev from Russia in connection with the reported theft of a 19th century Edgar Degas painting believed to be worth around €6 million.
Two Cypriot men, 44 and 53, have already been remanded in custody for eight days in connection with the case after a 70-year-old man reported the precious painting- along with other valuables worth €157,000- stolen from his home in Apaisia village in Limassol on Monday.
The painting is believed to be Degas’ pastel on paper, titled Dancer Adjusting Her Shoe, approximately 47cm by 61cm in size and dated late 19th century.
According to police sources, the two Cypriots previously lived in England and South Africa before relocating to Cyprus. They are believed to have put Tyulenev, a Cypriot citizen and resident of Limassol, in touch with the 70-year-old, after the latter expressed interest in selling his estate and part of his vast art collection.
The source described the pensioner’s home as one massive art gallery, filled wall to wall with over 250 paintings from famous European painters, as well as sculptures, crystal and Victorian furniture.
The known art collector used to have an insurance policy on his valuable art collection. He did not have an alarm system installed.
However, following the Eurogroup’s decision in 2013 to nab deposits in Cyprus’ two biggest banks, the 70-year-old fell on hard times and cancelled his insurance policy, said the source.
He decided to sell his home and part of his collection, but specifically not the famous painting from the great French impressionist, one of the founders of Impressionism.
The Degas came to his possession after his great grandmother who lived in Paris acquired it, added the source.
The last person to show interest in the house and paintings was reportedly Tyulenev. The two Cypriot men arranged a meeting between the Russian and the 70-year-old at his home and then again last Monday at a lawyer’s office.
At the time of the burglary in Apaisia, the 70-year-old was with the Russian discussing the sale deal. Tyulenev reportedly told the seller that he wanted time for his lawyers to go over the contract. During this time, burglars gained entrance to the house by breaking through the front door, using a crowbar.
They went straight for the Degas and a safe containing seven gold watches, three pairs of gold opera glasses and other items worth €157,000. The case marks the biggest art theft ever recorded in Cyprus.
The 55-year-old Russian has since gone missing.
Police are investigating the possible involvement of the two remanded men, and are examining information connecting others to the burglary.
An arrest warrant was issued yesterday for Tyulenev, who is described as being around 1.85m tall, well built, with blue eyes and very short blonde hair.
Anyone with information as to his whereabouts is asked to call Limassol CID, or their nearest police station or the Citizens’ Hotline on 1460.
European and international arrest warrants are expected to be issued within days, said the source.
Police have also requested information from the authorities in Russia, South Africa and England regarding the three suspects.
One local art collector and expert told the Cyprus Mail that they had seen the Degas painting hanging on the wall of the 70-year-old’s home at a party he had thrown.
The art expert described the pensioner as a “serious collector” who was known for spending all his money on his collection. “It was his life,” said the expert.
The artwork in question is part of Degas’ body of work studying ballet dancers, which includes the dreamy Blue Dancers.
According to HistoryofDrawing.com, by the end of his career, Degas produced over 700 pastels.
In Dancer Adjusting Her Shoe, he coloured the girl’s tights and bodice pink and her ribbon blue and added yellow ochre hatching “that radiates from her like a sunburst”.
The Art History News blog described the painting as “a prime example of Degas’ breathtakingly fluid draftsmanship and near-photographic instinct for capturing a fleeting moment”.
Following an online search, the Cyprus Mail discovered a near identical version of Dancer Adjusting Her Shoe, belonging to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, dated 1885.
The Columbia Museum of Art in South Carolina also included a Dancer Adjusting Her Shoe at an Impressionism exhibition in early 2013.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail last night, Mark Winter, art expert and authenticator working from Florida-based Degas Experts, said it was not uncommon for Degas to do many variations of the same composition and for these to have the same title.
Regarding dancers and their shoes, Winter said Degas “worked extensively on the theme”, producing many that ended up with the same or subtly different titles.
“Very often it is auctioneers or art critics who put titles on paintings… and once they get translated from French to English, they read exactly the same in English, even though the French version may have had a slight change.”
Having seen a picture of the stolen painting, Winter said: “It looks very strongly like an authentic work. I have a very favourable first impression of the painting.”
However, the expert said the €6m price tag was probably an optimistic view of its value.
“That’s definitely on the high side, but not extremely so. It may actually sell for €3m, or on a lucky day, if you have two Russian billionaires competing over it, you may get €4m,” he said.

Detail from one of the stolen paintings by Oskar Kokoschka. Photo: Police

€250,000 reward for stolen Vienna art

A €250,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the recovery of 72 works of art stolen from a retired academic in Vienna earlier this month.

• Art thieves score €2 million payday (10 Sep 14)
• Habsburg portraits to be sold at auction (05 Sep 14)

The collection of paintings by celebrated Austrian artists including Oskar Kokoschka and Koloman Moser was valued at more than €2 million.

The 73-year-old owner was on holiday when her house in Hietzing was broken into in late August.
She initially reported that 71 works of art were missing but has since discovered that one more piece was taken.
The reward has been provided by an anonymous donor and the full amount will only be given if all 72 paintings are found. If only some are found, then a partial reward will be given.
Police said the reward was the highest that has ever been offered in Austria after such a theft, and that the Federal Police would only be involved as a coordinator and mediator, with the anonymous donor responsible for all details pertaining to the reward.

Painting worth €6m stolen from Limassol house (Updated)

A 19th century Degas painting worth €6 million, along with other valuables worth €157,000 was stolen from the home of a 70-year-old in Limassol, police said on Tuesday.
Authorities have arrested two Cypriots, aged 44 and 53, in connection with the theft and they were also seeking a Russian man, 55.
The theft had been reported to police by the 70-year-old Cypriot who appears to be a collector.
He said his house had been broken into between 9.50am and 2.30pm on Monday.
Police said the Russian man had shown interest in buying another painting in the man’s collection. The other two suspects acted as middlemen.
The Degas was not for sale.
A viewing had been arranged 15 days ago and the Russian man also took pictures.
They arranged a meeting on Monday with their lawyers to close the deal. The painting was stolen while the 70-year-old was at the meeting.
The painting was not insured.
Along with the painting by French 19th century artist Edgar Degas – regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism – worth €6m, a safe containing seven gold watches, three pairs of gold opera glasses and other items worth €157,000 were also taken.

Two remanded over Degas art theft

Two Greek Cypriots, aged 44 and 53, were on Tuesday remanded in custody for eight days as part of police investigations into the theft of an Edgar Degas painting worth over €6m and other valuables from an Apesia village home, Limassol.
A third man, a 55-year-old Russian national, is also being sought.
According to the head of Limassol’s CID, Ioannis Soteriades, the 70-year-old Greek Cypriot owner of the house, part of which has been transformed into a gallery, also reported the theft of a safe containing seven gold watches, three pairs of gold opera glasses and 20 sets of gold cufflinks, all worth a total of €157,000.
The two men were arrested after the painting’s owner said they had, accompanied by the 55-year-old Russian suspect, visited his home a few days ago showing interest in purchasing the house and part of the art collection.
“It appears so far that the specific painting was targeted because other very valuable paintings at the house were not stolen,” Soteriades said. He added the Russian had been placed on the stop list.
The painting is reported to be Degas’ work ‘Ballerina adjusting her slipper.’ Degas, in the early 1870s, did a series of works featuring dancers adjusting their ballet slippers  Soteriades said investigations were also ongoing to confirm the work’s authenticity.

How Reddit Supports Trade in Stolen Goods, in Plain Sight of the Internet

"Fencing" is the buying or selling of stolen goods. As with most imaginable topics and persuasions, there are fencing communities on reddit, the popular internet message board. But what's remarkable about the fencers on this particular site is how brazen they are about discussing their crimes. 

 http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/09/25/How-Reddit-supports-trade-in-stolen-goods-in-plain-sight-of-the-internet

In this thread, called UK Fencing, which requires no registration to access, criminals can be seen asking for advice about how to move stolen goods and soliciting local connections who can sell on stolen electronics and jewellery.
The thread is hosted in a subreddit called DarkNetMarkets, which is primarily used by people seeking and selling illegal drugs on hidden websites - though much of their discussion about these hidden sites is conducted in the open.

It is just one of dozens of threads that can appear and disappear over the course of a year on reddit, prompting questions about how seriously the site takes its legal obligations. Websites such as reddit have fallen foul of the law before, since their radical commitment to "free speech" can sometimes run contrary to local free speech laws and even terrorism legislation.

Conversations that would normally be restricted to the "dark net" and accessible only with special software such as the Tor browser bleed out into the regular internet when places like reddit fail to police their own networks for illegal activity and instead facilitate introductions between thieves and resellers.

"I am trying to find a UK fencer (sell "obtained" goods on my behalf). Any one have any recommendations or experiences with any vendors?" asks the original poster on the UK Fencing thread, who goes by the screen name of milkybarkid_ta.
Like many of the posters in these forums, milkybarkid_ta's username has been active for only a short time, and is likely to go out of service soon, probably to be replaced by another handle, from another computer or device, operated by the same person.

Criminals use an internet service called a proxy server, which masks their location and identity, to post on these forums. But the messages they leave are there for all to see - until personally identifiable information comes into play, or phone numbers need to be swapped.
At that point, "PGP keys" are exchanged. These encryption keys provide a secure form of email that can only be read by the sender and decoded by the recipient. They cannot be usefully intercepted by law enforcement, internet service providers or hackers en route to their destination.
In other words, they allow thieves and resellers to communicate in private, where they can swap phone numbers and arrange drop-offs, pick-ups, sales and payments. The preferred payment method for many of these transactions is the digital currency Bitcoin, because unlike bank accounts and credit cards police cannot easily trace Bitcoin transactions.
"I will be getting all sorts," writes milkybarkid_ta, in response to a question about what kinds of stolen goods he has to sell. "Anything from PC hard drives to TV's. Item's are SE'd, not carded. Need someone to accept delivery and sell them on."

"Carded" is understood to refer to products purchased using stolen credit cards. Goods bought with stolen cards are less desirable because they hold serial numbers that can be traced back to the cardholder and are thus slightly easier for the police to investigate.
"SE'd" is shorthand for socially-engineered, or blagged, items. "Social engineering" is a fencing euphemism for conning a store, company or private individual out of property by coercion, confidence trickery or simply robbery. Such goods are harder to trace and command higher prices on the black market.
Another user, who calls himself deep_anal_thrusts, can be seen offering advice to milkybarkid_ta on how to sell on stolen property. "Bruh, look on craigslist for people that buy electronics/jewelry etc. They are ALL fences...I did it for about five years. Just don't mention that it's hot and 90% of the time the guy won't even ask," he writes.
Moderators, the also-anonymous users who maintain these forums, say in their guidelines: "We (/r/DarkNetMarkets mods) do not condone or endorse anything posted on this subreddit. Use your own judgment. ... Your security is in your own hands; never assume that a Darknet Market site or vendor is safe, secure, or trustworthy. Do your own research and be responsible."
But those disclaimers are unlikely to insulate posters, or reddit itself, from liability should the police come knocking. And, in the past, cybercrime investigators have been known to pose as a variety of different sort of criminal to gain access to secret forums and to conduct sting operations. 

Posters on these forums are aware that security is lax and real identities are anyone's guess. "Lol you're gonna give your address, one you use to order drugs, to some random guy claiming to have fenced goods," writes one interlocutor, apparently surprised at how credulously a poster called boredraw is behaving. 

But they continue to use the forums, because there is so much of reddit to monitor the company does an exceedingly poor job of managing its own network. reddit-wide policies and local laws are routinely ignored when moderation is left to anonymous regulars, rather than staff with legal culpability. 

There is no way to know how much stolen property effectively passes through reddit, because much of the communication happens in private messages and then out in the real world. The site must surely know that it is being used as a speed-dating site for the criminal underclasses.

The internet makes certain kinds of crime easier than ever to conduct - but it also makes it easier than ever to catch bone-headed would-be miscreants in the act, too. We contacted reddit for comment, but they had not responded as we went to press.

Calgary artist hopes to recover stolen paintings

 

Natalie Kurzuk, a Calgary painter, was shocked to find out that two of her pieces may have been stolen after they were delivered to Saskatoon.

Photograph by: Supplied photo , The StarPhoenix

Natalie Kurzuk has mailed artwork to galleries as far away as New York and Jamaica, but the Calgary painter was shocked to find out that two of her paintings may have been stolen after they were delivered to Saskatoon.
Kurzuk had been accepted into the Members' Show Sale at the Mendel Art Gallery, and had sent the pieces by private courier to a friend's house on Sept. 3. However, the friend wasn't home to accept the packages due to a medical emergency.
Kurzuk says she had given instructions for the packages to be left in the veranda.
She received confirmation from the courier that they were delivered at 4:30 p.m. the day after she sent them. Her friend arrived three hours later, but the paintings were missing.
"I've called (the courier company), who said they would do some research, but I have yet to hear anything back," Kurzuk said.
Kurzuk, who wasn't able to mail the paintings directly to the Mendel since the showing is a fundraiser, has filed a report with the police.
"From what I hear, there are people who watch the trucks and when they see them drop them off, they'll pick them up," she said.
She values the paintings at $800 each. She mailed them without insurance because the courier company requires specific paperwork for artwork, she said.
"You can't insure the paintings unless you take them to a gallery to be formally appraised." Kurzuk is offering a reward for information leading to the recovery of the paintings, which feature abstract images of crows, and is hopeful the artwork will be returned.
"These paintings could still show up someplace," she said.
"If anyone sees them on a wall or a pawnshop or anywhere, maybe they will recognize them."

Miami Is a Hub for Stolen Art and Artifacts

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Officer Herbert Kercado (pictured) discovered this ancient sarcophagus at Miami International Airport in 2008. It was eventually returned to Egypt.

Two summers ago, Miami was the stage for one of the strangest FBI sting operations on record. On July 17, 2012, undercover agents set up a clandestine deal in a pricey South Beach hotel room. With hidden cameras recording his every move, an unwitting suspect carefully removed the much-coveted object from inside a cardboard tube. Then the cops kicked down the door.
But the illicit good wasn't an assault rifle or a brick of Colombian yeyo. It was a stolen painting.
The recovery in Miami of Henri Matisse's Odalisque in Red Pants — described in our September 4 feature, "Vanishing Point" — was no fluke, however. Miami may still be maturing as an international cultural capital, but it's long been a black-market boomtown. Dozens of near-priceless pieces of art or antiquities have mysteriously surfaced in Miami, only to be seized by authorities.
"We do know that Miami is a point of entry for a lot of this stuff," says Stephen Urice, a law professor at the University of Miami who studies stolen artifacts.
Why Miami? It's a convenient meeting point for rich Americans, Europeans, and Latinos, and its airport is one of the busiest in the world. But the Matisse case and others suggest Miami is especially fertile ground for furtive deals, whether it's illegal arms or artwork.
"There's a lot of money in South Florida, some of it dirty,'' U.S. Customs spokesman Michael Sheehan told the Miami Herald in 1999. "They know the people will keep it quiet because their money is dirty just like the art is hot.''
The trend began in the '80s, when the city was flush with drug money. In 1982, some South Florida businessmen plotted to hold paintings by Degas, Monet, and Whistler for ransom. If their demands weren't met, they would send the shredded art to the New York Times. Instead, FBI agents posing as museum tour guides took down the gang before it could nab the paintings. During the arrest, the feds found two pieces by Rubens stolen years earlier.
Seven years later, a retired Argentine policeman was apprehended with a stolen Goya in Miami Beach. Another Rubens was found inside a briefcase aboard a flight from Nicaragua. In 1993, a mashup of Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong was recovered from Colombian drug smugglers. And in 1999, the FBI found Jacob Jordaens' The Last Supper at a La Quinta Inn in Plantation.
Most common are cases of pre-Columbian artifacts smuggled through Miami, Urice says. In 1982, for instance, customs agents at Miami International Airport found $200,000 worth of Mayan jewelry inside a box marked "garden tools." Six years later, it was ancient Peruvian pottery hidden inside cheap furniture. Perhaps the strangest find was in 1995, when MIA inspectors discovered a solid-gold ceremonial rattle and a mummified head inside a crate, also from Peru. Or maybe it was the shipment of decorated craniums from the same country intercepted at MIA in 2003.
Not all the loot comes from Latin America. In 1991, the FBI found $7 million worth of stolen Irish antiquities — including the headstone for Saint Dermot's grave — on a 54-foot sailboat. Eight years later, the feds dug into a crate of fresh fish and found 271 items lifted from the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth in Greece.
The title of South Florida's shadiest seized artifact, however, easily goes to the Egyptian sarcophagus uncovered at MIA in 2008. An American collector had bought the coffin in Spain. But when he tried to import it to the States, Egyptian officials cried foul. The sarcophagus was returned to Cairo two years later.
Urice says some oddball collectors with an obsession don't try too hard to find out where their new prize came from. Other times, the stolen art simply becomes currency on Silk Road or other black markets.
"It's like, 'I'll trade my Matisse for some cocaine, and then you give me some arms for my cocaine; I trade those arms for a Picasso...'" Urice says. "Just about everything is for sale."

Valuable antiques stolen in ram raid

Substantial damage at the antiques shop Credit: Hants Police

Detectives in Aldershot are appealing for witnesses and information after a high-value burglary at an antiques shop in Eversley.
At about 2.30am on Thursday, September 25, unknown offenders used a vehicle to break into the barn in Church Road, which is used as an antiques shop.
Once inside they stole silverware, jewellery and other antique item valued at more than £15,000.
Acting Detective Sergeant Gavin Whyte said: 'It is believed a number of people were involved in this incident and they may have been wearing masks to cover their faces.'"

Police appeal after antiques stolen from Bishop's Waltham home

A POLICE appeal has been launched following the theft of antiques and china from a home in Bishop’s Waltham.
Burglars forced entry into the house in Ashton Lane on Wednesday, September 3, at around 3.45am.
PC Jasmine Connolly, of Winchester police station, said: “We would like to hear from anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area at the time of the incident, or possibly days leading up to it.”
 $89,000 shotgun stolen in Manchester

Provided Photo

A rare, very expensive shotgun featuring intricate carving on its silver sideplates was stolen from a Manchester store Wednesday.

MANCHESTER — Police are looking for two men and a Great Dane in connection to the theft of a shotgun valued at $89,000.

The gun was stolen from the Covey and Nye store on Main Street on Wednesday.

Manchester Police Officer Abigail Zimmer said the shotgun was made by Luciano Bosis, an Italian gunmaker. It’s a Michelangelo .410 over-under shotgun with gamebirds engraved on the sideplates, blue barrels and a silver frame with a highly figured walnut stock.

The website Shotgun Life said in a 2013 article that a standard Bosis shotgun similar to the one reported stolen could sell for about $140,000 even without engraving.

Lars Jacob, the gun room manager for Covey and Nye, said he wants to see the gun returned.

“That gun is a one of a kind,” he said. “… There’s no other gun made like it. … It’s a collectible but it’s what we call an ‘art form with reason’ so people will shoot it.”

Zimmer said police are looking for two white men in connection with the theft. The first is a clean-cut man, about 5 feet, 8 inches tall, in his mid-30s or early 40s with dark hair. Witnesses said he was well dressed, wearing lighter clothing and a long jacket or possibly a blue suit coat.

The second man was about 6 feet tall with long, black and gray “stringy” hair that runs to his mid-neck in his mid- to late 30s. He had no facial hair and was wearing dark pants with a form of wrappings around his lower calf and clog-type shoes.

Witnesses said the second man had a very large, brown-tan Great Dane with him in the store.

Zimmer said an employee at Covey and Nye told her Thursday that both men walked into the store around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday and were “acting strange.”

The second man spoke with the employee while the first man walked toward the gun room. After a short time the first man returned to the front desk with merchandise he indicated he was going to buy.

The first man asked to have a blouse gift wrapped but then said he forgot his wallet and said he needed to run out and grab it.

Both men left and never returned, the employee said.

Another witness saw the two men getting into a car that may have been a black Ford Focus. The second witness could not provide police with any information about the license plate or in which direction the men drove.

Jacob said an over-and-under shotgun is usually used by bird hunters or clay target shooters. The gun has two barrels and can only hold two shells at a time.

Guns like the one stolen are for a very high-end market. Jacob said he only sells about four to five a year, but if the person who takes the gun tries to sell it, they may find that very difficult despite the value.

Jacob said a reputable gun dealer would recognize it as a distinctive piece and wouldn’t buy or sell it.

The theft has been reported to federal authorities and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to Jacob.

“It’s like trying now to sell a piece of Picasso art that you stole,” he said. “Almost impossible.”

Zimmer asked that anyone with information about the theft, the suspects, or the shotgun to call the Manchester Police Department at 362-2121.

£6,000 of antiques stolen in raid on Cumbrian home

A man who had thousands of pounds worth of antiques stolen from his home says some of the items taken are irreplaceable.

Valuable: Royal Doulton and Coalport lady figurines

John Dalrymple is stepping up security at his north Cumbrian home after it was targeted by raiders.
He is coming to terms with the loss of a collection of antiques he says were worth about £6,000.
Thieves struck at his home, at Laversdale, near Carlisle.
Photographs of the haul have been released in the hope that they might be recognised by someone and spur them to contact police.
Mr Dalrymple, 50, is looking to install a camera system at his home.
He told The Cumberland News: “Once you know somebody’s been in, you’re worried they might come back.”
Burglars stole a collection of Royal Doulton and Coalport figurines, three Crown Derby plates and a silver tray from the property on Saturday, August 30.
“A fair bit of silver went and some of it had been engraved. There were one or two specific pieces which I won’t find again. There was a little perfume bottle with a silver cupped bottom. It was quite expensive,” said John.
The perfume bottle was made of three smaller bottles that fit together in a silver cylinder. “I’ve never seen anything like that before,” he added.
John, who works for Carlisle company Story Rail, has neighbours all around him. He said the downstairs blinds were always kept shut. He came home to find that the thieves had broken in through a window, damaging other valuables in the process.
PC Graham Thompson is investigating the theft.
He said: “They’ve been specially selected. They’ve gone around the house and picked up what they want. It’s someone with knowledge.
“I don’t think a normal burglar would be bothered to take them. It’s someone that knows about the value of these items.”
Local antiques dealers have been made aware of the incident and of what was taken.

Thief who has been committing crimes since 1972 admits stealing antiques from fair at Ardingly Showground

A SERIAL offender has admitted stealing antiques including silver spoons worth £400 from stall-holders at a fair at Ardingly Showground – despite making a "conscious effort" not to break the law after spending time in prison.
Gary Doyle appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday last week (September 10) where he pleaded guilty to three charges of theft.
On July 23 this year, Doyle, 57, visited an antiques fair and stole three silver spoons, a china figurine worth £200 and two silver inkwells worth £100.
Prosecutor Melanie Wotton said: "At 1.50 in the afternoon police were called to Ardingly Antiques Fair following reports of a shoplifter there.
"It appears police came across Mr Doyle who had been detained by a security officer.
"It appears that Mr Doyle had been seen to select and steal a number of items.
"As a result of seeing him doing that they manage to grab hold of him as he went to run off. In his bag was found ink wells and also a figurine."
Ms Wotton told magistrates that Doyle has 33 previous convictions for 55 offences, dating back to 1972, including burglary and theft.
He had been to prison and was also handed a suspended jail sentence for a further offence, which was committed after those for which he was appearing in court.
Chair of the bench Peter McKenzie was handed a form meant to show Doyle's income and outgoings, which had not been filled in, and told him "this is totally unacceptable", before questioning how he could live with no money coming in.
Doyle said his girlfriend pays for everything for him, and that he occasionally did gardening work.
Representing himself, Doyle said he tried not to break the law after being sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment in 2012 for a number of thefts.
He said: "I did make a conscious effort not to get into any type of illegal activity.
"I did make a conscious effort even though I was struggling (financially).
"I can offer the court no viable excuse except that I had no money and did a stupid thing."
Mr McKenzie fined Doyle £73 and ordered him to pay a £20 victim surcharge and £85 costs.
Mr McKenzie said: "Mr Doyle, you already are fully aware that you are on a suspended prison sentence, which was given to you after the date of this offence."
He added: "Because you haven't had legal representation I will make this clear and easy for you to understand – after that suspended prison sentence, if you commit any more crimes for which you are found guilty or plead guilty you will go to prison for 16 weeks."
Doyle, from Hampton, south west London, was also asked if he could pay his fine that day, to which he replied: "I have got about £1.60 on me."

$100,000 Reward for Missing ‘Jennies’

Four stamps known to collectors as Inverted Jennies were stolen in 1955. Credit American Philatelic Research Library

Working swiftly and silently, someone cut the rope securing the leg of the display case and inched it forward. A sheet of protective glass was slid back, and four rare stamps were plucked from their display frame.

Minutes later — around 9:30 on a September morning in 1955 — a delegation of esteemed philatelists strolled down the row of display cases, looking expectantly for the star item of the collection: a block of four famous 24-cent stamps with the airplane in the center printed upside down in error. The stamp is known to collectors as the Inverted Jenny, after the nickname of the Curtiss JN-4 biplane.

But the block was gone. The Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed the armed guards and others in the room and came up empty, unable to even name a suspect.

In the nearly 60 years since that theft, two of the stamps have been recovered, but the other two remain lost. Now, a prominent stamp dealer is offering a $100,000 reward to try to help close the case.

Donald Sundman, the president of the Mystic Stamp Company, a mail-order firm in Camden, N.Y., announced Saturday at an annual gathering of airmail stamp collectors that he was putting up $50,000 for each of the two missing Inverted Jennies.

Photo

Ethel B. Stewart McCoy Credit George Amick and American Philatelic Association

Separately, the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Pa., which was given ownership of the stolen stamps in 1980, is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to their recovery.

“It would be a great thing for the library if these stamps were recovered,” Mr. Sundman said. He made headlines in 2005 when he was involved in a swap involving a different block of four Inverted Jennies valued at nearly $3 million.

The stolen block belonged to Ethel B. Stewart McCoy, one of the most prominent philatelists of her day. Ms. McCoy was a New Yorker and the daughter of Charles Milford Bergstresser, a journalist who with Charles Dow and Edward Jones was a founder of Dow Jones & Company. Her inherited wealth allowed her to happily indulge her collecting passions, which included airmail stamps of the world and stamps depicting palm trees, of which she had three albums full.

Her Inverted Jenny block was one of just a half-dozen surviving intact from the original sheet of 100 misprints, bought over a post office counter in 1918 by a lucky broker’s clerk who quickly resold them to a prominent collector. That collector dispersed the sheet, mostly as single stamps, after numbering each one on the back in pencil.

Ms. McCoy’s foursome had been a gift in 1936 from her first husband, so its sentimental value to her greatly exceeded the $15,000 she insured it for before lending it to the American Philatelic Society to exhibit at its Norfolk, Va., convention in the fall of 1955.

What happened afterward is described in detail by George Amick in his 1986 book, “The Inverted Jenny: Money, Mystery, Mania.”

In 1958, the first of the four stamps resurfaced, separated from its siblings, in the possession of a Chicago stamp dealer named Louis Castelli. Experts, comparing details like the perforations around the stamp’s edge and flyspeck variations in its printing to photographs of the stolen block, were in no doubt as to its identity.

How Mr. Castelli had obtained it was not adequately explained, but the F.B.I. declined to pursue the matter, unsure whether the single stamp’s value at the time passed the $5,000 threshold allowing it to investigate.

Twenty years went by, and Mr. Castelli offered the stamp for sale again. This time, the F.B.I. seized it, but Mr. Castelli was not charged with any crime.

When Ms. McCoy had collected her insurance money after the theft, she stipulated that she could buy back the stamps if they ever turned up. By the late 1970s, though, she could not remember the insurance company’s name, and the firm never came forward.

She donated the recovered stamp to the American Philatelic Research Library, of which she was a supporter, and it was auctioned for $115,000.

Shortly after Ms. McCoy died in 1980 at the age of 87, a second so-called McCoy invert reappeared in the hands of another Chicago-area stamp dealer, who offered it to the library as a tax-deductible gift.

The F.B.I. investigated again, but after a quarter century the trail was cold. A federal court in New York affirmed the library’s ownership, and the second McCoy stamp remains on display there.

The last two of the stamps are still at large.

“It’s possible that the two remaining missing stamps were innocently acquired by collectors decades ago who did not realize they had been stolen,” Mr. Sundman said. “With the passage of time, the heirs of those collectors may not realize they’ve inherited stolen property.”

Like the recovered stamps, the remaining pair may have been altered in an effort to obscure their identity. The little penciled numbers marking their original positions in the sheet — 66 and 76 — are likely to have been partly erased. Nevertheless, experts are confident they would be able to authenticate them.

Five other examples of the Inverted Jenny have been sold at auction in 2014, at prices ranging from $126,500 to $575,100 each. But anyone trying to sell a missing McCoy stamp would be in for a rude surprise: Still considered a stolen good, it would have to be forfeited.

Rob Haeseler, a library official in charge of efforts to recover the McCoy inverts, said anyone who thinks he or she might have one should reach out to the library or to the American Philatelic Society, with which it is affiliated, for information on how to submit the stamps and claim the reward.

Although the F.B.I. declined to comment, Roger S. Brody, the library’s president, said the library had no interest in pressing charges for the theft or possession of the stamps.

“We just want the stamps back,” Mr. Brody said.

Art thief makes case for release

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A life-long criminal, responsible for the country's biggest robbery of its time and still holding the title of our biggest art heist, is back in court in a bid to be released from prison.
Ricardo Romanov, who also goes by the names Anthony Ricardo Sannd and Ricardo Genovese, has a string of convictions for armed robberies including in October 1984 when he and Charles Thomas Willoughby carried out what was then the country's biggest robbery - $294,529 taken from a security van at an Auckland Foodtown supermarket.
His most high-profile crime came in 1998 when he rushed into the Auckland Art Gallery carrying a shotgun, grabbed a James Tissot painting worth $2 million, and made a speedy getaway on a motorbike. A week later police arrested him and found the valuable artwork under his bed.
He was jailed for nearly 14 years for the Tissot snatch and grab, with more jail time added on for separate thefts of various motorbikes.
He was released on parole in March last year. Less than two months later the 63-year- old was back in jail due to the disappearance of yet another motorbike, this one a $130,000 Ducati. The Parole Board recalled him to jail also to complete his sentence for the Tissot theft.
Romanov used the ancient right of a habeas corpus writ (the right to demand to have a court decide whether he was being held legally) to challenge the Parole Board decision and try to get himself out of jail. His bid was rejected by the High Court at Auckland in March.
However, Romanov was back in the High Court at Auckland before Justice Geoffrey Venning this morning to appeal the Parole Board's decision to recall him to prison.
In the past, Romanov has resorted to other means to spring himself from prison. In February 2006, as an inmate at Rangipo Prison, he ran off on his first day of work at a prison farm.
After four weeks on the run, the Armed Offenders Squad surrounded a house in Pukekohe. Several firearms were found and Romanov, who is bald, was found wearing a wig that was described as looking "like a cat without any legs".
Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Grimstone said at the time that the wig was the same one that Romanov wore a week earlier when he took a BMW for a test drive but failed to return it.
The subsequent convictions saw another three years heaped on to his original sentence and Romanov was back behind bars - all up, his jail time was now to be 19 years.
The profusion of sentences he faced then caused confusion at the courts - Romanov appealed the sentence handed down for his escape and a High Court judge set all the sentences aside and imposed a new one. But in doing so he seemed to make a mistake, misreading the length of one of the earlier sentences.
That set the ground for Romanov to argue his current recall by the Parole Board was technically illegal because the shorter sentence meant he was no longer subject to Parole Board oversight. 
Today Romanov's lawyer Quentin Duff said the career criminal had effectively served his sentence and the Parole Board did not have jurisdiction to haul him back behind bars.
Duff said Romanov said "at what stage am I allowed the comfort of finality?".
Meanwhile, crown prosecutor Briar Charmley said the Parole Board did act within its jurisdiction when recalling Romanov.
Romanov was subject to recall as his statutory release date had not yet passed, Charmley.
The prisoner's statutory release date did not roll around until next year so while Romanov was able to be released on parole he could be recalled to prison until the date of his statutory release date had passed, according to the Parole Act 2002, she said.
Charmley said Romanov posed a risk to public safety and had a propensity to commit property theft.

LAPD's art theft unit is a piece of work

Detective Don Hrycyk , LAPD Art Theft Detail, shows how a theft had replaced an original Anders Zorn painting with a photograph and how the owners didn't realized the painting was stolen until a few month later. According to their website the Art Theft Detail has recovered $107,153,898 worth of art and is the only full-time municipal law enforcement unit in the United States devoted to the investigation of art crimes. ED

Tibetan artifacts shouldn’t be stashed among a pack of pot-bellied pigs, but that’s how Detective Don Hrycyk found them.
They’d been stolen over a decade earlier by a man who’d befriended the owner, a New York art collector and scholar.
Police received a tip that the culprit, a man who’d gained the trust of the owner, was living in Los Angeles. They paid him a visit. When they entered the Wilshire district home, they found squalor replete with live pigs, hay – and the stolen artifacts. They were chipped and covered in dust, a far cry from how they’d been exhibited with care in their rightful home.
Hrycyk, 63, has made more such discoveries as head and often lone investigator of the country’s only known unit dedicated to full-time investigations of art crimes.
Welcome to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Art Theft Detail.
A SOLO EFFORT
Hrycyk has been with the department for 40 years this past March, and 20 years as the only known full-time art cop in the country. He’s worked without a partner for most of those years and has recovered more than $107 million worth of stolen property since 1994, according to the LAPD.
“These are big cases, multimillion-dollar cases. The problem is that it was never meant for one person, wandering a city of 4 million people and handling these cases alone,” he said.
When it comes to high-profile art, Hrycyk interacts with museum curators, academics and experts to identify fake replicas, appraise values and learn about artists.
The partners Hrycyk has had last only a short while, either getting promotions or moving to other departments. It’s never really enough time for them to get a good handle on the art scene. It took Hrycyk years to learn more about art in Los Angeles. Though he appreciates art more, to him, the job is about business: catching the bad guy.
The unit was created in 1983, the year of a rise in art theft. With galleries, film studios and all kinds of artists, the city became a hub for thieves.
“Some of these things, the losses were large amounts of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars and we weren’t particularly effective in solving those crimes or in finding the property. So that kind of started the idea,” Hrycyk said.
He was tired of seeing dead bodies in the homicide division in South Central Los Angeles, so he applied to the Burglary Auto Theft Division. There, he was informed he’d be working in the newly formed art unit. He didn’t have much art experience, but he learned from Bill Martin, the detective who founded the unit. When Martin retired in 1994, it was up to Hrycyk to carry on the mission.
CHASING DOWN THIEVES
What is considered art? Hrycyk still can’t say for certain. His goal is to catch a thief and recover property for a rightful owner.

CAMDEN, N.Y. — A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered to locate two of the world’s most famous rare postage stamps that are still missing after they were stolen from the exhibit of a wealthy New York City woman in Virginia nearly 60 years ago. They were part of an intact block of four stamps from the fabled sheet of 100 “Inverted Jenny” airmail stamps mistakenly printed in 1918 with an upside down image of a Curtis Jenny airplane.
“It’s possible that the two remaining missing stamps were innocently acquired by collectors

Recovered in 1981 and now owned by the American Philatelic Research Library, this is one of the two recovered, famous 1918 “Inverted Jenny” misprinted 24¢ airmail stamps that was part of New York City collector Ethel B. McCoy’s intact block of four stamps stolen in 1955.  A reward of $50,000 each now is being offered for the two stamps that are still missing after nearly 60 years. (Photo courtesy American Philatelic Research Library)

decades ago who did not realize they had been stolen. With the passage of time, the heirs of those collectors may not realize they’ve inherited stolen property,” said Donald Sundman, President of Mystic Stamp Company in Camden, New York.
Sundman is offering the reward of $50,000 per stamp on behalf of their current, legal owners, the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
He made the reward announcement, Saturday, September 13, 2014, at Aerophilately 2014, an annual convention of airmail stamp collectors held at the American Philatelic Society headquarters in Bellefonte.
For 19 years the stamps were the prize possession of Ethel B. McCoy (1893 – 1980), a patron of performing arts and an avid collector whose father, Charles Bergstresser, was a co-founder of the Dow Jones company.
She acquired the block of four Inverted Jenny 24-cent denomination airmail stamps for $16,000 in 1936, and it was stolen in September 1955 while on exhibit at the American Philatelic Society convention in Norfolk, Virginia.
The block was broken apart, and one of the stolen stamps was discovered in 1977, another in 1981. Both were recovered with the participation of the FBI.
Before she died at the age of 87 in 1980, McCoy donated both of them along with the legal rights to the two still missing stamps to the American Philatelic Research Library.
McCoy’s first husband, Bert A. Stewart, a coin collector, died in 1936. In 1941 she married a prominent stamp collector, Walter R. McCoy, and they were active in philatelic organizations. In 1937 she was named a director of the American Air Mail Society and was posthumously named to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame in 1981.

“The Inverted Jenny stamps are a philatelic treasure, but title to the two missing McCoy stamps belongs to the library. If someone tried to sell one of them now, it would be seized and they’d have nothing. This is an opportunity to turn in the stamps for a $50,000 reward for each one, assuming they have not been damaged beyond recognition,” Sundman explained.

Only 100 of the legendary Inverted Jenny stamps were ever reported, all coming from a single sheet purchased in 1918 at a Washington, D.C. Post Office by William T. Robey for their combined face value, $24. In short order, the sheet changed hands and it was broken apart, sometimes as single stamps, sometimes as blocks.
“Many people who have never licked a stamp hinge know about the Post Office printing error that produced an inverted biplane on a 24¢ airmail stamp in 1918. To them it is ‘the
- See more at: http://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/collectibles/philatelic-society-offering-100000-reward-return-stolen-rare-stamps#sthash.LiWz3fKB.dpuf

CAMDEN, N.Y. — A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered to locate two of the world’s most famous rare postage stamps that are still missing after they were stolen from the exhibit of a wealthy New York City woman in Virginia nearly 60 years ago. They were part of an intact block of four stamps from the fabled sheet of 100 “Inverted Jenny” airmail stamps mistakenly printed in 1918 with an upside down image of a Curtis Jenny airplane.
“It’s possible that the two remaining missing stamps were innocently acquired by collectors

Recovered in 1981 and now owned by the American Philatelic Research Library, this is one of the two recovered, famous 1918 “Inverted Jenny” misprinted 24¢ airmail stamps that was part of New York City collector Ethel B. McCoy’s intact block of four stamps stolen in 1955.  A reward of $50,000 each now is being offered for the two stamps that are still missing after nearly 60 years. (Photo courtesy American Philatelic Research Library)

decades ago who did not realize they had been stolen. With the passage of time, the heirs of those collectors may not realize they’ve inherited stolen property,” said Donald Sundman, President of Mystic Stamp Company in Camden, New York.
Sundman is offering the reward of $50,000 per stamp on behalf of their current, legal owners, the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
He made the reward announcement, Saturday, September 13, 2014, at Aerophilately 2014, an annual convention of airmail stamp collectors held at the American Philatelic Society headquarters in Bellefonte.
For 19 years the stamps were the prize possession of Ethel B. McCoy (1893 – 1980), a patron of performing arts and an avid collector whose father, Charles Bergstresser, was a co-founder of the Dow Jones company.
She acquired the block of four Inverted Jenny 24-cent denomination airmail stamps for $16,000 in 1936, and it was stolen in September 1955 while on exhibit at the American Philatelic Society convention in Norfolk, Virginia.
The block was broken apart, and one of the stolen stamps was discovered in 1977, another in 1981. Both were recovered with the participation of the FBI.
Before she died at the age of 87 in 1980, McCoy donated both of them along with the legal rights to the two still missing stamps to the American Philatelic Research Library.
McCoy’s first husband, Bert A. Stewart, a coin collector, died in 1936. In 1941 she married a prominent stamp collector, Walter R. McCoy, and they were active in philatelic organizations. In 1937 she was named a director of the American Air Mail Society and was posthumously named to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame in 1981.

“The Inverted Jenny stamps are a philatelic treasure, but title to the two missing McCoy stamps belongs to the library. If someone tried to sell one of them now, it would be seized and they’d have nothing. This is an opportunity to turn in the stamps for a $50,000 reward for each one, assuming they have not been damaged beyond recognition,” Sundman explained.

Only 100 of the legendary Inverted Jenny stamps were ever reported, all coming from a single sheet purchased in 1918 at a Washington, D.C. Post Office by William T. Robey for their combined face value, $24. In short order, the sheet changed hands and it was broken apart, sometimes as single stamps, sometimes as blocks.
“Many people who have never licked a stamp hinge know about the Post Office printing error that produced an inverted biplane on a 24¢ airmail stamp in 1918. To them it is ‘the
- See more at: http://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/collectibles/philatelic-society-offering-100000-reward-return-stolen-rare-stamps#sthash.LiWz3fKB.dpuf

Stolen Art Watch, Noah Davis Proves Honest, Raw Journalism Lives, Presents Turbo Paul, Unpaid Warrior For Gardner Art Recovery

Turbo Paul Hendry M.A.

Turbo Paul: Art Thief Turned Art Crime Ombudsman

By Noah Davis • August 22, 2014 • 

 http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/turbo-paul-art-thief-turned-art-crime-ombudsman-89068/

There’s art theft, there’s law enforcement, and, somewhere in between, there’s Turbo Paul.

•

I stumbled across Turbo Paul Hendry somewhere in the gray areas of the Internet. He runs Art Hostage and Stolen Vermeer, two happily abrasive sites dedicated to speaking the truth about art thefts around the world. The proprietor, a former “knocker” himself, sees his position as an advocate and a go-between, providing the true story behind the investigations to recover stolen art. “Maybe I’m just a sucker for Dickens and silver-tongued nutters,” Virginia Heffernan wrote about Hendry a few years ago, “but it’s people like Turbo Paul who, to me, exemplify the possibilities of the open Web.” We spoke over instant messenger, which is how he prefers to communicate.
Why start Art Hostage? Was/is the goal to be an informational source, to drum up work for yourself, or something else?
I saw the reporting of art crime by the MSM [mainstream media] in a way like yellow journalism so I wanted to tell it like it is. I agree I can be toxic, but I am at least even-handed with my toxic views about the criminals and those who pursue stolen art. A paradox is sometimes the so-called good guys act like foxes guarding the hen house. When it comes to negotiating the recovery of stolen art, the bad guys want to deal and tell the truth, the so-called good guys lie and prevaricate to avoid any payments, even if those who provide vital information have nothing to do with the theft or subsequent handling of the said stolen artworks.
Do you see yourself as a middleman? You’re open about your past as a “knocker,” which I would imagine establishes some level of credibility with the so-called bad guys.
Noah, we live in a propaganda-filled world and sadly, journalists have to temper their articles a bit because of fear of being blackballed if they reveal too much truth.
I don’t set people up and do act as a middleman for stolen art when all other avenues have been exhausted. Kinda like The Equalizer for stolen art so to speak.
I like that. How many cases have you been directly involved with? Can you give me an example of one?

“It must be said, however, I am not all bad, as I do advise law enforcement on how to prevent art theft and act as a conduit between law enforcement and the underworld. But being an honest broker means I cannot sting people, otherwise I would lose 30 years of trust built up.”

I have been involved in too many cases to mention but the Da Vinci Madonna case is a fascinating case I was directly involved in. Also, I have consulted in most high-profile cases in recent years. My best work is done when I dance in the shadows and allow others to claim the limelight.
Very little stolen art is recovered these days, and I do get offers of stolen art every day but, sadly, law enforcement won’t allow many deals to happen, so I walk away and tell my contacts to walk away.
Does the visibility your site has gained surprise you?
Not really, because there are only a handful of art crime experts in the world, say six or seven, and I am the only one with the background of being a former trafficker.
Also, being a character and being able to articulate myself helps get over my message as the other experts are ex-law enforcement, insurance loss adjusters, etc., and they are one-dimensional and wooden.
My academic chops, having an M.A., B.A., Hons, etc. helps me and gives me some credibility, but I retain my street cred because I don’t do stings and set people up. Think about it: Where can you read about art crime other than the usual spin in the MSM? I am the only alternative who shoots from the lip.
That’s fair. How has what you do changed in the seven years you’ve had the site? Also, were you doing the same type of work before you started the site?
I got to the top of the stolen art world and retired. I then went to university, rather than play golf or go fishing. In the seven years since I started the site the amount of stings and recoveries has been reduced markedly. People with information have grown wise to the old stings and double-dealings of insurance loss adjusters, etc. so the flow of information has dried up for those investigating art-related crime. However, the dumb crooks still fall for the ruses of ex-law enforcement art crime investigators and loss adjusters, but most seek my council first.
It must be said, however, I am not all bad, as I do advise law enforcement on how to prevent art theft and act as a conduit between law enforcement and the underworld. But being an honest broker means I cannot sting people, otherwise I would lose 30 years of trust built up.
Look, when I comment that a case might be a set up or rewards are bullshit, I am not revealing a secret as most criminals can research the past cases of stings, although they may be referenced on my site.
Before the Internet, law enforcement and insurance agents could use and abuse informants and threaten them with exposure. All of this would happen in secret. Nowadays, the Internet provides a database of previous cases where stings have happened so less recoveries and less information is passed through.
The Gardner case proves the point of credibility. Every time anyone has stepped forward they have been hounded and threatened and even jailed to try and lever them to reveal all. The underworld firmly believes the Gardner museum reward offer of $5 million is bullshit. Think about it: The offer is for all the Gardner art back in good condition, even though when stolen back in 1990 it was cut from the frames therefore it is impossible to be in good condition, another get out clause to prevent payment of the reward. The immunity offer has conditions: Anyone offering help loses their right to take the Fifth and has to reveal all and be prepared to testify against those who have the Gardner art. Therefore, anyone with knowledge stays quiet.
The $5 million Gardner reward offer was made back in 1997 and not raised since so raising it may help?
If authorities really wanted just the Gardner art back, they would offer pure immunity for help and the reward would not have any conditions. So, until then we have to hope the Gardner art is found by authorities stumbling upon it, perhaps during another investigation, but that has been the hope for over two decades.
How can you help get it back?
When I say pure immunity I mean immunity only regarding the Gardner case, not any other cases, etc.
Give me a real immunity deal and concrete proof the reward will be paid, then I could help. I have stated many times I seek not one dime of the reward, but if I could guarantee the reward would be paid and immunity offered to those who could help, then the Gardner art would come home. I also said the Gardner art should be left in a Catholic church confession box to prevent a sting and that would be a kind of absolution for the art. The deal in place would need to be legally watertight so the post-recovery reward would be paid. Again, I seek none of the reward.
Where is the so-called reward? All we have is cheap talk. Why not put the Gardner reward in an escrow account? Why not announce the immunity is blanket and those stepping forward do not have to reveal anything other than the location of the art and then collect the reward. Of course, whomever stepped forward would have to stand the scrutiny of not being involved in the Gardner theft or handling of the art, but I am sure someone could be appointed to take point. But up until now anyone stepping forward gets hounded.
You see the MSM never ask these questions about the Gardner art, just make bullshit repeating the spin about reward and immunity.
What would it take for that to change?
I must say if law enforcement does not want the reward to be paid and want arrests, fine. But don’t try to bullshit all the time.
Each case is different. It depends on what gets stolen and if the desire to recover it overrides the desire to make arrests, then deals can be made. Case in point: the Turners stolen in Germany, which were on loan from the Tate gallery U.K. This is a classic buy back. By the way, buy backs are not illegal, go check. It is not illegal for a victim or an insurance company to buy back stolen art. They try to spin that line, “it’s illegal,” but in reality buy backs are perfectly legal.
Noah, you know the MSM play the game, and in a post-9/11 world, the MSM are terrified to really conduct investigative journalism. Step out of the MSM line and your career is over.
I agree with some of that, but also I think stolen art is pretty low on the priority list of most MSM organizations.
I am not saying rewards or fees should be paid all the time and encourage art theft, but art theft happens because thieves can and will continue regardless. But if someone has information that helps recover stolen art, then they should be paid. Information is a salable commodity but sadly authorities expect it for free.
What does that have to do with MSM and investigative journalism?
I agree with you and much reporting on art crime is one of lazy journalism, therefore just trot out the usual spin under a banner headline. Take the Jeffrey Gundlach case in L.A. He offered a huge reward and got his art back within weeks, and the informant got paid.
Why has the MSM not questioned the Gardner case more? Why not seek answers to the immunity offer and reward offer to smoke out the truth. Then perhaps by firming up both immunity and reward offers people may believe it and come forward?
I see your point. I thought it was interesting that you used Google for everything. Do you trust them with your information despite the sensitive nature of some of it?
Noah, Google guys are great. They provide me with their security so hackers cannot disrupt my site like they may be able to do with an independent site. To hack my blog, hackers would need to bypass Google security and being in California I get the benefit of freedom of speech, so I can be toxic.
I mean less about hackers and more about Google themselves. They have shown in the past that they will work with law enforcement to turn over emails, etc. I’m not saying you’re doing anything illegal—I don’t think you are at all—but I can imagine a situation in which you might have some information like that which someone sends you.
I love Google, America, and of course Israel.
You can say, however, I am even-handed with my toxic viewpoints.
I am a thorn in the side of crooks and law enforcement, as well as the insurance industry. I say what journalists would love to say, I do not have the burden of office.

Gardner Art Heist, Alex Boyle Names Actual Thieves, Robert Wittman, The French Connection

William Merlino

David Turner

The Gardner Museum Art Thieves, Unmasked at Last?

By Alexander Boyle | August 2014
March 18, 1990, saw the biggest museum heist take place in American history as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston was robbed by thieves dressed up as police officers. Since that time numerous stories have surfaced with the result being the same—nothing found, nothing recovered, and a museum, still bound by deed of gift, hangs empty frames on the wall where once hung masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Manet, and Degas.
In the year 2001 this writer was handed an extraordinary letter from a confidential FBI informant outlining how the job was done, who the “players” were, and how the paintings were spirited overseas, first to Italy then France where they were sold via the connivance of a New York dealer for upward of $25 million.
One small problem: Despite this writer being flown abroad in February 2005 in the company of the FBI to meet the French National Police on the Isle de France in Paris—nothing was found. Noted FBI Agent Robert Wittman gave his best efforts on his trips to France in 2006 and 2007. He came close, but again, aside from Corsican mobster innuendo, nothing was found.
In 2013 this writer started to write the outline of a TV series on the project, then tentatively titled “Raiders of the Lost Art,” and the first item on the agenda was revisiting the Gardner Heist. The joy of a complete reboot is that one can go in the past and start over how one looks at a story, which helps because the original story development was so convoluted by wise guys seeking to cover their tracks, that a writer in the center of this story might be forgiven for getting vertigo or the spins.
Two names from the start remained of interest, and while the paintings were long since gone, getting a lock on the guys who did the job might help get closure for Boston, and put the story back on the right track, and hopefully confirm what the informant stated in 2001.
But the FBI refused to help when a Freedom Of Information Act request was put in for one William Merlino. This would take some doing to get around.
In 2008 a friendly writer named Ulrich Boser sent me the first photo of the other suspect, David Allen Turner, and that really matched the initial police sketch. It would take another five plus years for the William Merlino photo to show up. As the reader can now see, it was worth the wait.
Who are these guys and where are they now? William Merlino is 53 years of age and serving out the remained of an armored car conspiracy case in Lee Federal Prison, Pennington Gap, Va. According to Federal prison records, he is due to get out on Aug. 6, 2025.
His cohort, David Allen Turner is now 47 year of age in Danbury Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Conn. and he is scheduled for release on March 25, 2025. William Merlino’s uncle, Carmello, supposedly the “made guy” in the family, and the link that could have confirmed the organized crime connection to this story, died in federal prison on Dec. 7, 2005.
All three were sent away for lengthy prison stints from an arrest made in 1998 for a job they never got a chance to pull off, but conspiracy remains a valid charge in federal courts.

Money Trail

Assuming the photos of Merlino and Turner match the Gardner Heist suspects, this corroborates the story heard years ago, that William Merlino was behind the heist. In underworld structure of the Boston, William was affiliated with uncle Carmello Merlino, a known La Cosa Nostra member. Carmello Merlino was known to be in a crew under former boss of the Boston Mob, Francis P. “Cadillac Frank” Salemme. 

Now when a crew in La Cosa Nostra (LNC) does a score, they have to kick upstairs to the boss, or else they get clipped, and along those lines the story provided to this writer in 2001 it implicated Francis P. “Cadillac Frank” Salemme and his brother Jackie Salemme. That too followed the respected pattern of doing business. There would be a problem if the Merlinos went off the LCN reservation.
A sideways development in this convoluted story was that somebody in the Department of Justice put Francis P. “Cadillac Frank” Salemme in the federal witness protection program, presumably in exchange for Salemme agreeing to testify in court against his Boston enemies Stephen Flemmi and James “Whitey” Bulger. It all goes to show that local problems with law enforcement, compounded by strategic errors made in the Justice Department contributed to the perfect storm that enabled the heist to become the perfect crime.
So many distracting elements kick in to convolute the Gardner Heist story that it is best to keep it simple. Look at the photos. Do they match? If so one has to ask why was this buried for so long? Even though much of the insider story had been heard, the evolution of the official story raises even more disturbing questions. If Merlino et al worked for Salemme, why was Salemme given immunity and put into witness protection? That is just the tip of the iceberg, but it illustrates the problems inherent to this case.
Alexander Boyle is a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he majored in history. He has worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, PBS, galleries, and an auction house as well as having published articles on 19th and 20th century American painting. This article was originally published in AAD, art-antiques-design.com
Art Hostage Comments:
Alex Boyle has been consistent over the years in his theories about the Gardner Art Heist.
Alex Boyle said that after the Gardner Art Heist there was a "Sit down" at Friar Tucks where the deal for the Gardner art was struck for an alleged $25 million.
From there the art was moved via Halifax Nova Scotia to Genoa by New York Art Dealer & Sexual deviant Andrew Crespo.
From Genoa the Vermeer and possibly Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea was sold to none other than Hans Henrik (Hans Heinrich "Heini") Ágost Gábor Tasso Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon who hung the Vermeer at his Swiss villa until his death in 2002.
After Heini died his widow Carman passed the Vermeer and possibly the Rembrandt to Jean Marie Messier the French financier, via the Art Dealer Simon De Pury.
Alex Boyle led FBI Agents to Paris to search the home of Jean Marie Messier back in 2005 to look for the Vermeer etc but sadly the French authorities did not co-operate with the FBI but did make a search of the Jean Marie Messier Paris mansion and found some stolen fresco's looted from Italy and recovered them.
According to ex-FBI Agent Robert Wittman the Corsican Mafia have possession of at least some of the Gardner art and he was trying to smoke them out before he retired, but was thwarted by in-fighting at the FBI and a distinct lack of etiquette by the then Boston FBI Head Richard Des Lauriers towards the French authorities.

Robert Wittman said in an interview with the Huff Post:
The Gardner Heist
Two events that erupted in 1990 forever changed Wittman's, and America's, outlook regarding art crime. The former was a dreadful, painstaking experience. The latter was a pivotal moment in how art crime would be viewed by law enforcement, the media and the American public.
A car accident with Robert Wittman at the wheel in a South Jersey suburb would take the life of his friend and FBI Special Agent Denis Bozella. As if his four broken ribs, the guilt, grief and loss of his friend weren't enough, a prosecutor went through with a case he knew he would lose in court. The ordeal by trial, drawn out over five years for Wittman to clear his name, became the impetus to dedicate his career in solving art crime, which is what he considers to be crimes against society, history and the heritages of people.
A decade later, it would also place the agent in an even more special role, as he became the FBI's pointman in dealing with grief victims, primarily families suffering traumatic loss in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. At the time, that was hard on Wittman, the person, but it became valuable when he would begin to investigate and solve international art crime cases and go undercover as "Bob Clay," art broker and financier. The grief counseling -- "All I had to offer was empathy" -- and his own loss allowed him to see the other side of the good, bad and ugly in people, and put him in the perps' shoes and minds of master thieves.
On March 18, 1990, two robbers dressed as Boston Police gained access to the locked down Gardner Museum with a fake bench warrant. They duct-taped two young guards in the cellar and then spent an astounding 81 minutes rifling through the museum. They cut out ten priceless paintings -- a Vermeer, five Degas and three Rembrandts -- and three lesser art objects that included a gilded Corsican eagle finial and a Napoleonic War banner. The latter two were no "red herrings," but a clue to law enforcement as to where the stolen bounty would end up: in the organized crime orbit of Corsica, France and Spain.
With little to go on except police sketches and the data from the motion-detecting cameras, the trail went cold, fast. On the 23rd anniversary of the greatest art crime in history -- valued at 500 million -- the FBI's Boston Office (not the Art Crime Team) held a press conference, announcing the reward for the recovery of the stolen art was 5 million, and that they had fresh leads on the case "in Philadelphia and Connecticut."
Wittman said point blank: "It's definitely not in Philadelphia."
That press conference wasn't anything more than a reminder to the public on the reward and that that the famous case remained unsolved. It also served as a smoke screen, as those paintings are clearly in Europe -- with Wittman confirming: "We know who they were with, based on the French police wiretaps of the criminals I dealt with."
That was 2006 to 2008. Or two years that Wittman as Bob Clay went undercover in a sting operation that can be found in detail in his New York Times bestselling book Priceless: How I went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures (Random House/Broadway Books).
Unfortunately, human nature intervened. "Too many chiefs," the French Police pointman told Wittman. "Solving the case by committee doesn't work," Wittman later wrote.
Like the failed launch of the Obamacare website, throwing more people to fix a poorly designed platform doesn't work. Same with an undercover sting operation. The sting teams need to operate small to allow for "flexibility, creativity and to take risk," he stated in Priceless.
The human side to the promising undercover operation-turned-debacle was the FBI turf war, infighting with the Boston Office -- they knew nothing about art -- the Art Crime Team and the bureaucrats in FBI headquarters in D.C.
The same problem emerged in France. The French split their police groups in two with a new undercover unit called SIAT, producing evermore "chiefs."
All of those competing factions, instead of working in harmony, wanted to micromanage aspects of the case, while clamoring to take credit for solving the biggest art theft case in history in a press conference that would never materialize.
Robert Wittman's investigation into the Gardner Heist led him to the south of France by the way of Miami. "Although we didn't solve the Gardner case," Wittman said, "we did recover four valuable paintings stolen from the Nice Museum."