Stolen Art Watch, Oops, Casson Case Cracked !!!!!!!

Missing painting is the real deal

It was the old switcheroo. All that remains at the Barrie

Art Club is a copy of AJ Casson's 50-year-old gift to the club.

Barrie Art Club members have a sneaking suspicion that sometime during the last couple of months someone replaced their original AJ Casson painting with the copy they kept on display.

When members wanted to show visiting Orillia-area artist Dave Beckett the original last week, it was nowhere to be found.

On Thursday, Gary Owen of Gary Owen Custom Framing, examined the one that they do possess.

"It's the print," he confirmed. "They mixed up some wires."

AJ Casson was a later member of the famed Canadian artists, The Group of Seven.

In 1959 he conducted a workshop for the Barrie Art Club, creating the 9x12-inch 'House and Hills' oil sketch. When he was done, he signed it and donated it to the club.

It has since remained in the Barrie Art Club's permanent collection, with about two dozen other paintings.

"There are a lot of possibilities," said art club vice-president Carol Mueller. "We had the original in safe keeping and the copy was on display."

Or so they thought.

Casson was a prolific painter and he lived a long time. He died in 1992 at the age of 94. His catalogue is filled with paintings of landscapes and towns throughout Central Ontario.

"I think he was pretty active, so there's a lot of them around," said Owen, who has framed some of Casson's originals over the years.

Barrie police expect to conduct an exhaustive investigation.

"We have a fairly heavy task of: A -Determining when this painting was stolen; and B - Who stole it," said Barrie Police Sgt. Robert Allan.

What police believe may have happened is that someone took the original out of storage and replaced it with the copy.

Police expect to talk with members of the club to help find some of those answers. But they're also hoping to reach out into the local art community for help.

The painting was assessed at $25,000 in 2002. Allan said its value has been estimated at anything between $25,000 and $60,000.

"It's going to be a long, difficult road unless we get co-operation from the public and the art community," said Allan.

Interestingly, Casson often leant his expertise to investigators with the Ontario Provincial Police. An enterprising counterfeiter in the 1960s realized there was good money to be made on Group of Seven paintings, even if they weren't really done by the artists.

An OPP inspector by the name of Erskins teamed up with Casson to look at paintings that were attributed to the Group of Seven.

"Erskins and Casson would show up to authenticate a painting and there would be a dinner party going on, in their honour," said Chris Jackson, a freelance Orillia curator who has worked with Kleinburg's McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Glenbow art gallery in Calgary. "Casson said he never found a fake Casson."

Jackson curated an exhibit of AJ Casson three years ago. When it arrived at Barrie's Maclaren Art Centre, he met with the Barrie Art Club and Casson's 'House and Hills' went on display for the show's duration in Barrie.

The Group of Seven subconsciously divided up the country among themselves. And other than their focus on Algonquin Park and Algoma, Casson thought Ontario was under represented.

"He basically carved out Ontario as his bailiwick for all his career," said Jackson.

He considered himself a recorder of small-town Ontario. And along his travels, he would put on demonstrations for art clubs, like the one he did in Barrie in 1959. And, often, he would leave a memento of his visit behind.

While the painting would be valuable to the club, it's not likely Casson would have considered selling it, because it was more of an oil sketch completed for demonstration purposes than a complete painting, said Jackson.

But since the members have all passed on, all their work is considered valuable.

The painting also provides a direct connection between Barrie, the art club and the famed painter.

The value of the art of the Group of Seven has steadily increased in the past decade alone, Jackson said.

Art Hostage Comments:
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Sometimes it's not good to be right, says Art Hostage smiling like a Cheshire Cat !!!!!

Stolen Art Watch, Group of Seven, Now Six !!!!

Local art club's Group of Seven work stolen

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2010/01/28/casson-barrie art-theft.html#ixzz0dvIhXlr8

The local art club in Barrie, Ont., is reeling after discovering that its cherished painting by Group of Seven member A.J. Casson has been stolen.

Officers are investigating the theft of the Casson work House and Hills, which was reported stolen by the Barrie Art Club this week, police announced on Wednesday.

"Forensic police specialists have attended to the scene and processed the location for evidence," according to a police statement.

Barrie, about 90 kilometres north of Toronto, founded its art club in 1949. The non-profit organization maintains a small gallery, hosts exhibits and holds sessions with visiting artists.

Toronto-born Casson, who was the youngest member of the Group of Seven, visited the club in 1959 to conduct a painting workshop and demonstration. By the end of the session, he had completed an original work — described as a pastoral farm scene set against a stormy sky, which he titled House and Hills — and gifted the painting to the art club.

The work, appraised at $25,000 in 2002, has rarely been seen outside of the Barrie area and was a prized component of the club's approximately 20-piece art collection.

The group also owns a giclée — a type of high-quality, ink-jet printed duplicate of a fine art piece — of House and Hills and members initally believed it was the copy that had been stolen.

Though the club has enlisted an art expert to examine the version still at the club, president Shaaron Hayman-Howard told reporters that she believes the remaining artwork to be the giclée rather than the original.

Barrie police said they are "seeking the assistance of the public in regards to the location of [this] precious piece of Canadian art."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2010/01/28/casson-barrie-art-theft.html#ixzz0dvIoj6If

Art Hostage Comments:

Darryl Vincent, Ray Hobin, Lawyer Michael Morse, all in the frame as the usual suspects.

Stolen Art Watch, Return of the Scott !!!!

Stolen painting returned in the night

Workers at Edinburgh's Signet Library found the raided watercolour hanging outside on railings

A painting which was stolen from an historic Edinburgh Library has been returned anonymously in the night.

The work of art, entitled 'I Cannae Hear Ye', was found hanging on a railing outside the Signet Library when a staff member arrived for work at 8.15am on Thursday.

The watercolour by Borders artist Tom Scott had been snatched from the library earlier this month.

The painting was discovered hanging on a railing outside the library at 8.15am this morning by a member of staff.

Lothian and Borders Police confirmed the work of art was safe, but said the investigation into its initial theft was continuing.

A police spokesman said: "Obviously, we are delighted for the library that the painting has been returned.

"Nevertheless, we still must establish whether any criminality was involved when the painting was taken.

"Anyone with information that can assist with our enquiries should contact police immediately."

Stolen Art Watch, Stolen Painting, Lawyers, Scotland, DeJa Vu !!!

Painting stolen from historic law library
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8458675.stm

A valuable painting has been stolen from a library used by some of Scotland's most senior lawyers.

The watercolour was taken over the New Year from the historic Signet Library in Edinburgh, home of the country's legal establishment.

The Signet Library is in Parliament Square off the Royal Mile and houses The Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, an independent body of lawyers.

It is one of the oldest professional bodies in the world.

The library is a favourite venue for prestigious functions and played host to a New Year party for 200 people.

Sometime between then and 5 January, the watercolour, 'I Cannae Hear Ye' by Borders artist Tom Scott, was stolen.

It is valued at up to £4,000.

A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said: "This has been an opportunistic theft of a relatively expensive piece of artwork, and we are eager to ensure it is returned to the library.

"Anyone who has any information that can assist our inquiries should contact police immediately."

Tom Scott lived between 1854 and 1927 and mainly painted landscapes.

Stolen Art Watch, Clawed Monet Survives the Switch !!!

Police have found Claude Monet’s painting Beach at Pourville, stolen nine years ago and worth millions of dollars.
http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul123585_stolen-monet-found-in-poland.html

The painting has been found in Olkusz, southern Poland - 41-year-old Robert Z., suspected of the theft, has been detained.

Beach at Pourville was stolen on 19 September 2000 from the National Museum in the western city of Poznan. The painting, worth from 3 to 7 million dollars, located in the Monet exhibition room, was not properly protected – there were no CCTV cameras in the room and the paintings were not in glass cases. The thief cut the painting out of the frame and replaced it with a forgery. -

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Beach at Pourville is the only painting by Claude Monet in a Polish art collections. It was painted in 1882 and is one of a series of canvases that depict a seascape of Pourville. The museum in Poznan, then in Germany, bought the painting in 1906.

Stolen Art Watch, Gerald Blanchard, The Pipes, The Pipes Are Calling, Oh Danny Boy !!!!

Super-thief eyes career as security consultant
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/01/11/manitoba-blanchard-crime-ring.html

A man described by Canadian police as one of the most sophisticated criminal masterminds they've ever seen is grooming himself for a new career as a security consultant.

Freshly released from prison and now living at a Vancouver halfway house, Gerald Blanchard was the linchpin behind an international fraud and theft ring that stole millions from banks and financial institutions.

Facing more than 40 charges when police caught up with him in 2007, Blanchard pleaded guilty to 16 of those charges in a Winnipeg court. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in the case that involved global heists and unconfirmed links to Kurdish rebels. Blanchard admitted several capers were carried out on behalf of a mysterious figure known as "The Boss." The Canadian lived a jet-set lifestyle under several assumed identities, using elaborate disguises and high-tech surveillance equipment to empty cash machines from banks around the world

Hurting corporations
In one audacious theft, he posed as a tourist in a Vienna castle before swiping the priceless Star of the Empress Sisi from an encased display — leaving a gift-shop replica in its place. The 19th-century diamond-and-pearl heirloom was later found stashed at the home of one of Blanchard's relatives in Winnipeg.

"I felt guilty to a certain extent, but my reasoning behind it at the time was I'm not hurting individuals, I'm hurting corporations," Blanchard told CBC News in an exclusive interview.

Aside from orchestrating robberies at financial institutions in Alberta, Manitoba, and B.C. — including the Alberta Treasury Branch — Blanchard's criminal organization made an overseas trip on behalf of a London-based man officials and court records describe only as "The Boss."

Heard on a police wiretap, Blanchard received a call from the United Kingdom, said Winnipeg police Det. Larry Levasseur.

"Basically the boss told him how quickly can you get your crew together? I have a job for you to do in Cairo," said Levasseur.

In Cairo, Blanchard's crew withdrew wads of cash using stolen bank cards. In just over a week they took more than $1 million. The funds were believed to have been used to finance Kurdish rebels.

Uncommonly gifted
Police described Blanchard as charming and uncommonly gifted at what he did.

He was eventually arrested by Winnipeg police who were investigating the brazen theft at a CIBC branch in which $500,000 was stolen from the bank the day before its grand opening.

Blanchard had stolen blueprints for the new bank, and defeated the security system on the ATMs by installing his own electronic surveillance equipment in the walkway behind them. With pinhole cameras and listening devices in the ATM room, he knew the coast was clear.

But he slipped up when another business owner noticed a rented van – hired in Blanchard's name – in the parking lot near the bank. Still, it took police three years to catch up with him.

While in Austria on a 1998 honeymoon he was introduced to the Sisi Star.

"The person who gave us the tour explained that this there's only two diamonds like this in the world and it was priceless," said Blanchard, who admits that it was his level of surveillance and patience that made him not simply a good thief but a great one.

"I just had the ability to look around me and realize where the flaws are in everything. That's why I was so good at walking into a bank, looking around and knowing exactly where the flaws are and taking advantage of it."

Winnipeg police Det. Mitch McMormack said after he arrested Blanchard he was amazed at the criminal's ability to assemble and disassemble the type of locks used by banks.

"So I took him during one of our conversations a bag of parts of this lock. It was all apart. And it was like watching a person with a Rubik's Cube that could actually solve it. In a matter of a couple of minutes he put springs and screws all back together, spun the dial on that thing, and charged it up. I've never seen anything like it."

No one is exactly sure just how much stolen money went through Blanchard's hands. But inspired by the sentencing judge at his trial, who said Blanchard might have made good money consulting for the banks he stole from, the long-time crook said he's now focused on the straight and narrow.

Discussions about legitimate security consulting are underway, but Blanchard said he can't provide details due to confidentiality agreements.

Art Hostage Comments:

So much to say, but this will do for a start, below, four versions of Danny Boy, Mario Lanza to Eva Cassidy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzL-eGDYIJA&feature=fvw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMFzsQ3sACs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jgma--0WYU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=852gverKRPo

Stolen Art Watch, Art Theft in the Spotlight !!!

France battles theft of cultural treasures

PARIS, Jan 10, 2010 (AFP) - French police colonel Stephane Gauffeny started the year with a heavy caseload.

His job: investigating the theft of art and treasures in France, one of the best-endowed and most stolen-from countries in the world, which was struck by two major crimes in the week after Christmas alone.

In the first, a picture by Edgar Degas worth 800,000 euros (1.14 billion dollars) was unscrewed from the walls of a museum in Marseille.

The colourful pastel of performing singers, titled "The Chorus", was on loan from the Musee d'Orsay, Paris's eminent museum of Impressionist art.

Three days later, police discovered the theft of some 30 paintings valued at around a million euros, including works by Picasso and Rousseau, from a private villa in the south.

Both cases crossed Gauffeny's desk at the government's cultural theft investigations squad, where he oversees national efforts to "identify stolen objects and beat the traffickers."

"It's an enormous job -- a fascinating job," the stocky gendarme told AFP, sipping milky coffee at a Paris cafe after a morning of meetings.

Local and foreign thieves have for years been targeting the collections in French museums, churches and private homes, exploiting a rich cultural heritage that draws millions of foreign visitors a year.

In last year's highest profile case, thieves broke into a museum devoted to Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in central Paris and stole a book of his pencil drawings valued by the government at three million euros.

Gauffeny says thefts have declined by a factor of four in the past decade as thieves look for loot that is easier to sell and France has stiffened penalties for those convicted of stealing objects classed as cultural assets.

But this still left 2,000 thefts across the country in 2008, according to his figures.

"We concentrate our energy on the biggest thefts or the biggest criminal rings," Gauffeny said, citing an ongoing investigation of auctioneers at the renowned Drouot auction house in Paris.

Two Drouot brokers were charged last month after police recovered more than 100 artworks, including a painting by the 19th-century artist Gustave Courbet, "Seascape Under Stormy Skies", worth 900,000 euros.

Gauffeny said it was a huge case and "extremely rare", possibly involving scores of insiders -- a different class of crime from the armed robberies or opportunistic thefts that his unit has dealt with in the past.

"We have put all our investigative resources into it," he said.

The cross-border police agency Interpol, based in Lyon, cites France and Italy as the two nations worst affected by the theft of precious artworks and antiques.

In August it launched an online catalogue of missing artefacts, which lists hundreds of paintings stolen in France as well as crucifixes, chalices and other treasures burgled from its churches over the decades.

"France has a relatively large national heritage," says Aline Le Visage, the representative in France for the Art Loss Register, a private firm that logs and identifies stolen objects for victims, dealers and other clients.

This abundance makes it "a country of choice" for art thieves -- and many great works are held not by museums but by private individuals, she said.

"There has been a slight fall in thefts over the past 10 years or so on a world level, but we have noticed a rise in thefts from private owners and also in galleries."

Robbers have struck at museums in Paris and other cities, sometimes in broad daylight, Gauffeny says, recalling various sting operations and cross-border hand-offs of stolen artworks, many of which quickly vanish abroad.

Police say major artworks are usually trafficked abroad, sometimes within days of being stolen -- most to neighbouring European countries, but sometimes as far as the United States and Japan, from where they are rarely recovered.

Demand follows the same general trends as the legal art market, and much art crime is carried out by insiders. "Most of the people fencing the items are art dealers," Gauffeny said.

Objects of lesser value often stay in France, sometimes held in reserve by the traffickers who quietly leak them back onto the market years later.

In one operation in 2008 in Marseille, Gauffeney said, police infiltrated a ring of thieves and seized paintings by Monet and Sisley after posing as buyers who wanted to take the works to the United States.

In another, near Lyon, an investigation into antique-dealing circles led police to a vast haul of stolen goods in a storage space spanning hundreds of square metres.

Outside the big city museum cases, Gauffeny and other experts say most of the crimes hit softer targets: unsecured provincial venues, churches and homes.

Didier Rykner, a fine art specialist who monitors thefts on his online journal La Tribune de l'Art, said many works are at risk in run-down, unguarded museums on which authorities are unwilling to spend money.

"In my opinion the problem of theft is more serious in churches than in museums. There are major works in churches and they are less well guarded," he said.

"Yet the more valuable a work is, the harder it is to sell, because everyone knows the object."

Some of the biggest cases, such as last year's stolen Picasso, nevertheless remain unsolved, leaving plenty of work for Gauffeny's department and its huge database of stolen items.

"We are always particularly on the look-out for national treasures," said Gauffeny, while for minor or privately-owned artefacts, "the rate of recovery is low."

The fight to recover cultural relics is "a really fascinating job, full of emotion," he added.

"When you return objects stolen from a church, the whole village comes out to see you."

Stolen Art Watch, Cartier to Cash !!!!

France armed gang steals millions
5 January 2010

A gang armed with rifles and explosives has stolen several million euros from an armoured van which was transporting the cash to a bank in southern France.

About a dozen masked robbers used several cars to block the van in the village of Gemenos, near Aubagne.

Reportedly armed with kalashnikovs, the gang then used explosives to blow open the doors of the vehicle and break into its security boxes.

The Sazias security van was said to be carrying a total of 8m euros (£7.1m).

The robbers were only able to break into two of four security boxes, making off with around half of the money being transported, said a spokesman for Sazias.

After a brief shootout with local police, the gunmen escaped and their vehicles were found later on Monday, abandoned and torched.

"This was a very organised gang," Marseille prosecutor Jacques Dallest was quoted as saying by AFP.

"They were able to break into the van using explosives, which suggests that they had serious means at their disposal."

The van had been heading to Toulon to deposit cash at a Banque de France branch.

In 2007, some 10m euros were stolen from a Sazias van in Gemenos.

Stolen Art Watch, Picasso, Rousseau Follows Degas into the Underworld, 2010 Off to a Flyer !!!!

Around 30 paintings, including works by Picasso and Rousseau, valued at around a million euros (1.4 million dollars), have been stolen from a private villa in the south of France

Picasso, Rousseau paintings stolen in France

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

DRAGUIGNAN, France — Around 30 paintings, including works by Picasso and Rousseau, valued at around a million euros (1.4 million dollars), have been stolen from a private villa in the south of France, police said Saturday.

But a Modigliani initially believed to be part of the haul has since been found, police in Toulon said.

The villa's French owner was holidaying in Sweden at the time of the break-in, which was discovered by the caretaker on Thursday afternoon.

Police said the owner had returned home to carry out an inventory of his collection to establish the exact loss.

The reported burglary in La Cadiere d'Azur comes after a pastel by Degas disappeared from the Cantini museum in Marseille on New Year's Eve. The 1877 pastel worth 800,000 euros had been lent for an exhibition by Paris' Orsay museum. Related article: Watchman questioned over stolen Degas

The painting had been unscrewed from the wall and there was no evidence of a break-in, police said, indicating the thief or thieves knew how to get round the museum's security system.

Stolen Art Watch, Degas, Guard in the Frame !!

'Guard behind Edgar Degas artwork theft'
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115161§ionid=3510212

A security guard has been arrested in connection with the theft of a painting by the Impressionist artist Edgar Degas which was stolen from a museum in Marseilles in southern France, a public prosecutor says.

“A night watchman at the Musee Cantini has been apprehended in connection with the disappearance of Edgar Degas's very expensive painting,” Marseille public prosecutor Jacques Dallest said on Friday.

He, however, did not say if the artwork had been recovered.

The disappearance of “Les Choristes (The Chorus)" was discovered when the museum opened on Thursday morning.

The art piece is worth an estimated 800,000 euros ($1.15 million). Local media had originally said it was worth an estimated 30 million euros.

The Musee d'Orsay had loaned The Chorus to the Cantini gallery for an exhibition on the work of Degas. The show was due to close on Sunday before touring to Italy and Canada.

The Chorus, which dates from 1877, is a small work in bright pastels portraying a row of male choir singers on stage.

It was one of many works loaned out by the Musee d'Orsay in recent months to raise money.

Marseille Police Let Watchman Go in Degas Theft

Deepening the mystery over the theft of a valuable painting by the 19th-century French artist Edgar Degas, the police in Marseille on Friday released a night watchman who had been detained for questioning the day before.

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He was on duty when the work, valued at about $1.15 million, vanished from the Cantini Museum there. The piece, “The Chorus,” a small pastel that shows singers performing on a theater stage, was missing when the museum opened on Thursday, and there was no sign of a break-in.

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It was one of about 20 Degas works on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris for an exhibition of paintings with theatrical themes. It was to close on Sunday and travel this year to Italy and Canada.

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Art Hostage Comments:

You pay peanuts, you get Monkey's.

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Low paid guards are easily corrupted

Stolen Art Watch, Degas, Curtain Falls on 2009 !!!

Degas painting stolen from French museum

http://www.france24.com/en/node/4959878

AFP - Thieves stole a valuable painting by 19th century artist Edgar Degas overnight from a French museum, police said Thursday.

The colourful image of singers performing on a theatre stage was missing when staff opened up the Cantini Museum in the southern port city of Marseille, prosecutor Jacques Dallest said.

The national museums service said the picture was a pastel work titled "The Chorus", worth 800,000 euros (1.14 million dollars), correcting an estimate given by local police that it was worth some 30 million euros.

Loaned by the Orsay museum in Paris for an exhibition featuring some 20 works by Degas, it measures 32 centimetres by 27 (about 13 inches by 10). Dallest said it had been unscrewed from the wall.

"As far as I know there was no break-in," Dallest said, adding that investigators suspected an intruder, a visitor to the exhibition or an inside job.

City councillor Maurice Di Nocera, responsible for organising major events in Marseille, called the theft "a disaster for the museum."

The museum was closed Thursday while police pursued their investigations, including examining film from security cameras.

Stolen Art Watch, Johnson Family, Police Chief's View !!!!

Police chief speaks out over Johnsons
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/gloucestershireheadlines/Police-chief-speaks-Johnsons/article-1637109-detail/article.html

In the final part of a series of articles to mark the retirement of Chief Constable Tim Brain, the top officer looks back on two of his proudest achievements.

THE notorious Johnson family were brought to justice as a result of one of Dr Brain's first moves when he took the top job in Gloucestershire.

He created dedicated units to tackle organised and serious crime and it eventually led to the collapse of the family crime gangs from Cheltenham.

"That enabled us to tackle the serious and organised criminals – the middle managers of crime – the people who have bases in our community but who can operate at cross border level.

"It enabled us to chip away for a long time at the Johnsons. Operation Haul is quite rightly seen as a catalyst – an iconic investigation but there had been a lot of taking out of bricks of the wall of that organised crime group for several years to that point.

"What we were able to do with Operation Haul – because they had been operating across a lot of Southern England – was to work with other forces to achieve a comprehensive interdiction and to really smash open or smash up the core of the group.

"That was an iconic moment – it was the culmination of what we had been building for several years."

Sadly the hole left by the Johnsons will probably soon be filled, said the Chief.

"There will always be the opportunity for those individuals and those groups to exist because nature abhors a vacuum – people will come in behind it and that's why it's really important that we keep up our guard."

In 2005/6, Dr Brain fought off proposals to merge the Gloucestershire force into a big regional constabulary.

"The reason we were able to avoid being amalgamated was because we were able to demonstrate that we had what many forces don't have – this specialist investigative capacity to take on serious and organised criminals.

"We invested in that – other people have caught up, but we invested early as a small force and that was critical that we could demonstrate that we could tackle these groups.

"We have talked about the Johnsons but there are others who are the local gang masters, the local drug bosses, and we've taken them out like PJ Maguire – people who thought they were untouchable found themselves in prison."

Dr Brain says the search for millions of pounds of antiques stolen by the Johnsons from stately homes will continue.

Recovering the Johnsons' tangible assets is a straightforward process, said Dr Brain, but the stolen loot is a different matter. Some of this may be in a hole in the ground – alternatively it's been moved on through the system of fences."

Another major investigation involved former Gloucester grammar school pupil Sajid Badat who had been plotting a terrorist attack.

"The most important thing to feel about that is that was a professional investigation of high national importance that was successfully managed by ourselves and by the national counter terrorist units – it was a very successful operation.

"I think it said so much for our community based policing and the support we received from our community that we were able as a city centre Gloucester community to come through that stronger. People were shocked and took a long time to reconcile themselves to what was happening, but that's the nature of terrorism."

Stolen Art Watch, Pink Panthers Due For Release !!!!!

Three Serbs jailed over Japan jewel raid
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/985687/three-serbs-jailed-over-japan-jewel-raid

A Belgrade court has jailed three Serb members of the so-called Pink Panther gang for a record-breaking jewel robbery in 2004, Beta news agency reports.

The gang has been blamed for robberies around the globe.

The court on Friday found the three guilty of stealing almost 22 million euros (about $A35 million) of jewellery in Tokyo on March 5, 2004, the report said.

The stash included a necklace worth more than 18.7 million euros (about $A30 million) and has not been recovered.

Aleksandar Radulovic was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison, Djordje Rasovic to six years and three months, while Snezana Panajotovic was given two years and 10 months.

They were ordered to return the 125-carat necklace and other jewellery or jointly pay 3.5 billion yen ($A43.9 million) in compensation.

It was the second trial for the defendants, who had been acquitted by Serbia's Supreme Court on appeal.

Judge Milena Rasic said Radulovic and Rasovic used force during the robbery while Panajotovic held a guard in front of the Tokyo store.

The three were arrested in Belgrade in 2005 on an international warrant. A trial was held in Serbia following an agreement with Japan. A fourth suspect, a British woman, was not on trial in Belgrade.

The international police agency Interpol set up a Pink Panther cell in July 2007 to coordinate the hunt for the gang and there have been a number of arrests.

In June, police in Montenegro arrested another member of the gang, which is believed to number about 60 people from the former Yugoslavia. Two other suspects were arrested in Paris in May.

The group got its Pink Panther nickname from the British police after finding a diamond ring hidden in a jar of face cream, as in the 1963 Pink Panther movie starring Peter Sellers.

Other Pink Panther robberies are believed to have been carried out in the United States, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Monaco, France, Germany and Switzerland. They have been blamed for robberies involving goods worth 110 million euros ($A178 million) during the past decade.

Stolen Art Watch, For Stolen Art, Head to London and Brighton !!!!

Leeds friend's favour for 'an old-style villain'

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Leeds-friend39s-favour-for-39an.5923195.jp

A PENSIONER agreed to cash a "dodgy" cheque for a friend despite knowing he was an "old style villain" with a shady record.
Brian Kenny, 70, denied money laundering even though he admitted he put a cheque for £10,000 through his own bank account for pal Graham Harkin, who gave him a £200 gift for the favour.

He was found guilty at Leeds Crown Courtand will be sentenced in February.

It later emerged the money had come from the sale of a rare antique "Voysey" table worth £120,000, which had been stolen from a Leeds stately home.

Harkin, 54, is currently serving a three-year sentence for his part in the burglary at Lotherton Hall in late 2006.

At his trial this week, married Kenny, a self-confessed dabbler in buying and selling antiques and bric-a-brac, denied knowing or even suspecting that the money had come from criminal activity.

The court heard Kenny had agreed to pay the £10,000 cheque, made out in his name, into his bank account as a favour for Harkin, whom he had known for about 10 years.

A few days later he withdrew the full amount and arranged to meet Harkin at a pub in Cleckheaton, where he handed the cash over in a jiffy bag.

Harkin then gave Kenny £200, the jury was told, and told him to have a drink.

Prosecutor Georgina Coade said: "He (Kenny) knew, or at least would have suspected, that that money would have represented the proceeds of criminal conduct –very basically, the money was dodgy."

The court heard the stolen table was later sold by a man claiming to be "Brian from up North" to an antique dealer based in the south of England.

The court was told that there was no suggestion Kenny was the man who had sold the table, and it was likely to be Graham Harkin, posing as Kenny, who did the deed.

However the real Kenny had earlier told police Harkin was an "old style villain" but someone he trusted because "his word was his bond".

Speaking from the witness box, the retired builder, who lives with his wife in Cleckheaton, said: "The cheque was in my name as he (Harkin) had explained he did not have a bank account himself.

"It were a cheque. It were going through my account. I really didn't think that he would do that to me.

"I never saw him involved in criminal activity in the time I have known him apart from him being arrested for stealing the table. He came across as likeable. His word was his bond."

Asked why he had referred to Harkin as an "old style villain" if not in a criminal context, he said: "I could just as well have said he was a dodgy character.
"I suppose like anybody he has little things as his employment is concerned, like a lot of people on building sites they have little ways of doing things. I didn't know him as dishonest. I didn't think of it that way.

"He asked me to cash a cheque, I said I would do it, without even thinking about it.

"But I didn't think Graham Harkin would have asked me in a million years to cash a cheque that would have led police to my door. I trusted his ways.

"There is no way I would put a cheque for stolen property through my account.

"I just wouldn't do it."

He claimed Harkin had later phoned him from prison asking him to trace the name and address of the antique dealer who had issued the cheque.

The court heard that Kenny had earlier admitted to police he knew "a lot of criminal people" and was frightened of some of them.

Kenny, a retired builder, denied one charge of converting criminal property


Stolen Barnstaple spoons are found in London

A collection of silver spoons stolen from Barnstaple museum in the summer have been recovered from a business premises in London.

The 10 historic spoons, worth approximately £20,000, were taken from a display cabinet at the Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon on July 31.

The silver and silver gilt antiques were crafted in the town in the 16th and 17th centuries and were donated to the museum by Keith Abraham.

WPC Shaunaugh Cobb at Barnstaple Police Station said it was a good example of positive police work and how they were in process of ensuring the spoons were returned to Barnstaple.

"This crime was particularly upsetting for the staff and volunteers at the museum, now the spoons can be returned and enjoyed again by members of the public," she said.

"The investigation involved a lot of work with outside agencies in the arts and antiques world, the Metropolitan Police and co-operation from the museum."

After the theft North Devon Council, the insurers and North Devon Theatres Trust offered a reward of up to £2,000 for information leading to the arrest and trial of anyone responsible.

Police have said the rare spoons were found at a business premises in London, but no further details are available at this time as inquiries are continuing.

Alison mills, curator at the museum, is delighted with the outcome:

"This is a great result for the museum and we had given up hope of ever seeing the spoons again," she said.

"They were generously given to the museum by Keith Abraham, and we are really looking forward to putting the spoons back on display so local people can enjoy them once more as he intended.

"It was lucky for us that the spoons are so easily recognisable, and we are grateful to the sharp eyes of the antiques trade.

Stolen Art Watch, Da Vinci Madonna Treated Like Mona Lisa !!

The Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece has gone back on display to the public in Edinburgh

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8417859.stm

A painting by Leonardo da Vinci has gone back on display in Scotland six years after it was stolen.

The Madonna with the Yardwinder was taken from the Duke of Buccleuch's home at Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire in August 2003.

It was recovered in Glasgow in 2007 and has now been loaned to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh where it has been put back on display.

Eight men have been charged in connection with the theft.

The artwork has an estimated value of £30m and is the only Leonardo painting in Scotland.

Painted in oils on a small panel, the work depicts the Madonna with the infant Jesus and a cross-shaped, wooden yarnwinder.

Other artists

Experts believe it was created between 1500 and 1510 for Florimond Robertet, a trusted minister and diplomat of the King of France, who had close ties to Italy.

Leonardo had a poor record when it came to completing his works and the extent of his direct involvement in the painting is the subject of much debate.

Art specialists have said the overall design, the figures and the rocks in the foreground are his but the background landscape was probably added or completed by another artist.

The painting was featured in an exhibition at the National Gallery back in 1992.

A spokeswoman said the gallery was delighted the painting could go back on display.

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Art Hostage Comments:

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The Da Vinci Madonna is Scotland's own Mona Lisa and accordingly it is only fitting to be displayed in the National Gallery

Stolen Art Watch,The Johnsons, Slow Motion Attempted Recovery !!!!

Johnson family back in court
http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/4801551.Johnson_family_back_in_court/

DETAILS of "extraordinarily rare" antiques stolen from stately homes by a notorious criminal family were revealed at a court hearing today.

The Johnson clan were jailed for up to 11 years each last year for their roles in stealing from stately homes in Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Berkshire.

The Crown Prosecution Service is trying to recover millions of pounds the family gained in the year-long spree of burglaries.

A confiscation hearing at Reading Crown Court was told items stolen in the burglaries included “the finest barometer ever made” and “extraordinarily rare” clocks.

The gang, including Ricky Johnson, 55, his sons Richard and Albi and a nephew, plotted the high-value raids while based at a static caravan park in Evesham, Worcestershire.

Ricky Johnson was sentenced to eight years, while his son Richard "Chad" Johnson, 34, and nephew Daniel O'Loughlin, 33, were jailed for 11 years each.

Michael Nicholls, 30, the partner of Ricky Johnson's daughter Faye, was given 10 years, while the youngest gang member, 27-year-old Albi Johnson, was jailed for nine years.

All were found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary between April 8, 2005 and October 13, 2006 following a month-long trial at Reading Crown Court.

The hearing was adjourned part-heard and will not resume until April 26.

Stolen Art Watch, Sculptures Stolen, But Will They Be Melted ????

Bronze statues stolen from Wentworth Estate home

December 15, 2009
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2062621_bronze_statues_stolen_from_wentworth_estate_home

FOUR valuable bronze statues were stolen from the garden of a property on the Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water.

The statues, of varying size and shape, were taken by four men travelling in a white Citroen van, Surrey Police said.

The theft took place on Saturday (December 12) between 9am and 9.45am.

Detective Constable Simon Egan said: “These statues are extremely distinguishable pieces of art and of very high value.

“These items are very large and would have taken some time to remove from the property.

“I am sure someone will have seen something suspicious even if they had not realised it at the time.

“It is also likely that someone will come across these items, either through someone they know or in other circumstances.”

Anyone with any information on the thefts is asked to contact Surrey Police on 0845 125 2222, quoting reference RM/09/7981, or alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111

Notorious Cheltenham crime gang in court

Monday, December 14, 2009, 17:31
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/gloucestershireheadlines/Notorious-Cheltenham-crime-gang-court/article-1603754-detail/article.html

A legal bid was launched today to recover some of the millions of pounds gained by a notorious criminal family in a string of raids on stately homes.

The group, all part of the same notorious traveller family, were jailed for up to 11 years each in January 2008 for their roles in the crimes, which included Britain’s biggest burglary.

They stole antiques worth millions of pounds from wealthy homes in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Worcestershire in a year-long spree.

They appeared at Reading Crown Court today for the beginning of a week-long confiscation hearing that could see them having to pay back some of the money.

Simon Burns, prosecuting, described the Johnsons as a “professional, criminal family team”, and added that “they were all operating as a joint team, and benefiting as a joint team”.

He said they each had different roles to play in the raids but had joint control, and told the court: “They didn’t want outsiders.”

Their targets included Ramsbury Manor, the Wiltshire mansion of property tycoon Harry Hyams, where they stole property worth millions in a raid described later as the UK’s biggest private house burglary.

Other victims included Formula One motor racing advertising tycoon Paddy McNally and Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire Sir Philip Wroughton.

When police arrested the gang, they estimated the total haul was worth £30 million.

Richard “Chad” Johnson, 34, and Daniel O’Loughlin, 33, were both jailed for 11 years, Michael Nicholls, 30, was given 10 years, Albi Johnson, 27, was jailed for nine years and 55-year-old Ricky Johnson was given eight years.

Ricky Johnson is the father of Chad and Albi and O’Loughlin is his nephew. Nicholls was the partner of his daughter, Faye. The family were based at a static caravan park in Evesham, Worcestershire, where they plotted the high-value raids.

They were all found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary between April 8 2005 and October 13 2006 following a month-long trial at Reading Crown Court.

A valuations expert is due to give evidence to the hearing on Wednesday, the court was told.

Other members of the Johnson family watched proceedings from the public gallery this afternoon, shouting messages of support to their relatives as they entered the dock.

Operation Haul gang due at Crown Court

December 11, 2009
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2062445_operation_haul_gang_due_at_crown_court

Five people jailed as part of Operation Haul – a crackdown on a gang fleecing country estates and who targeted cashpoints in West Berkshire – are due in Reading Crown Court next week for a financial confiscation hearing.

The hearing before His Honour Judge Christopher Critchlow is due to start on Monday and is listed to last for a week.

Gloucestershire men Danny O’Loughlin, Ricky Johnson, Richard ‘Chad’ Johnson, Michael Nicholls and Albie Johnson were part of a group who were jailed for a total of nearly 50 years for their part in a series of country house burglaries in the south of England and metal and ATM thefts.

They were convicted of conspiracy to burgle at Reading Crown Court on February 11, 2008.

Stolen Art Watch, Drouot Auction House, Foxes Guarding the Hen House !!!!!

Preliminary charges vs 9 in Paris auction sweep

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2010446445_apeufrancestolenart.html

Preliminary charges have been filed against nine employees of Paris' respected Drouot auction house after police found stolen art, including a painting by 19th-century realist master Gustave Courbet, prosecutors said Monday

PARIS —
Preliminary charges have been filed against nine employees of Paris' respected Drouot auction house after police found stolen art, including a painting by 19th-century realist master Gustave Courbet, prosecutors said Monday.

An auctioneer and eight commission agents were given preliminary charges, including "organized theft," the prosecutor's office said.

Three others detained last week in the police raids on Drouot, its warehouses and homes of employees were released with no charges filed against them.

When the bust was announced last week, there was initial confusion about which Courbet work had been recovered. The painting - stolen several years ago from a collection whose owner had recently died - was not clearly identified, and the heir had confused it with another work, an official close to the inquiry said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

Police initially identified the recovered Courbet work as "La Vague" (The Wave), worth euro900,000 ($1.3 million), but officials said Monday it was actually "Paysage marin sous un ciel d'orage" (Marine Landscape Under a Stormy Sky), worth about euro100,000.

The stolen Courbet - one of several paintings by the convention-smashing realist master with a stormy ocean theme - was found at the home of one of the commission agents being investigated. Other pieces recovered in the sweep included artworks, frames and furniture.

Under French law, preliminary charges give the judge more time to investigate and determine whether to send the case to trial. Three commission agents were jailed in the case, with the prosecutor's office accusing them of deep involvement in thefts dating back to 2001.

The auctioneer was released pending the investigation with the stipulation that he stop hosting sales.

Drouot is a large auction house in a sprawling 19th-century building in central Paris. It auctions fine art and antiquities, as well as such objects as pieces of the Eiffel Tower and mime Marcel Marceau's top hat.

Associated Press Writer Jean-Pierre Verges contributed to this report