Stolen Art Watch, Bulmer Paintings, Dick Ellis Double Cross, Runs With The Hare & Hunts With The Hounds

Seven arrested for Somerset's biggest ever burglary - the multi-million Bulmer raid in 2009

Seven men have been arrested in connection with one of the West's largest and most notorious burglaries – which saw millions of pounds of paintings, silverware and jewellery stolen from one of Somerset's most famous cider dynasty families.
The men were arrested in a series of dawn raids across England – in Gloucestershire, the West Midlands and the south east – in connection with the infamous raid on the mansion home of Esmond and Susie Bulmer seven years ago.
Their mansion in Bruton was targeted in March 2009 by a gang of five masked raiders who burst in, tied up the couple's housekeeper, threatened to pour bleach over her and stole 15 paintings worth millions, as well as a safe containing a million pounds' worth of jewellery and silverware.
Police inquiries in the immediate aftermath failed to make headway and the couple caused a small amount of controversy last year when they revealed they had managed to get the paintings back, after paying an expert in the shadowy art world to track them down, and put up a £50,000 reward – all done without telling the police first.

Two of the 15 pictures taken – and now returned - were regarded as 'important works' – one a work by George Frederick Watts called Endymion which is thought to be worth more than £1 million on its own. Another is called Apple Blossom, and is said to be among Sir George Clausen's finest works.
Avon and Somerset police would not be drawn into commenting on the move last year by the family to track the paintings down themselves, but now arrests have been made.
A police spokesman said the seven suspects were arrested in relation to an aggravated burglary in 2009.
"Following a complex and detailed investigation, seven men from the South West, South East and the Midlands, have been arrested for offences in connection with the burglary," a spokesman said.
"The property in the Bruton area of Somerset was targeted in March 2009. Fifteen well-known and valuable paintings, expensive jewellery and silverware were taken during the burglary," he added.
Police said the first arrests happened on Tuesday this week in a dawn operation in the south east where three were arrested. Two of those three, one aged 61 and another 54-year-old, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and possession of criminal property.
The following day another dawn raid on a location in Gloucestershire saw two men aged 51 and 40 arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary.
Finally, after a third dawn raid in the West Midlands yesterday morning, police were able to reveal the breakthrough after another two men, aged 58 and 63, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud.
"The arrests form part of a detailed and on-going complex enquiry," added the police spokesman. "We are keen to hear from anyone who may have information to help our enquiries. They should contact us on 101 quoting ref 3559609."

Seven arrested after violent £2.7m art and jewellery heist at Bulmer family's Somerset home

By L_Churchill  |  Posted: May 20, 2016

Seven arrested after violent £2.7m art and jewellery heist at Bulmer family's Somerset home

Seven suspects have been arrested following a violent £2.7 million Somerset heist where valuable art work and jewellery were stolen.
Police made the arrests this week after a gang left house-sitter Deborah Branjum tied up against the banisters of the palatial home of Esmond Bulmer, of the Bulmers cider family in March 2009.
Around 15 well-known paintings, expensive jewellery and silverware were taken in the raid where Ms Branjum, then aged 47, was tied up and threatened with bleach.
Ms Branjum was looking after The Pavilion in Redlynch, near Bruton, Somerset, while former Tory MP Mr Bulmer and his wife Susan were on holiday in Barbados.
A dawn operation in the south east of England saw three men, two aged 61 and another 54, arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and possession of criminal property on Tuesday.
The following day, two men aged 51 and 40, from Gloucestershire were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary after another early morning operation.
Today a further two men, aged 58 and 63, were arrested in the West Midlands on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud.

Esmond Bulmer at the scene of the aggravated burglary
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: "We can confirm the arrest this week of seven suspects in relation to an aggravated burglary in 2009, where valuable paintings and jewellery were taken, following an incident in Somerset.
"Following a complex and detailed investigation, seven men from the South West, South East and the Midlands, have been arrested for offences in connection with the burglary.
"The property in the Bruton area of Somerset was targeted in March 2009. Fifteen well-known and valuable paintings, expensive jewellery and silverware were taken during the burglary.
"The arrests form part of a detailed and on-going complex enquiry.
"We are keen to hear from anyone who may have information to help our enquiries. They should contact us on 101 quoting ref 3559609."
During the violent burglary £1.7m worth of paintings, including En Dymion by George Frederic Watts and Apple Blossom by Clausen, and £1m of antique jewellery were taken.
The gang loaded up the Bulmers' Mercedes car with the loot before fleeing and Ms Branjum was only found still tied up the following day.
The raid was carried out at the exclusive Redlynch Park, near Bruton, which contains a series of high-value apartments and houses.
The 18th-century gardens which surround the plush estate were designed by Edwin Lutyens and are in 309 hectares of parkland.

Seven suspects released on bail as police investigation into Bruton art burglary continues

Seven suspects released on bail as police investigation into Bruton art burglary continues

SEVEN people arrested last week in connection with valuable paintings and jewellery stolen from a property near Bruton have been released on police bail.
A police spokesman confirmed today that suspects linked with an aggravated burglary in 2009 have been granted bail.
A series of early morning raids by police last week led to the arrest of seven men across the country in Gloucestershire, the South East and the West Midlands.
READ MORE: Find out more about police raids last week and the men arrested
A total of 15 expensive and well-known paintings, as well as jewellery and silverware, were taken from the home of Esmond Bulmer, the former chairman of Bulmers Cider, on March 20, 2009.

Esmond Bulmer, who had valuable art stolen from his home near Bruton in 2009. Mr Bulmer and his wife Susie were on holiday in Barbados at the time of the burglary but their house sitter – Deborah Barnjum – was allegedly tied up by the intruders.
One of the stolen paintings, Endymion by George Frederic Watts, is thought to be worth as much as £1M
Suspects fled the scene in Mr Bulmer's Mercedes 220.
A police spokesman said last week: "The arrests form part of a detailed and on-going complex enquiry.
"We are keen to hear from anyone who may have information to help our enquiries. They should contact us on 101 quoting ref 3559609."

Back-story:
 http://arthostage.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/stolen-art-watch-bulmer-paintings.html

Stolen Art Watch, Verona's Castelvecchio Museum Haul Recovered From Ukraine Fantasy Island, Plus More Art Crime

Paintings stolen from a museum in Verona were recently recovered in Ukraine (video screenshot)

Russia's FSB said to have set sights on paintings stolen from Italy, found in Ukraine

The paintings worth from EUR 15 million to EUR 20 million were stolen from Verona's Castelvecchio museum last November

Russia's FSB Federal Security Service has been developing its own operation to track down 17 precious paintings stolen from a museum in Verona, Italy, and recently recovered in Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian State Border Service.
"During the investigation, the border guards have learnt that the search for the paintings was also in the sphere of the Russian FSB's interests, and the thieves were taken by the Russian side under control. What is more, the FSB planned its own operation to relocate the pictures to Russian-controlled Transdniestria [a breakaway self-proclaimed state located on the eastern Moldovan border with Ukraine]," the Ukrainian agency said.
Read also Dutch Art Mystery Solved
Having identified members of the criminal group and the way they had transported the paintings, including works by Tintoretto, Rubens and Mantegna, the Ukrainian border guards, investigators and military prosecutors found a cache storing the stolen art on Turunchuk Island on the Dniester River in Odesa region's Biliayivsky district between Ukraine and Moldova, the service's press service reported.

The Ukrainian law enforcers worked closely with their Moldovan counterparts to identify the thieves and track down the paintings. The criminal group included citizens of Ukraine, Moldova and Russia. The investigators found that the works of art had been mailed to Odesa region from Moldova for further sale in Ukraine and Russia.
As part of the investigation, the Ukrainian military prosecutors plan to invite Italian experts and officials in to authenticate the paintings and formalize their handover.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has already hailed the Ukrainian investigators' work as a "brilliant operation" and said it had demonstrated Ukraine's efficient fight against art smuggling.
The presidential press service reported that the paintings were seized on May 6 and tests conducted on May 7 confirmed that these are the original works of art.
The paintings worth from EUR 15 million to EUR 20 million were stolen from Verona's Castelvecchio museum last November.
Watch also From Trash To Treasure: Recovered paintings from Odesa's dumpsters on display
In March, the Italian authorities announced the arrest of 13 suspects in the case in Italy and the ex-Soviet nation of Moldova.
Director of the Ukrainian State Tax Service's investigation department Petro Tsyhykal reported that the paintings search operation conducted by the Italian police was dubbed "Twins," as twin brothers were involved in the theft. One of them worked as a museum guard. The criminals acted out an attack on the museum's guards and stole the paintings, which were allegedly ordered by a private art collector from a Russian region, most probably, the Chechen Republic.

Ukraine tracks down Old Master paintings stolen from Verona

KIEV, Ukraine — The 17 precious paintings stolen from a museum in Verona, Italy, including works by Tintoretto, Rubens and Mantegna, have been recovered by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in what the nation's president hailed Wednesday as a "brilliant operation."
President Petro Poroshenko said the recovery of the stolen art estimated to be worth more than 16 million euros ($18.3 million) had demonstrated Ukraine's efficient fight against art smuggling.
Ukrainian border guards found the stolen paintings hidden in plastic bags in a cache on a small island on the Dniester River between Ukraine and Moldova.
The paintings were stolen from Verona's Castelvecchio museum last November. Three masked armed men entered the museum in a medieval castle after it closed and just before its alarm system was activated. They tied up a security guard and a cashier, quickly took the paintings from the walls and got away in the security guard's car.
In March, the Italian authorities announced the arrest of 13 suspects in the case in Italy and the ex-Soviet nation of Moldova. They included the Italian guard on duty when the robbery took place and his twin brother along with the brother's Moldovan wife, who were arrested in Italy.
Investigators had analyzed 4,000 hours of video and hundreds of phone calls to identify the suspects. In intercepted phone calls, the thieves congratulated themselves, calling the heist "a big hit," and saying they would have to wait a few months before trying to offload such valuable paintings.

Ukrainian Border Guard agency said the paintings had been mailed from Moldova to Ukraine's Odessa border region and kept there by members of a criminal group that included citizens of Ukraine, Moldova and Russia.
"We have not only preserved the global value of these paintings, but also reaffirmed Ukraine's prestige by such efficient actions," Poroshenko said.
He ordered his government to invite Italian officials and experts in to authenticate the paintings and formalize their handover.

Man sentenced in connection with theft of 'priceless' South Devon church artworks

Recovered panels from Holy Trinity Church, Torbryan

A MAN has admitted the theft of two priceless 15th century oak panels, originally stolen from the rood screen of a South Devon church in August 2013.
Christopher Cooper, 48, pleaded guilty to fraud, specimen theft charges and dealing in tainted cultural objects.
His thefts took place in a series of offences over three years, during which time district crown prosecutor and CPS lead for heritage crime Stephen Davies suggested he made £150,000 from his crimes.
He was sentenced to three years and eight months at Hereford Crown Court.
It took a dedicated team at West Mercia Police 18-months to fully investigate the crimes, with the support of the Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit, and most of the stolen items have now been returned to their rightful owners.
Following a successful fundraising campaign by The Churches Conservation Trust to raise the money to fix damage caused by the thefts, the two priceless panels from Holy Trinity at Torbryan are now undergoing painstaking conservation work, and are scheduled to be returned to the church over the summer.

Holy Trinity Church at Torbryan The decorative oak panels, bearing paintings of St Victor of Marseilles and St Margaret of Antioch, are considered of national importance, and were stolen from Holy Trinity Church at Torbryan between August 2 and 9 2013.
The panels remained missing until they were recovered by the Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit after being spotted by a private collector in an online sale.
This led to a raid by specialist detectives in south London in January 2015.
Crispin Truman, chief executive of The Churches Conservation Trust, said: "It is good that Mr Cooper has come clean about these damaging and heart-breaking thefts and has helped return valuable historic items to their rightful owners - the community.
"Heritage crime causes just as much heartache and anxiety as other sorts of theft, but all too often it goes unsolved.
"Particular thanks to West Mercia Police and the various police forces who worked so hard to bring Mr Cooper to justice.
"Thankfully, the generosity of our supporters and the general public is allowing the priceless artworks he hacked out of Holy Trinity in Torbryan to be painstakingly conserved, and they will soon return home to the church.

The panels before (left) and after the theft "However, as a heritage charity reliant on donations to maintain and care for our 349 churches, that money could have been spent on other important artefacts."
The panels are part of a rood screen which is one of only a handful of such artworks in England which survived the Reformation.
The theft prompted a national media campaign to try to trace the whereabouts of the missing panels, receiving the backing of high profile figures such as Loyd Grossman, Dan Cruickshank and the late Candida Lycett Green.
The collector who alerted the police recognised the panels from media coverage of the theft.
When it first came to light in 2013, the theft was a bitter blow for The Churches Conservation Trust, the national charity that cares for 349 unique churches across England, including Torbryan church.
Thanks to donations from supporters and members of the public, £7,000 was raised to restore the damage.
West Mercia Police led the investigation into the theft as part of Operation Icarus, and recovered a treasure trove of other church artefacts, including stonework, friezes, statues, paintings, brasses, misericords, stained glass and bibles.

Stolen Three Century Old Violin Mysteriously Returned

Rosemary Siemens wasn't sure if she'd ever see her signature violin again after it went missing last week

"It was probably the most stressful thing I've ever been through," World-Renowned Violinist and Plum Coulee native Rosemary Siemens says. "I've never been so beside myself."
Nicknamed "Sparkle" the priceless 302-year-old violin Siemens had been given to perform with, along with a gifted $15,000 bow, mysteriously went missing last week after a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in California last week.
"It felt like a piece of me had died... I love sharing the story of how I got my instrument and how it touches people," she says. "And I thought, "how can my story be taken from me?" It's such a positive story of how people have given to me and how I give back through it."
At 3:00 a.m Siemens and friends went out into the Santa Barbra streets scouring dumpsters, and inquiring at gas stations for any sign of the 18th century instrument. With a flight to catch in a matter of hours, Siemens says she didn't know how she would play her next show. It was then a glimmer of hope appeared, a good samaritan heard about the story and offered a $2,000 reward to anyone with information on the missing violin. Fellow musician, Ainsley Kroeker, offered to borrow a bow; friends and family were praying through the night. She says even her taxi driver helped search dumpsters around the hotel.
"It was unbelievable how people jumped in to help," Siemens says.
After a sleepless night, Siemens boarded her flight bound for North Dakota with no news on the missing instrument. It was during a layover in the Seattle airport she received word the violin had been returned as mysteriously as it was taken."Sparkle" dates back to 1714
She learned someone in a hooded sweater had walked into the front desk of Siemens' hotel and placed the violin on the counter with the simple explanation, "I hear you've been looking for this," and walked out.
There in the boarding area of the airport Siemens broke down, "I could not stop crying," she says.

While the circumstances surrounding the disappearance and return of the violin are still unclear, Siemens believes it was the power of prayer that prevailed. The entire experience has also given her a new appreciation for what she calls, "the perfect instrument," one that has defined her sound as an artist for the past 14 years.
"I'm just so thankful, everyday I'm waking up thankful," Siemens says.
The story that could've ended tragically, she says, is now inspiring others. After sharing the experience fans have offered to pay travel costs to reunite Siemens with the violin, while another, a massage therapist, offered a massage after the stressful episode. She notes it's also fitting May is Pay It Forward month.
"It's beautiful because one man's junk is another person's treasure, and he doesn't know what he stole from me," Siemens says. "It's important to just do wonderful things for people, even simple things, because you don't know how it's going to touch them on that day."

The Ins and Outs of Stolen Art, Explained

Modigliani’s Seated Man With a Cane (1918). Photo by Brian Smith.

Art dealer Kenneth Hendel recently found himself in a sticky situation: He was in possession of stolen art. The Florida-based dealer purchased a painting by Picasso after it failed to sell at auction. After the purchase, Wilma “Billie” Tisch, the rightful owner, discovered the painting’s whereabouts and demanded its return. Hendel claims that he is now the rightful owner. The dealer is confident that he will not be forced to return the work because he is working under the assumption that Florida law protects his purchase. He claims that “the piece belongs to the last person who purchased it if it has passed through at least two people since the theft.” This is simply not true.
While it is true that certain aspects of the law in Florida are more forgiving towards current possessors than would be the case under New York law, there are major misconceptions in Hendel’s analysis. There is no law, in any state, that allows someone to gain title over a work after it has passed through a requisite number of exchanges. In fact, a work can be sold by a hundred dealers and yet still belong to an original owner.

Stolen Art Statute in the U.S.

In the United States, every state operates under the “nemo dat” rule, shorthand for “nemo dat quod non habet,” meaning “no one gives what he doesn’t have.” Generally, a thief can never gain good title (ownership not subject to competing claims or liens) and may never pass title. Anyone in the chain of sale for a stolen work will not get good title, absent an exception.
There are narrow exceptions that allow a good faith purchaser (someone without constructive or actual knowledge of any title defects) to gain proper title. In limited circumstances, the court may deem it equitable to grant title to a good faith purchaser rather than the original owner. And while it is true that those limited exceptions vary from state to state, no state simply provides title to the most recent purchaser, as Hendel suggests.
Due to New York’s position at the center of the art market, both in the U.S. and the world at large, the Empire State is particularly protective of original owners in order to prevent the state from becoming a haven for stolen art. The state’s protective stance is reflected in its statute of limitations exception. As a general rule, a victim has a set time to file a lawsuit. For art theft, the clock typically begins to run when the work is stolen. However, the New York statute of limitations for art theft begins when the true owner demands the return of the object and the possessor refuses the demand. The reasoning is as follows: A good faith purchaser does not commit a wrongful act until he or she refuses to return the stolen work; only then can the statute of limitations begin to run. This “Demand and Refusal Rule” is tempered by a legal defense called “laches,” that prevents an original owner from sitting on their rights for an unreasonable length of time.
Other states are not quite as protective, following the “Discovery Rule.” That rule holds that the statute of limitations begins to run when a diligent owner knew, or should have known, the current location of an artwork. This standard is used by all states other than New York, as it encourages the original owner to act diligently in seeking his or her property. In the case that the original owner did nothing to recover his property, then a court may not agree to delay the statute of limitations, and the owner may be barred from bringing suit. This analysis is fact-specific and differs from case to case.
The inquiry in Tisch v. Hendel will rely on many facts. Should Tisch have discovered the location of the work earlier? How should she have searched for the painting? Should she have advertised the theft or would that have driven the work further underground? Did Hendel act in good faith? He is an art dealer with knowledge of the art market. Should he have research the work more thoroughly before purchase? As Picasso is the most stolen artist, should Hendel have been more skeptical of the piece and its low sale price? However, independent of the outcome of this case, the U.S. statute is clear and, in fact, much more stringent than in certain other jurisdictions worldwide.

What Loopholes Could Have Protected Hendel?

In the U.S., courts have recognized the importance of researching the title and history of artworks. If someone intends to purchase stolen art, there are other jurisdictions that are more favorable. Switzerland has long had a reputation as a safe haven for stolen property. Not only does the European nation fiercely guard the privacy of its banking clients, but its freeport in Geneva has become home to some of the greatest private art collections, with many deals taking place in the secrecy of its vaults.
The freeport has become notorious for housing looted and stolen art. One of the most famous dealers in looted Roman and Etruscan antiquities, Giacomo Medici, stored his wares in the freeport, eventually facing criminal changes, serving time in prison, and having his collection seized in the late 1990s. But the freeport continues to make headlines, as a raid earlier this year led to the discovery of a trove of illicit antiquities belong to one of Medici’s contacts, Robin Symes.
After much criticism over the nature of the Geneva warehouse, a change to the Swiss Customs Act was enacted on January 1, 2016. The regulations were amended to implement time limits for exports, increase transparency by declaring goods for export and provide the identification of buyers. The change to the Act was motivated as part of a larger program to reduce money laundering and smuggling. However, even with these changes, stolen art may be easier to transfer in Switzerland due to the fact that Swiss law presumes good faith on the part of a purchaser.
Individuals involved in the trade of stolen art have also used offshore accounts to complete transactions away from the prying eyes of the law and the art market. In April, a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Fonseca, suffered a security breach and had millions of internal files become public. The information in the so-called Panama Papers leak confirmed the suspicion that wealthy individuals use shell companies to hide art.
One prime example among the revelations is the case of Modigliani’s portrait Seated Man With a Cane (1918). The piece was once stolen by the Nazis. It vanished for decades but appeared for auction in 1996 at Christie’s and again in 2008 at Sotheby’s, with the well-known Helly Nahmad Gallery listed as consignor. At this time, the original owner’s heir, Philippe Maestracci, discovered the work’s whereabouts and claimed the painting as his family’s missing property. But when Maestracci demanded return of the work, the Nahmad Gallery claimed that it did not own the painting. The gallery claimed that the Modigliani portrait was purchased by International Art Center S.A. (“IAC”), a Panamanian company. As was revealed in the Panama Papers, IAC is a shell company for the Nahmads that was established by a member of the family. Ownership was later transferred to other family members through a share transfer.
For individuals with stolen art, the options are not limited to Florida and New York. Offshore accounts, freeports, and nations that presume good faith are all options for collectors. However, as a lawyer, I do not advocate hiding or purchasing stolen art or loot. As noted above in reference to the Panama Papers and the discovery of Medici and Symes collections, hidden art troves are usually discovered, and with disastrous consequences. It is not wise to deal in stolen or looted art. And it is important to purchase art with good title, as those purchases encourage a healthy and transparent art market, and those works also retain their value upon resale and are not subject to seizure.

Should the FBI Offer Reward Money for Stolen Art?

Andy Warhol’s soup cans are one of the most iconic images of American pop art–and last week, someone decided to take them for a walk. The Springfield Art Museum of Springfield, Missouri reported a burglary last week that involved several prints made by Warhol in 1968. The FBI has announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the thieves–which seems excessive until you consider that a single one of Warhol’s soup can prints sold for $30,660 last year at Christie’s. The reward also pales in comparison to the $5 million reward offered for information regarding the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum robbery–during which multiple pieces by Renoir and Vermeer were stolen. Yet it is still a massive sum that will hopefully tempt informants to come forward.

The FBI has a specially designated Art Crime Team brought in to handle matters involving stolen artwork but unless the prints are found relatively quickly, they may be transferred into the collection of a private buyer via the black market and never seen again. The FBI operates a National Stolen Art File, which provides a comprehensive index of art that has been stolen worldwide, but with a piece as recognizable as Warhol’s soup cans, putting it in the index is not even necessary. The print could never go to auction in a traditional showroom, which means tracking it will be an infinitely difficult task. Law enforcement will be forced to rely heavily on anonymous tips and confidential informants, which is why they have drawn attention to their tip line with a cash incentive.

However, that incentive may not seem justified from all quarters. Why is the FBI designating such a massive cash prize to the Warhol paintings when it could donate the same prize to informants who call in regarding violent actions or organized crime? Why is the FBI designating that money to prizes at all when it could be using it to finance operations and hire the best possible analysts (instead of potentially losing them to the private sector)? The Art Crime Team would respond that stealing art can be equated with stealing history, taking away the identity and history of a given people. This argument holds up when considering the team’s successful recovery of artifacts stolen from archaeological sites and public museums, but when examining private collections, we come to gray area. Should the government be tasked with providing a reward for the theft of a privately owned painting or should that responsibility fall to the owner, who has the ability to insure the painting?

On its website, the Art Crime Team has listed several of its successes, including the case of “approximately 100 paintings stolen from a Florida family’s art collection in a fine art storage facility. This collection included works by Picasso, Rothko, Matisse and others that were recovered from Chicago, New York and Tokyo.” Stealing a painting from a venue like the Springfield Art Museum does impact the community’s ability to access and enjoy art but if it was stolen from a private collection, the public would have just as little access to the artwork after the theft as they did before. The reward offered in the case of the Warhol prints may turn up valuable information, but it could also be a waste of government funds that will do virtually nothing to return the prints. 

Bosnia Urged to Tackle Art Trafficking

Thousands of artworks disappeared from Bosnian collections during and after the war, and the authorities are not doing enough to tackle the illegal trade, experts say.

Rodolfo Toe

BIRN

Sarajevo

The Bosnian National Gallery. Photo: Emir Kapetanovic/Wikicommons.

"Thousands of artworks were stolen" during the war, and the crimes continued after the end of the conflict, Dzenan Jusufovic, the director of the Bosnian Centre Against Trafficking in Works of Art, an NGO campaigning for a national mechanism to counter illegal art sales, told BIRN.
There is no accurate data on the issue, but large numbers of artworks have been stolen from both private and public collections, Jusufovic said.
“Around 1,500 works were stolen from the Bosnian Association of Visual Artists alone, another 45 from the International Gallery of Portraits of Tuzla," he added by way of example.
Strajo Krsmanovic, the director of Bosnian National Art Gallery, told BIRN that the museum had complained of the disappearance of around 50 portraits as long ago as 1993, but that so far none of them has been found.
"We initially denounced the theft in 1993 and recently renewed our complaint to the authorities of the Sarajevo canton... We know that Interpol is also working on this topic, but so far there has been no result," Krsmanovic said.
He also said that the people who trafficked art during the war cannot be prosecuted any more because the crime has passed the statute of limitations.
"However, our first concern is not to punish these criminals, rather to get back our works," Krsmanovic said.
"What we are asking for is to establish an effective system for the identification and tracking of these works, so that it will become impossible to sell them and therefore whoever has them now will be incentivised to return them," Krsmanovic added.
Last month, 44 portraits that disappeared from the Museum of AVNOJ (the Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Yugoslavia) in the central Bosnian town of Jajce were delivered to the Bosnian embassy in Belgrade by an anonymous individual.
"That was probably a case of somebody who wasn't able to sell these portraits anymore," Krsmanovic said.
Jusufovic argued that in order to tackle the illegal trafficking of artworks in the country, a centralised registry for all stolen works should be set up as soon as possible.
"It's necessary to create a central database in order to track all stolen artworks and increase cooperation at all levels of Bosnian government, including the police and prosecutors," he said.
The Bosnian Ministry of Civil Affairs, which is responsible for cultural issues at the state level, confirmed to BIRN that there is still no centralised authority dealing with the problem of art trafficking in the country.
"Our ministry doesn't have any regulations [allowing it to act] in this field, it only coordinates its activities with the two entities in order to implement the UNESCO Convention [against art trafficking]," the ministry said in a written response.
It said that combatting art trafficking requires coordination between several official bodies and ministries.
"We are working to ensure the correct cooperation and the exchange of information between all these levels of government," it said.

- See more at: http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnian-authorities-urged-to-tackle-art-trafficking-05-05-2016#sthash.MQy2jfjR.dpuf

Stolen Art Watch, David Henty's Road To Damascus

 David Henty Artist
Mr Henty has a website dedicated to his art,
see link:  http://www.davidhentyart.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03tpjr3
Perhaps Mr Henty needs to work on his public speaking voice, hire a voice coach to lower the octave a notch, currently rather squeaky like a teenager lol
Margaret Thatcher had the same problem in her early days, she lowered her voice and became Prime Minister.

Notorious art forger coining it in as debut exhibition opens

WHEN the notorious art forger David Henty hosts the opening night party of his debut exhibition at a Brighton gallery later this month there will be an unlikely guest in attendance

David Henty will open his debut exhibition in Brighton later this month

As the city’s former chief superintendent, Graham Bartlett was the man who arrested Henty for a £1million passport scam 25 years ago but over the past few months the detective and the villain have struck up an improbable friendship.
Both have co-operated with the bestselling author Peter James on his new book Death Comes Knocking, a history of Brighton crime to be published in July.

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The chapter dealing with Henty revolves around his plan to produce thousands of fake passports to be sold to Hong Kong citizens desperate to find a new homeland ahead of the handover to communist China in 1997.

I had a house right in the centre of Brighton and I looked out my window one afternoon and I saw all these policemen running up the road

David Henty

The scam might have worked if the term “Her Britannic Majesty” on the inside cover had not been mis-spelt as “Her Britanic Magesty”.
As it was, the police were soon on his case. “I had a house right in the centre of Brighton and I looked out my window one afternoon and I saw all these policemen running up the road,” recalls Henty.
“I thought, Oh God. Anyway I ran out the back but there was no way out of the house and I think there were about 40 policemen. They stopped the traffic and everything and I was on News At Ten. It was a really big thing.

“They only found a few passports. They knew there were 3,000 but they didn’t know where they were. My dad burnt them when I was on remand. He found them and made a big bonfire out of them – much to my chagrin because I thought I could sell them!” Henty was sent down for five years and in many ways it was the best thing that could have happened to him.
“I went to the art class,” he says.
“I’ve always been good at drawing and the first time I picked up a brush I did a Walter Sickert painting I’d seen in a newspaper. By my tenth painting I was doing Rosettis, Renoirs, everyone.
“My art teacher said you’re not supposed to do it like that. But I said it works for me and I’ve been doing it to this day.”
It would be uplifting to report that Henty went straight as a jobbing artist on his release but, when he found that the world wasn’t ready for the Henty school of portraiture, he resorted to forgery.

The man who arrested the copycat for a passport scam will attend the opening

For years he sold paintings on eBay taking care not to claim that they were definitely originals by using the legal construct “after” followed by the name of the artist. His marketing of a signed oil painting in the style of the artist Duncan Grant in early 2015 was typical of his disingenuous approach.
Offered for £1,260 under the heading “Duncan Grant Ballet Dancers 1934”, its description read: “Beautiful spontaneous painting of the ballet, I bought this from a collector of the Bloomsbury artists, there are no gallery receipts with the painting, I think it has been in private hands for years, I am very reluctantly offering the painting as after Duncan Grant”. Sometimes Henty came close to giving himself away. As he was packing one possible original, he spotted just in time a giveaway sign.
“I noticed a globule of paint in the corner was still soft,” he said.
“I had to bake it quickly. I used a hair dryer on it for half an hour. Henty’s paintings sold so well that he became one of eBay’s select band of “power sellers” but it was too good to last. When a newspaper rumbled him in 2014, he initially denied painting the pictures before coming clean and offering the journalist a tour of his fakes factory.
An underground storage room was a trove of ageing canvases, which he would paint over, and frames bought in junk shops to give his pictures added authenticity. Henty was handed a lifetime ban by eBay and, while he was able to get round this by various bits of IT sleight of hand, a year ago he decided to go respectable.
He now describes himself as one of Britain’s best “copyist artists”.

The artist has copied many of the greats including Van Gogh

The website blurb continues: “He researches each artist thoroughly and spends days and sometimes weeks studying his subject to make sure each brushstroke is correct, each canvas is perfectly honed to how the original would have been and visiting as many works by the particular artist as he can.
“His eye for detail is unsurpassed as is his commitment for making sure the finished article is as close to the original as can be. Each masterpiece comes in its own bespoke, handmade frame and is signed on the reverse by David.”
Henty has spent the past eight months producing 40 canvases for his forthcoming exhibition from the £500,000 home overlooking the Channel in the Brighton suburb of Saltdean that he shares with his long-term girlfriend Natania.
“I’m up really early in the morning and painting,” he says.
“I love it. When it’s warm I paint on the balcony. When it’s raining I paint behind the big bay window overlooking the sea.

Henty went to great effort to ensure his copies appeared legitimate

“My attention span is not that great so I do two to three-hour spurts and then I go for a wander, walk the dogs [father and son Jack Russells Rocky and Rambo], maybe have some breakfast. We’ve all got different ways of working.”
One of his most ambitious works for the exhibition was a copy of Picasso’s Women Of Algiers, a Cubist masterpiece that was sold at auction in New York a year ago for £124million. But following an appearance on Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, an eager buyer snapped up Henty’s version for £5,500.
Another work missing from his show will be a copy of Picasso’s The Weeping Woman – that too has already gone for £4,900. “The original’s in the Tate,” says Henty.
“You could never buy it now. It’s priceless.” He reckons he will make £70- £80,000 from his exhibition but is quick to point out that the cost of canvases, paint and frames will take up a significant chunk of this.
Meanwhile, new work is already flooding in. Another customer has commissioned a copy of LS Lowry’s The Match. But Henty won’t be able to make a start on that until the weekend because he is doing some filming for a new TV show.
The concept appears to revolve around one of Henty’s fakes being hung among genuine masterpieces in a gallery. Contestants are then asked to spot the forgery. “I’m not allowed to mention it,” he says guiltily.
“I’ve been told off for mentioning it. It’s being kept under wraps until the big launch.”
Sounds like this isn’t the last we’ll hear of the charming ducker and diver from Brighton, who drives around town in a convertible with the number plate V9OGH, a homage to his skills as a counterfeiter of the works of Van Gogh.

Mr Henty's BBC Radio Four interview:

 

 Art forger goes straight selling £5,000 fakes

These masterpieces should be worth in the region of a half a billion pounds. Except they are fakes produced by David Henty, a convicted forger who produced them in the living room of his house by the seaside Brighton.
Mr Henty was exposed by The Telegraph a little over a year ago for selling his copies on eBay, duping hundreds, if not thousands, of the internet auction site’s customers in the process.
But proving there’s no such thing as bad publicity, Mr Henty has turned the notoriety to his advantage.

"Since you did those stories, I have had quite a few commissions. I can’t thank The Telegraph enough.”David Henty, master forger on going straight

The Telegraph investigation, which prompted interest from newspapers and television stations around the world, has led to Mr Henty going straight.
At the end of the month, an art gallery will stage an exhibition of his copies of masterpieces by the likes of van Gogh, Picasso and Modigliani.
With paintings priced at up to £5,000 a time, Mr Henty is expecting to do decent business.

David Henty Credit: Andrew Hasson for The Telegraph

“Since you did those stories, I have had quite a few commissions,” Mr Henty said. “People read about me in The Telegraph and elsewhere and sent me letters requesting I do copies for them of masterpieces.
“As a result, I decided to go straight and business is brilliant. I can’t thank The Telegraph enough.”
At the age of 58, and after a career in crime, the admission from Mr Henty is a bold one.
He was jailed for five years in the mid 1990s for forging thousands of fake British passports which he planned to sell to anxious Hong Kong citizens ahead of the handover to China.
The scam would have earned him a £1 million and might have worked, not least if he hadn’t mis-spelt the words 'Britanic’ and 'Magesty’. He went to jail a second time in Spain for selling stolen cars.

David Henty Credit: Andrew Hasson for The Telegraph

His eBay scam involved copying works by slightly less famous - and usually dead - artists, luring buyers in with claims that the paintings had been found in attics and in house clearance sales and that the authenticity could not be guaranteed.
In fact, Mr Henty knew the artwork couldn’t be genuine because he was churning the paintings out in his living room, as he later confessed when confronted by The Telegraph.
It was hard for him to conceal he was the artist behind the fakes, not least because he drives around in a car with the personalised number plate “V9OGH” in self-recognition of his skills as a counterfeiter of van Gogh’s work.
“I think eBay has had its day for fake art,” he said, “For the last few months I have been concentrating on these masterpiece copies. I have done a lot of research. I have been to the galleries and studied them in the flesh. The paintings are all the exact size of the originals.

David Henty Credit: Andrew Hasson for The Telegraph

“I have got 30 or 40 paintings for the exhibition. I have just done a 6ft Francis bacon that I am really pleased with. I have tried to get them as accurate as possible.”
The exhibition at the No Walls Gallery in Brighton will be his first as a legitimate copier. The opening night will be attended by Peter James, the best-selling author of crime fiction who has just completed a book about real life criminals in Brighton written in conjunction with Graham Bartlett, the city’s former chief superintendent, who arrested Mr Henty for the passport scam.

David Henty Credit: Andrew Hasson for The Telegraph

The pair - detective and villain - have struck up an unlikely friendship in recent months. Mr Henty’s passport scam is a chapter in the book, entitled 'Death Comes Knocking’ and which is published in the summer.
The endorsement of Mr Henty’s art by Mr James, who has sold 17 million books worldwide, will further boost his chances of artistic success.
A satellite television channel is also planning to make a programme around Mr Henty in which one of his fakes will hang with genuine masterpieces in a gallery.
Contestants have to spot the forgery. Whether they succeed or not will be testament to Mr Henty’s skills as a master forger.

Copycat artist is definitely a master of his trade...

 

David Henty at work on his version of Monet's Haystacks.
AN ART catalogue lies on David Henty’s kitchen table splayed open on a portrait by the celebrated late Italian painter Amadeo Modigliano.
Mr Henty has been studying the painting – the distinctive elongated face, the black, pupil-less eyes – and working out how the paint is laid on, which colours to use.
Once he has done all that, he will head for his balcony overlooking the Channel, and paint a replica.
He might even add the artist’s inky black signature in the corner.
His final step is to stick it for sale online. Quite possibly before the light fades over his Saltdean view, he will have made several hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds.
“It’s a great life,” says the self-described forger, who has been making a living for at least the past five years selling his knock-offs of works by Monet, Vettriano, L S Lowry and other masters via the internet.
“One day I knocked out three little Lowrys by eleven o’clock.”
This is not the living the 56-year-old would ever have imagined for himself. Raised in Brighton, his first job was dealing antiques and cars with his father. Then he was sent briefly to prison in the Eighties, for forging passports, which is where he started learning to paint.
“I had two art teachers there who were really nice,” he recalled. “If I saw a picture, I would just paint it straight on. They would say, ‘you cannot do it like that, it is not the way to do it’.”
Outside of prison, he carried on. For his mother, he painted a copy of the world-famous Proserpine, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He also did his own work, often portraits, but sales never really took off.
“I did not know how to use the internet and there was not really a great market,” said Mr Henty, who often spends his mornings kick-boxing before returning home to his easel, oils and pet dogs.
“I did a few and I sold a few, I had an exhibition down on the Marina, but there was not really any money. But then my sister’s husband asked me to do a Monet. So I knocked him up a Monet, and I got more money for it.
“And you sort of think, a light comes on and you think, ‘someone else wants it’. Then I did a lot of Van Goghs. People were queuing up; I could not paint them fast enough.”
He got more formal training with a local art teacher, and became very good at what he does. He continued trading locally or giving copies to friends. Then eBay, the online trading site, became a major force.
Mr Henty set up an account to sell his paintings, and orders from all over the world starting pouring in. He has shipped paintings to Australia and Japan. Rooms at home are crammed with canvasses to paint or works ready to go out.
His first sale on eBay, he said, was a Lowry. “I sold it for £3,500,” he recalled.
“And I thought, ‘This is great, what a fantastic way of making a living’.
“I was getting fantastic feedback. I was an eBay power seller.”
The painter does not believe he is doing anything wrong.
He says he does not say the paintings are originals, nor do people realistically think they are, even though he often adds the artist’s ‘signature’. eBay disagrees, however, and recently banned him from selling, saying he was breaching their policies.
“I took advice from a solicitor when I started,” Mr Henty says, “and he said, ‘as long as you put you are selling it as ‘after’ or ‘in the style of’ the artist you can sign it, you can do what you like, but it is not criminal’.
“People are not going to buy a Lowry for a few hundred pounds and think it is worth £400,000. It is just mad.
“The problems come if you try to sell it as real. But if you try to sell it as a copy, that is fine.
“I have seen lots of my paintings in meetings [auctions] as real but that is nothing to do with me. What they do [with them] after they get out of my hands is up to them.”
His prolific output includes copies of work by Winston Churchill and Gillian Ayres.
He is currently learning about Edward Sega. He is happy to admit he has “nothing to say” as an artist himself, but enjoys understanding others’ work.
“I like the technical side of it ,” he said, “Seeing the painting, then de-constructing it. That’s why I like forging because I like working out how the artist has done it. You have to really look at it, look at the colours, work the palette out, then look how they put the paint on. Then what happens is you click into it, into that person’s footsteps, basically.
“If I saw a new artist I would go and find his work somewhere, I would have to see his work before I can copy it.
“I also try and read everything about him I can, soak myself in everything I can find out about the artist. It’s like being obsessed for a little while.”
One master has so far escaped his paintbrush: Lucian Freud. “Most I can get efficiently and can paint,” said Mr Henty, thumbing through a catalogue of the artist’s works.
“But Lucian so far has evaded me. I have not quite mastered it yet, his work. When he paints he is really slow and builds up bits and pieces and it probably took him about a year or 18 months.
“One of his paintings went for £16 million. And here, the woman looks like a man and I thought, if I painted that... It’s a funny picture and I thought, ‘I could not get away with it’.”
Mr Henty, who has a copy of ‘Buy the $12 million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art’, by Don Thompson, on the kitchen table, does not lose sleep over artists missing out because he is capitalising on their work.
“I don’t do many people who are alive, I try and wait until they have gone,” he said.
“Most ordinary people are not going to be able to put a quarter of a million pound painting on their wall. But for a few hundred quid you can own one that looks like it. I am just bringing art to the masses, affordable art.”
If anything, the zany world of art prices bolsters his sense that it is all fair game.
“You can have a really crap painting that you would not want to give to your family, but if they have got ‘that’ name it will go for millions,” he said.
“I went to a couple of Charles Saatchi shows and I came out and thought they were absolutely crap.
“But he is such a powerful character that if he says, ‘I like that,’ then you have got about 20 dealers behind him saying, ‘I will buy that’.”
Despite eBay’s ban, Mr Henty is still very much in business, selling elsewhere online, and with a big grin on his face.
“I just really like my life,” he said. “I get up in the morning, paint. It’s down to practice – some people have got a lot of talent but have not got perseverance.”

Art Hostage Comments:
David Henty has undoubted artistic talent, as does his sibling Steven Henty.
In fact, Steven Henty's talent extends far beyond the paintbrush, creating stain glass and woodwork, including restorations of period architecture. The paintings of Steven Henty evoke memories of youthful summer days spent on the beach in a simliar vain to those of Sir William Orpen, Robert Gemmell Hutchison and Dorothea Sharp.
After a generation on the wrong side of the tracks, the Henty clan can evolve into a family of artistic talent in the vain of the 19th century Earp family, to compliment the culturally rich tapestry of Brighton & Hove.
A true measure of the talent is to be able to reproduce photo realistic paintings such as those by Norman Rockwell.
A previous critic of David Henty, Art Hostage applauds his Road to Damascus moment and wishes him well in lawful endeavours.

Stolen Art Watch, Warhol To Westfries Museum, Via Pink Panthers & Rathkeale Rovers

FBI offers reward for stolen Warhol soup can prints

The FBI has announced a $25,000 (£17,500) reward for information leading to the recovery of seven Andy Warhol soup can prints stolen from the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri.

The prints, which are part of a set of 10, were stolen in a break-in at the museum in the early hours of 7 April.
The prints have been on display at the museum since 1985 are valued at $500,000 (£351,000).
The screen print collection is based on paintings created by Warhol in 1962.
Each print is individually framed and the ones stolen are for soup cans with the labels beef, vegetable, tomato, onion, green pea, chicken noodle and black bean.
Museum director Nick Nelson has praised the "outpouring of support of the Springfield community and the quick response of the Springfield Police Department and FBI".
"For those of us who work at the museum and in Springfield's art community, the theft of these iconic Warhol prints that the museum has had in our permanent collection for 30 years feels like the loss of a family member," he said.
"We appreciate any assistance the public can provide to law enforcement to ensure the return of these treasured pieces of art."
The museum is remaining open to the public and is looking at its security measures.
"The museum is working with the proper authorities and being proactive in our security efforts as we remain open to the public. We are confident that the measures we are taking will protect the museum's treasures, while still making art accessible to our community," Nelson said.
The FBI has a specialised Art Crime Team to recover stolen items and prosecute art and cultural property crime.

Stolen in '55, 'inverted Jenny' stamp resurfaces

This undated photo provided by Spink USA shows a 1918 "inverted Jenny" stamp. Stolen in 1955, the stamp surfaced last week at Spink USA, a New York auction house. Considered America's most famous stamp, inverted Jennies were worth 24 cents when issued, but they fetch hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars today.

NEW YORK -- Opening a new chapter in an infamous stamp-world mystery, a valuable "inverted Jenny" stamp has surfaced six decades after it was stolen from a collectors' convention.
The stamp — one of the world's most famous pieces of postage — was among four of its kind taken from a 1955 collectors' convention. While two were recovered over 30 years ago, there had been no sign of the others until this one was submitted to a New York auction house this month and authenticated.
"It's one of the most notorious crimes in philatelic history, and there's a piece of the puzzle now that's in place," said Scott English, the administrator of the American Philatelic Research Library, which owns the stamp and is working with auctioneers Spink USA and federal authorities to recover it.
The would-be consigner, a man in his 20s who lives in the United Kingdom, said he'd inherited the stamp from his grandfather and knew little about it, said George Eveleth, head of Spink USA's philatelic department. He said authorities had told the auctioneers not to release the name of the consigner, who is in his 20s.
While it's unclear whether the man can shed any light on the long-cold trail to the thieves, the stamp was accompanied by an intriguing item: a 1965 letter about a monetary loan from a noted stamp dealer to a well-known auctioneer, both now dead, Eveleth said. The letter isn't necessarily connected to this stamp, however.
Still, the Bellefonte, Pennsylvania-based philatelic library hopes the stamp's discovery could lead to new clues.
"We're going to remain optimistic," English said. "Because think about it: Here we are, 61 years later, and a stamp has appeared."
Worth 24 cents when issued in 1918, inverted Jenny stamps fetch hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars today. While other stamps are rarer, the Jenny is one of few that is readily recognized even by non-collectors, Eveleth said.
It made its way into popular culture in movies such as 1985's "Brewster's Millions," in which Richard Pryor's character uses one to mail a postcard, and television shows including "The Simpsons," in which Homer Simpson finds but disregards a sheet of them at a flea market. The Postal Service issued a commemorative inverted Jenny stamp in 2013.
The original was made to celebrate the launch of U.S. air mail. Some were printed with the Curtiss JN-4H "Jenny" biplane inverted, and a savvy customer bought a 100-stamp sheet before anyone realized the error.
Over the years, they were separated, coveted, counterfeited and narrowly saved from the blitzkrieg of London in World War II and from a flood in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
A block of four was on loan to the American Philatelic Society when stolen from a display case at its 1955 convention in Norfolk, Virginia. The lender, who died in 1980, gave her rights to the stolen stamps to the society, which shares some ties with the American Philatelic Research Library.
Two of the Jenny stamps were recovered in the '70s and '80s from different Chicago stamp connoisseurs, who said they'd bought the stamps from people who had since died or whose names they didn't know, according to a 2014 article in American Philatelist, the society's journal.

Montenegro Probes Investigative Reporter for Drug Trafficking

Montenegrin investigative journalist Jovo Martinovic, work has exposed crime networks, war criminals and the Pink Panthers jewel thieves gang, is facing indictment for allegedly aiding a drug-trafficking gang.

Dusica Tomovic

BIRN

Podgorica

Martinovic worked with the Vice media group on the production of a documentary  series about the Pink Panthers and closely cooperated with Dusko Martinovic, who was one of the leading interviews in the series | Youtube screenshot.

The Montenegrin special prosecution is expected to decide next week whether to indict journalist Jovo Martinovic despite appeals from media watchdogs who argue that the authorities should consider his journalistic work as a possible explanation for his alleged contacts with drug traffickers.

Martinovic, who has worked as a contributing reporter for international media including The Economist, Newsday, the Global Post, the Financial Times and BIRN, has been in custody since October 22, 2015, on suspicion of involvement in a drug-trafficking scheme.

Martinovic, whose six-month custody remand is due to expire on April 22, was arrested alongside 17 other people from Montenegro in a joint operation with Croatian police.

They are suspected of membership of a criminal organization and drug trafficking.

Montenegro nationalist, Dusko Martinovic, a former member of an international group of jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers, is suspected of being the mastermind of the crime gang.

During the operation, police staged raids in several towns in Montenegro and Croatia, seizing 3.5 kilogrammes of cocaine, 1.5 kilos of herion and 21 kilogrammes of marijuana. Criminal charges were filed against a total of 29 people.

According to the prosecution’s request for an investigation, which BIRN has seen, the 42-year-old reporter is suspected of “mediating in the setting up of a criminal group for drug smuggling”.

Martinovic has insisted he is not guilty, saying that his contact with the other suspects was linked to his journalistic work. His family and lawyer said they did not want to comment on details of the case until the prosecution decides whether to indict him next week.

Over the last 15 years, Martinovic has worked on a several high-profile journalistic research projects which have been published in the some of the world’s most influential media, exposing war crimes and organised crime across the Balkans.

But the authorities in Montenegro insist that his arrest was not related to his work as a reporter.
Martinovic’s work often brought him into contact with criminals including the main suspect in the drug case, former ‘Pink Panther’ Dusko Martinovic, who was also arrested in the same raid in October.

Over the last ten years, Martinovic has worked on several investigations into the Pink Panthers gang, most of whose members come from the former Yugoslavia. Some 60 Montenegrin nationals were suspected of belonging to the crime network, which reportedly involved a total of 800 people who were directly or indirectly linked to 370 robberies in 35 states.

Martinovic worked as an associate producer for the 2013 documentary about the gang, Smash and Grab.

He worked also with the Vice media group on the production of a 2014 documentary series about the Pink Panthers and closely cooperated with Dusko Martinovic, who was one of the leading interviews in the series.

Another suspect in the drug-smuggling case, Namik Selmanovic, is believed to be an extra in the Vice series.

During 2015, Martinovic continued his contacts with former ‘Panther’ Dusko Martinovic, acting as a local producer for a planned Hollywood film about his life.

At the time of his arrest, Martinovic was working as a fixer with the French production company, CAPA Presse, which had hired him to do background research and find sources for a documentary called La Route de la Kalashnikov.

The documentary, which aired on the French television station Canal Plus in January, exposed illegal smuggling of weapons from the Balkans into Western Europe.

Another suspect in the drug case, Namik Selmanovic, worked with Martinovic after being hired by the French production as a fixer on the Kalashnikov film.
According to prosecution documents, which BIRN has seen, at the time of the arrests, Selmanovic was at large and could not be found by the Montenegrin authorities.
CAPA Presse sent a letter to the Montenegrin prosecution in January, expressing deep concern over Martinovic’s continuing detention.

The letter confirmed that he was working for the company at the time of his arrest on the arms trafficking documentary, and had also worked on its film about the Pink Panthers gang.
The OSCE’s media freedom representative, Dunja Mijatovic said she wrote to Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic about Martinovic and got a reply that also said he was not detained over his journalistic activities.

“The letter [from Djukanovic] states that the charges against Martinovic are not related to his work as a journalist,” Mijatovic said a report to the OSCE Permanent Council last month.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists told BIRN on Thursday that it had written to the Montenegrin special prosecutor for organised crime, which is in charge of the case, to call for Martinovic’s release, and expressed “deep worry about Martinovic's prolonged and continued detention”.

A ‘courageous and intrepid’ journalist Award-winning journalist Michael Montgomery told BIRN that Jovo Martinovic played a key role in several investigations he conducted with Stephen Smith for American RadioWorks, BIRN and the BBC from 1999 to 2015. The stories spurred international criminal inquires that resulted in the prosecution and conviction of Serbian and ethnic Albanian paramilitaries for war crimes. “Jovo Martinovic is one of the most courageous and intrepid researcher-reporters I have ever known,” Montgomery said. Martinovic’s research also formed the bedrock for another investigation by Montgomery which has received intense media coverage - allegations of organ-trafficking and other abuses by the Kosovo Liberation Army.  As a direct result, the Council of Europe conducted an exhaustive inquiry headed by Special Rapporteur Dick Marty. This inquiry led in turn to the creation of a new special court in The Hague to prosecute perpetrators of crimes against civilians in Kosovo. “Until now, I have not publicized Jovo's role in this investigation out of concerns for his safety,” Montgomery said. He pointed out that one of Martinovic’s skills involves tracing underground criminal networks and interacting with members of these groups to elicit information of vital journalistic importance. “This is what he does, very effectively. Without Jovo, there would be no Marty report and no special court in The Hague,” Montgomery said. He said that he finds Martinovic’s continuing incarceration in Montenegro deeply troubling for a country aspiring to membership of NATO.

BIRN contacted the special prosecutor for organised crime, but it declined to say what stage the investigation against Martinovic has reached and whether a decision on his indictment has been made.

On Wednesday, an international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders told the Council of Europe that Martinovic’s job involved helping to trace underground weapons networks and interacting with members of criminal groups in the Balkans.

It said that he “was arrested on 22 October 2015 in relation to this assignment”.

Martinovic’s journalistic work in the 1990s also brought him into contact with a variety of sources, some of whom may have been involved in criminal activities at some point.

Martinovic’s research also formed the bedrock for another investigation by Montgomery and his colleague Stephen Smith, which has received intense media coverage - allegations of organ-trafficking and other abuses by the Kosovo Liberation Army. 

He worked on a radio documentary called Massacre at Cuska, which looked at the killings and deportations during the Kosovo war which prompted NATO’s air strikes against Yugoslavia.
The documentary explored a massacre of 72 civilians in and around the Kosovo village of Cuska in May 1999 and spurred several important war crime investigations that led to convictions in Kosovo and Serbia.

He also worked for over a decade with Matt McAllester, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, on several investigations related to war crimes and organised crime in the Balkans.

Their work included investigations of Serbian war crimes during the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo and a Global Post exclusive on the Pink Panthers gang.

Ukraine Recovers 4 Stolen Dutch Paintings

Ukrainian officials have announced the recovery of four paintings from a trove of Dutch Golden Age art that was stolen from a Dutch museum more than a decade ago.

At a Thursday briefing showing the four paintings, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said work will continue to recover other pieces of art burglarized from the Westfries Museum in 2005.

Klimkin said it's believed that other paintings are in the possession of criminals in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between separatist rebels and Ukrainian forces broke out two years ago.

There were no details on how the 16th- and 17th-century paintings were recovered.

The museum said last year that two people claiming to represent a Ukrainian nationalist militia had contacted the Dutch Embassy in Kiev, seeking a 5-million-euro fee for the paintings' return.

Art cops recover stolen Villa Giulia

23 of 27 items recovered, worth 3 mn euros

(ANSA) - Rome, - Carabinieri art police have tracked down and recovered items from the Castellani collection of precious gold jewelry that were stolen at Easter 2013 from the National Etruscan Museum at Rome's Villa Giulia, officials said Thursday. The objects were crafted in the 19th century, in part using material from the excavation of ancient Etruscan, Greek and Rome sites. "It's a great day, now the gold will return to the museum," said Culture Minister Dario Franceschini. Officials said the Carabinieri's crack Cultural Heritage Protection Unit - one of the world's most famous divisions of art police - had managed to recover 23 of the the 27 precious items of jewelry worth a total of three million euros stolen from Villa Giulia in April 2013. The operation led to the identification of the band of people who allegedly carried out the robbery and those who allegedly received the items. Six people have been notified that the investigation is over, a move that frequently comes before a trial request.
    The case was handled by Giancarlo Capaldo, coordinator of the crimes against cultural heritage group of the Rome prosecutor's office, and Tiziana Cugini, the prosecutor heading up the probe.
    Judicial sources said a rich Russian woman commissioned the theft of the jewels, which went through the hands of a Roman antiques dealer who acted as middle man.
    Capaldo and Culture Ministry Secretary-General Antonella Recchia revealed the details of partial results - the probe is ongoing - of the long investigation which led to 23 of tghe 27 stolen objects being recovered.
    The deal, which was meant to take the jewels abroad, went belly up, they said, amid the loud media clamour sparked by the heist.
    The woman, identified in the first days of the probe, was stopped and ID'd at Fiumicino Airport as she was leaving for St Petersburg.
    Accompanied by the daughter of the antiques dealer, was carrying a catalogue of the Castellani jewels and had on her i-Phone some photos of the museum room where the theft took place, with all the details of the surveillance system. Once the deal went south the thieves contacted local fences, Capaldo and Recchia told reporters.

WARWICK — Warwick attorney Phillip Landrigan is involved in a case over the ownership of a $25 million painting with ties to the Panama Papers.
Landrigan is representing the estate of Paris art dealer Oscar Stettiner, which is seeking to have the art-collecting London and New York-based Nahmad family return Amadeo Modigliani's “Seated Man With A Cane, 1918,” which it claims the Nazis seized during World War II.
The recently leaked Panama Papers confirm what the Stettiner family claimed in court years ago, Landrigan said, which is that the painting is held by International Art Center (IAC), a company owned by the Nahmads.
While the more than 11 million leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca have implicated many of the world's most rich and powerful, several documents reveal that the Panama-based IAC has been controlled by the Nahmad family for more than 20 years.
Philippe Maestracci is the grandson and sole heir to the Oscar Stettiner estate.
“The ultimate goal is to let Philippe Maestracci gain possession of his grandfather’s painting, and what he does with it afterwards is up to him,” Landrigan said. “Just the historical justice, Philippe Maestracci should be able to spend whatever time he chooses in the same room as the painting that was stolen from his grandfather during the war, just as a matter of what’s right.”
According to BBC, Richard Golub, the lawyer for the family's leader David Nahmad, said it was "irrelevant" who owned IAC.
“What is pertinent is can the claimant prove that the painting belonged to his family,” Golub told Bloomberg News. “The answer we believe is absolutely not.”

The case

The family of Oscar Stettiner, a Jewish art dealer, originally owned the painting before fleeing Paris in 1939, according to Landrigan. The painting changed hands multiple times between 1940 and 1945, during the time Nazi Germany occupied France.
In 1946, Stettiner filed a claim in France, but died two years later while the court case was still pending.
Decades later, the piece was purchased in 1996 by IAC, according to court filings, at a Christie’s London auction for $3.2 million.
Golub said that Christie’s researched the previous ownership of the work and published it before the 1996 auction, according to Bloomberg.
“There was then not a shred of evidence in any registry or any database that referred to this painting as being a Nazi looted painting,” he said.
In 2005, the painting was exhibited at the Helly Nahmad Gallery in New York, which is owned by David’s son Helly. Valued at $18 million to $25 million, the painting was offered at auction at Sotheby’s in 2008 but failed to sell.
Currently, the painting is in a warehouse in Switzerland, according to court filings.
Landrigan said they believe IAC, the Helly Nahmad Gallery and the Nahmad family are one in the same, and that the Panama Papers confirm this. In addition, according to The New York Times, the art world has long associated IAC with the Nahmad family.

Connection to offshore accounts

lAC was incorporated in 1995 in Panama by Mossack Fonseca, “a law firm widely known as a creator of shell companies to aid individuals in circumventing international sanctions, and allowing their clients to conceal the empty shell nature of the companies and their assets,” as stated in the court filings.
“The significance of the connection to the Panama Papers is the use of these offshore entities as a mechanism for people to obscure their criminal dealings and dealing in stolen property is significant,” Landrigan said. “That significance is well beyond this case. We have the opportunity here to just do the right thing, which is to get this painting back to this family that it was taken from.”
The goal is to not only help Maestracci achieve some closure by gaining possession of his grandfather’s painting, according to Landrigan, but to also send a message to those trying to hide behind shell companies in Panama.
“The Panama Papers gives an opportunity to bring this to the front,” he said, “public awareness, and to let dealers know that they can’t continue to do it, and when they try hide in Panamanian shell companies that we’re going to find them.” - See more at: http://www.warwickadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20160414/NEWS01/160419980/Warwick-attorney-involved-in-case-linked-to-Panama-Paper#sthash.hE5PK8yI.dpuf

Head of tomb raiding gang sentenced to death

The head of a tomb raiding gang was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, and other major gang members were given prison terms, a court in northeast China's Liaoning Province ruled Thursday.

When the gang, led by Yao Yuzhong, were arrested last year it was one of the biggest busts of its kind supervised by the Ministry of Public Security since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949.

Chaoyang City Intermediate People’s Court sentenced 22 members of the gang on Thursday.
Yao was found guilty of several offenses including tomb raiding, looting and selling stolen antiques.
The court heard that Yao’s gang was highly organized, and would source fund, explore, loot and trade relics. Among 32 artifacts retrieved by police, 16 were under grade-one state cultural protection.
The court on Thursday ordered that 77 relics still in the possession of the gang members must be returned.
Yao’s gang was among 12 organized gangs implicated in illegal excavations at Niuheliang, a Neolithic site in northeastern Liaoning. Police apprehended 225 people and retrieved a total of 2,063 artifacts.

Distinctive jewellery stolen in Petworth antiques shop burglary

Police are searching for thieves who stole jewellery valued at £25,000 in a burglary at a Petworth antiques shop.

Chequers Antiques in The Playhouse Gallery, Lombard Street, Petworth was broken into sometime between 5pm on Saturday 26 March and 10.45am on Tuesday 29 March. A suspect or suspects entered through a side window and stole the jewellery.

Police Investigator Martin Butler said: "If you were in Petworth over those days and saw anything suspicious in or around Lombard Street we would like to hear from you.

"We are also keen to hear from anyone who has been offered the jewellery. If you recognise any of it from the photos we are issuing, please call us.

"The items stolen included a number of gold rings with precious stones, a silver snuff box engraved with Russian writing and coat of arms and two pairs of gold cufflinks.

"You can contact us via 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk or call 101, quoting serial 436 of 29/03. You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 (www.crimestoppers-org.uk)."

Nationwide appeal after £100k ornaments stolen

Police are issuing a nationwide appeal after ornaments worth around £100,000 were stolen near Lichfield.
The burglary happened between Thursday 10 March and Saturday 12 March in Little Aston.
The stolen ornaments included Capodimonte pieces such as The Last Supper worth £6,000, Cheats by Bruno Merli valued at £1,000, and Michael Angelo valued at £1,750 

DC Jamie Harris, investigating officer, said:

"The ornaments taken during this burglary are very specialist items. Some of these collectables are very rare and are worth a lot of money so we are understandably keen to reunite them with their rightful owner.
"It is highly likely they will be offered for sale out of Staffordshire and we want to issue a nationwide appeal to dealers of antiques and collectables to keep an eye out for any Capodimonte items being offered for sale under suspicious circumstances.
"If you become aware of any items you believe maybe from this stolen haul, or you have any information about the burglary, please get in touch."

– DC Jamie Harris

Romania, among the countries through which art works stolen by the Islamic State get to Europe

Art works stolen from the territories occupied by the Jihadi group the Islamic State (ISI)in Syria and Iraq could be found on the European market, being trafficked through Turkey and then, often, through Romania, Hungary or Bulgaria, stated for France Info Jean-Jacques Neuer, specialist in judicial issues regarding art works.

‘There is traffic which developed through Turkey, with entry in Southern Europe – Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria: there are sometimes on the market works which were stolen and then they take the direction of the big European cities – Zurich, Geneva, Paris, London, Munich then even the US- Chicago, Los Angeles, New York’ said Jean-Jacques Neuer, saying that, according to his opinion ‘ it is too eraly to say if on the market such objects could be found in a constant way’.

But the auction houses and the art traders from the whole world ‘ are extremely aware of what is happening that is why they are very careful ‘ the expert says, according to franceinfo.fr.

He said that the hiding of stolen art works is punished by harsh methods, especially in the US ; where it is considered that you allow the circulation of these objects this is support of terrorism’.

'Valuable' artworks found three years after Kiltullagh church theft

Police in the Republic of Ireland have recovered six "valuable" oil paintings that had been stolen from a church almost three years ago.

The paintings were part of a stations of the cross series, 14 works depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
They were taken from the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Kiltullagh, County Galway in June 2013.
Police found them in good condition during a search of wasteland in Edenderry, County Offally, on Tuesday.
The were taken away for forensic examination.
No-one was arrested over the theft.

Antiques stolen in Steyning burglary

Police are investigating a burglary in Steyning in which valuable antiques were stolen.
Between 6.20pm and 9.45pm on Monday 14 March a house was broken into in Cripps Lane, Steyning, and antiques, mainly silver, were stolen with a total estimated value of about £50,000.
Due to the large amount it is likely that the suspects have used a vehicle, and it is believed that two blue plastic basins, which also disappeared from the house, were used to carry away at least some of the items.
Some 27 items were taken, including a large number of silver items from the George III and IV periods, a Regency period bracket clock worth £5500, and a bronze bust of William IV, circa 1830, valued at £3000.
Ellie Mannan, Investigating Officer from the West Sussex Priority Crime Team said; "If anyone saw anything suspicious in Steyning that evening, or has any information about this burglary, please contact us by emailing 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk or phone 101 quoting serial 1503 of 14/03.
"You can also contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111."

‘Rathkeale Rovers’ jailed for €73million rhino horn theft plot

THIRTEEN members of the criminal gang known as the “Rathkeale Rovers” have been jailed for almost seven years for plotting to steal Rhino horns and museum artefacts.

Seven of a 14 member traveller gang with connections to Ratheale in County Limerick were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for their parts in a number of break-ins and plotting to steal the rhino horns with an estimated value of €73 million.
Richard Kerry O’Brien, John Cash O’Brien, Danny Flynn, Paul Pammen, Alan Clarke, Daniel Turkey O’Brien and Donald Chi Cheong Wong were sentenced by Judge Murray Creed,
Mr Wong was described in court as a London-based intermediary who would find buyers for the stolen items and made frequent trips to Hong Kong.
Judge Murray Creed heard that although the items stolen in two of the raids were valued at £17 million, police believe buyers would have paid upwards of three times that value on the illegal markets.
The judge said that the plans and the thefts were part of “an extremely sophisticated conspiracy”.
The judge said the operation to “plunder” rhino horn, carved horn and jade items started off on a “small-scale”basis in January 2012 but after initial failures and botched thefts – in one case the burglars forgot where they had hidden their haul – their planning finally paid off.
“It was serious organised crime. This criminal enterprise “involved very high value goods with significant harm caused to victims, both museums and members of the public who would otherwise have viewed the material stolen.
Describing it as a sophisticated enterprise that was both “skilled and persistent,” the judge said that it had spanned England, Scotland and Ireland adding that members of the O’Brien family, based in Rathkeale, had been at the heart of that conspiracy.
Richard “Kerry” O’Brien Jr, (31), of Cambridgeshire and also of Rathkeale, was jailed for five-and-a-half years.
John “Cash” O’Brien, (68), of Fifth Avenue in Wolverhampton in the West Midlands was jailed for five years and three months.
Daniel “Turkey” O’Brien, 45, Orchard Drive, Smithy Fen, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire was jailed for six years and eight months.
Daniel Flynn,45, and also of Orchard Drive, Smithy Fen, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, was jailed for four years despite the judge saying he played a lead role in the enterprise. However his sentence was reduced based on “the fragility of his mental health”.

Donald Wong, (56) with an address in London was described by the judge as “a buyer, seller and valuer” and was jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Paul Pammen, (49), of Alton Gardens in Southend-on-Sea and Alan Clarke, (37) of Melbourne Road in Newham, London, were both jailed for five-and-a-half years each.
John “Kerry” O’Brien, (26), of Orchard Drive, Smithy Fen, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire – but also of Rathkeale, Co Limerick, was jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Terrence McNamara, of Marquis Street in Belfast, was jailed for four years.
Michael Hegarty (43), also of Orchard Drive in Cottenham, and Rathkeale, was jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Richard Sheridan, (47) of Water Lane in Smithy Fen, was jailed for five and half years.
Patrick Clarke, aged 34, of Melbourne Road, Newham, London, was also jailed for five-and-a-half
Ashley Dad, (35), of Crowther Road in Wolverhampton, was jailed for five years and three months.
The group’s targets included Durham University Oriental Museum, the Norwich Castle Museum in Norfolk, a robbery at Gorringe’s Auction House in East Sussex and a burglary at Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
A 14th man had already been convicted and sentenced for his part in the crime, last year.
There is high demand for rhino horns in China, where they are used in highly controversial preparations of traditional Chinese medicine.
In recent years, prices of drinking cups made of sculpted rhinoceros horns also have soared in the Chinese art market.

Norway Police Arrest Two Men Linked to Edvard Munch Art Theft

Police recovered a 1914 lithograph by Edvard Munch and arrested two men connected to the theft on Monday and Tuesday, The Guardian reports. The unidentified men are facing a pretrial hearing. Norwegian media confirmed they have criminal records.
Police spokeswoman Unni Groendal said the authorities believe the men handled the stolen work, but they are not suspected of the 2009 theft from Oslo’s Nyborgs Kunst gallery. The perpetrator stole the work titled Historien, which is valued at over $200,000, after smashing one of the gallery’s windows with a rock.
Munch’s work seems to be popular amongst thieves. Previously, a gunman stole masterpieces The Scream, 1893, and The Madonna, 1893–94, from the Munch Museum in 2004. A different version of The Scream was lifted from Norway’s National Gallery in 1994. In the latter incident, the thieves involved left behind a postcard that read: “Thanks for the poor security.”
All artworks have been recovered.

Valuable Picasso Art Pieces Confirmed Stolen from a German Bank

Art News• Ana Moriarty

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Heist alert! Picasso art stolen! A number of artworks, among which are the eleven lithographs by the famous Pablo Picasso, were reported missing from the Portigon AG corporate collection from North Rhine-Westphalia. Portigon AG is a financial services company which came to prominence back in 2012 as a legal successor of WestLB, the Western German state Bank. The eleven missing lithographs belong to the Picasso’s famous Bull series, and among the other stolen art is the painting The house, by the expressionist Gabriele Münter. On Friday, April 15th, 2016, the Portigon AG spokesman in Dusseldorf confirmed the art to be stolen. He stated to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that the staff has noticed that the vault in which the artworks were stored was opened at unusual hours back in the winter of 2014 and the beginning of 2015.

WestLB was succeeded by Portigon AG after its bankruptcy via bloomberg.com

The Dusseldorf Mystery

According to Der Spiegel, the news magazine which had first reported about the case, the bank filed an official complaint, and the examination of the scene did reveal that the pieces were stolen. However, the German police ceased the investigation in early 2016. The police spokesperson stated that there was no probable cause found against any certain persons and that not enough evidence had been found. The missing Picasso and other art pieces are listed in the stolen art registry. The Portigon collection has been the focus of the public for years. The stolen artwork was stored in the premises of Portigon AG in Dusseldorf, however, even though the access was regulated by the state-of-the-art insurance system, apparently, more people had managed to access the chip which opened the doors of the vault. Deutsche Welle reports that the artworks had occupied the walls of WestLB before they were stored in the vault, but when the state-owned bank went bankrupt, it was legally succeeded by Portigon AG.

Eleven lithographs by Pablo Picasso were reported stolen via theguardian.com

The Ongoing Controversy

The Portigon AG collection was in the public focus back in 2014. Portigon was to sell its valuable collection which included the works of Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, August Macke, and Sigmar Polke, among others. However, the Association of German Art Historians publicly spoke out against the sale, as they feared that the art sales from a state-owned collection could be used as a means of debt repayment. Finally, they came to a mutual agreement and left the multi-million-dollar collection in North Rhine-Westphalia and Portigon agreed to sell the artwork to a state-owned foundation. The stolen collection was estimated to an insurance value of around €1.1 million, which is roughly $1.2 million, however, the market value of these works could go much higher.

Pablo Picasso – The Bull, state VII (Le Taureau) December 26, 1945, Lithograph via moma.org

What’s Next for Stolen Picasso Art?

So, what can we expect to happen next? As we know, this is not the first time that the Picasso art was stolen. We wrote about the now-famous case of the original Picasso painting recovered in an undercover operation in Turkey. We know about the infamous case of the art dealer Yves Bouvier who sold Tête de Femme (1957) and Espagnole à l’eventail (1957) to a Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. When will these eleven lithographs turn up and where? Will they be sold in the black art market or stored somewhere for a while until the heat dies down? If history really is the life’s teacher, especially when it comes to stolen art, these precious Picasso art pieces will eventually be found and returned to their place, but until then, all we can do is wait and trust that the authorities will do their job conscientiously and that the thieves will not in any way damage the invaluable works.

The Truth About The Stolen ‘Pop Icons’ By Andy Warhol

If you don’t know, now you know.

artnet

As most news junkies have heard by now, seven of Andy Warhol‘s “iconic” “paintings” of Campbell’s soup cans, estimated as being worth a $500,000 “fortune”, were recently stolen from the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri, which thereby lost some “rare” “masterpieces” of “Pop Art”. I got the images for today’s Pic from the FBI Web site, where a reward of $25,000 is on offer.
Sorry for all the scare quotes in the above paragraph, but they were needed to show how many of the “known facts” in the case are wrong. First of all, despite headlines in mainstream news outlets such as The Guardian, Daily News, MSN.com and CBS news, the stolen works weren’t paintings at all, but silkscreen prints, and not very rare ones at that: They were produced in an edition of 250. Hardly “ ‘claim to fame’ types of pieces,” which is how the Springfield police described them to The New York Times. That is why they are worth at very most the piddling sum of maybe $30,000 each ($500,000 would the maximum price for a full set of 10, and a broken set would fetch much less). That is, they cost less than you might pay for a piece of zombie abstraction by some kid painter fresh out of grad school.
If the stolen works were really from the series of truly iconic Campbell’s soup paintings that shot the unknown artist to fame in 1962, they’d be worth something like $10 million each — but those canvases will never come up for sale (or, one assumes, for theft) since all 32 of them are safely stowed away in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The stolen prints are utterly different, even in look, from the hand-painted pictures at MoMA, which I’ve written about at rather great length. The prints are slick and hard-edged and quite faithful to the real soup packaging; the original paintings Warhol derived them from have lots of rough edges and weirdnesses, as well as a much more complex, idiosyncratic relationship to their supermarket sources.
The main reason for the difference is that the stolen prints were published in 1968, when Warhol had long since dropped his practice as a Pop artist in favor of underground films and all kinds of experimental art making: He offered to endorse any and every product, and count that as art; he designed rain and snow machines – again, as art. The year the soup-can silkscreens went on the market, Warhol was in fact stuck in a fallow moment and not sure where to head next – and then half-way through that year he was shot, setting his art back even further. Once he recovered, he found a way forward with what he went on to call “business art”, whereby the simple (or not so simple) act of earning money as an artist  would be his new medium. His art would be all about commodifying his own hand and brand, and turning them into the latest in American consumer products.
That wasn’t the only kind of art Warhol made for the last two decades of his career; he also turned out old-fashioned wonderful objects. But “business art”, Warhol’s autograph artistic sell-out, was an important part of what he got up to. Artists ever since have been playing Warholian games with the markets that depend on them, and feed them (q.v., “Damien Hirst“ and “Jeff Koons“).
The un-rare soup cans stolen in Springfield may not be masterpieces of Pop Art. They are barely even weak, late examples of that style. But, in their very multiplicity, they are important, quite early examples of the selling of self that Warhol perfected, and that still gives him such currency today. The Springfield soup cans really show Warhol appropriating his own earlier pictures and making good money – and new art – in the process.

Stolen paintings returned

Photo: The Canadian Press

Italian authorities have recovered three 15th-century paintings seized from an Italian-Luxembourg noble family during the Second World War.
Authorities on Monday unveiled the paintings, all by little-known artists, at the Brera Art Gallery in Milan, where they are currently housed.
The works were among property seized from the Borbone-Parma family after Italy entered World War II, making Luxembourg an enemy state and allowing seizure of properties under wartime law. Many of the family's treasures were recovered by the U.S. military after the war, but not these paintings.
Investigators for the Carabinieri state police unit charged with protecting cultural heritage only recently traced the works to two families in Milan who had inherited them. The works, which have not been valued, are in state custody after no living descendants could be traced.