Stolen Art Watch, Renoir, Regulation & Murder

HPD sergeant, ex-FBI agent on the trail of stolen Renoir

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HPD-sergeant-ex-FBI-agent-on-the-trail-of-stolen-3257419.php

John Bedingfield is a seasoned criminal investigator. The Houston Police Department robbery division sergeant spent nearly half his 20-year career undercover in the agency's vice division, immersed in the criminal underbelly of prostitution, gambling and money-laundering.

But when the case of a stolen painting by famed French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir landed on his desk last September, Bedingfield wasn't quite sure what direction to take.

The suspect's initial modus operandi seemed like a typical home invasion: Armed masked intruder makes demands for expensive items. But the only loot the bandit grabbed was the Renoir - something not likely to end up in a local pawn shop.

Enter Bob Wittman, a former federal agent who specializes in art crimes. During his FBI career, Wittman recovered the golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king, captured crooks trying to sell a stolen painting by the Dutch master Rembrandt, and saved an original copy of the Bill of Rights believed lost for 100 years. Now running a firm in Philadelphia, Wittman was contracted by the company that insured the Renoir painting to aid in the investigation.

Using Bedingfield's knowledge of Houston's criminal landscape and Wittman's expertise in art theft, the two have worked tirelessly in hopes of catching the culprit and recovering the stolen painting, Madeleine Leaning On Her Elbow With Flowers In Her Hair.

Reward doubled

The pair have entered the painting into stolen and lost art databases. Bedingfield has chased down leads all over the city, even following through on a tip from someone who overheard a suspicious conversation at a car wash. He also has explored the possibility that the crime had some connection to a rash of burglaries in the same area during that time.

This week, the insurance company announced it's offering up to $50,000 for information leading to the piece - double the previous reward - in an effort to generate leads.

While the painting's value was not released, Wittman said it is estimated to be in the high six figures. Both men say whoever stole the painting probably had no idea what they were taking, and that it's probably hidden under a bed or tucked away in a closet somewhere.

The robbery occurred shortly before 10 p.m. Sept. 8 at a residence near Woodway and Chimney Rock, Bedingfield said. The victim, whose name was not released, told officers she saw a light flashing on the first floor of her home. When she came downstairs, she was confronted by a man wearing a ski mask and gloves, armed with what she believed was a gun.

She told officers the man began demanding money and diamonds. Fearing he would go upstairs, where her young son was asleep, she pointed out the Renoir by the stairs as the most valuable thing she owned, Bedingfield said.

After taking the painting and her cellphone, the robber left by a back door.

Police believe the man got onto the property through an unlocked gate and broke into the house through a door by the garage. The home­owner had no security system installed, Bedingfield said.

While the crime may have been one of opportunity, the robber ended up with the same problem faced by most art thieves, Wittman said.

"They are better thieves than they are businessmen," he said. "Generally speaking, in my career, they don't know what to do with it once they've got it."

No legitimate buyers

High-end pieces by artists such as Renoir are generally quite recognizable, making the work difficult to sell, a common problem with art theft. There's no market for pilfered art because those who can afford to buy pricey paintings do not want to buy stolen pieces. Wittman has never seen a stolen piece of art sold successfully.

"Over and over again in my career, it ends up that I'm the buyer because they can't find a legitimate person to buy it," he said.

It can take years to recover stolen art. Wittman said art thieves often wait until they believe the commotion surrounding the crime has died down before trying to sell.

Wittman's biggest fear is that the painting could be destroyed by a frustrated criminal, anxious to get the piece off his hands.

Sullivan targets jewel theft

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120211/NEWS/202110331

MONTICELLO — Sullivan County businesses buying and selling used jewelry would have to become licensed and tighten up their record-keeping under a proposed law being pushed by District Attorney Jim Farrell.

The law, set for a public hearing at 1:50 p.m. on March 16, targets pawn shops, antiques dealers and other businesses trading in diamonds, gold, silver and other precious metals or gems.

His proposal is in reaction to a spike in burglaries and the theft of jewelry that can be sold for quick cash. Quick resales and shoddy to nonexistent record-keeping have hampered investigations by police and prosecutors, Farrell said.

"The trend I've seen is occupied homes," Farrell said. "While these people are at work trying to support their families, they're being victimized."

Burglaries were up 20 percent through September 2011 and are expected to top 500 for last year, compared with about 430 in 2010, Farrell said.

The proposed law would require all dealers in used jewelry and gems to apply for the license. Applications would require fingerprints, a background check and a $200 fee.

The draft law would also prohibit purchases from sellers under 18, ban purchases between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and mandate a 15-day waiting period before items could be resold.

"When we go to these pawn shops or dealers, the merchandise is already gone," Farrell said.

Businesses would also be required to keep digital photos of purchases and descriptions of identifying marks or engravings. Those records would have to be emailed to the district attorney's office and local police within 48 hours.

Most of the law's requirements mirror safeguards already in place at Big Ben Jewelers in Monticello, said Suzie Gold, the shop's longtime manager.

Exterior cameras document cars and license plates, and interior cameras record each transaction, she said. Big Ben also scans purchased jewelry into digital images and is wary of sellers who appear nervous or unlikely to own expensive jewelry.

"We don't have to take it," she said. "We can say we're not interested and show them on their way."

Bernardo Escobar has owned A & B Jewelry & Boutique in Monticello for over 19 years. He pulled out a binder with photocopied pages. Each held an ID and a piece of jewelry the shop bought.

"A lot of people have gone to jail because I keep the book," he said.

Death of art thief in Maplewood is ruled a homicide

MAPLEWOOD • The November death of a convicted art thief was ruled a homicide this week after the St. Louis County medical examiner completed a study of the man's brain.

Donald Rasch, 50, was found unconscious Nov. 12 at his home in the 2500 block of Bredell Avenue. He died on Nov. 16 at a hospital.

Police and the medical examiner's office aren't revealing the cause of death, but say it's now classified as a homicide. On Wednesday, Lt. Mark Griffin of the Maplewood Police Department said detectives are still investigating the case and have made no arrests.

In November, police said there were no signs of a break-in or struggle inside Rasch's home. He did not have any outward signs of injury, police said. And an autopsy was inconclusive, so authorities were awaiting toxicology results.

The medical examiner's office signed off on his death certificate on Monday, ruling it a homicide, said Suzanne McCune, forensic administrator for the St. Louis County medical examiner's office. The medical examiner, Dr. Mary Case, made that decision after conducting the brain exam.

Rasch pleaded guilty in 2005 of conspiracy to transport stolen goods in interstate commerce, admitting that he and another defendant stole 133 pieces of artwork valued at up to $4 million in June 2002.

He was sentenced to two years in prison in that case. He also pleaded guilty of one count of making a false statement in 2007 in a case involving art stolen from a store in Bridgeton.

Stolen Art Watch, William Hanhardt Released From Custody, Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise Going To Jail, Chicage Jewel Heist Follows

Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise

William Hanhardt

Thieves Engineer Sophisticated Gem Heist at Steve Quick Jewelers in Lincoln Park: MyFoxCHICAGO.com

$500K of jewelry stolen in Lincoln Park heist

Video:http://www.wgntv.com/news/wgntv-jewelry-stolen-in-lincoln-park-heist-feb9,0,398244.story

CHICAGO—

About $500,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from a Lincoln Park store in a heist that sounds more like a Hollywood script than a Chicago police report.

The manager of the Steve Quick jewelry store, Dana O'Sullivan said when she showed up to work Wednesday morning, she found a big hole in the back of the store’s safe, about 4-by-4 inches large.

The two-ton safe is called a TL-30 because it's supposed to take even the most saavy burglar 30 mintues to crack.

"Everything was fine until I opened the door and saw there was dust everywhere. I thought the ceiling had fallen in. I couldn't figure out what was happening. I looked around the corner and saw the hole," O’Sullivan said.

Steve Quick, who has owned the business for 25 years, says there's a good chance this was some kind of inside job.

“They knew what they were doing and what's got us spooked is that circumvented our security system, which is state of the art, or they had some sort of information," Quick said.

On Tuesday night, the burglars apparently broke into the sushi restaurant next door first. They busted through the wall at the exact location where they could reach the safe, which is back in the small office right next to where Steve Quick kept his desk.

"So they were able to stay under my desk, tunnel under, and if you go in back, you can see the hole in the bottom of the safe," Quick said.

Where the burglars came in is the only spot in the entire store, not covered by the motion detectors, or the surveillance cameras, Quick said. They fixed that problem immediately.

After cutting into the safe, the burglars had access to its bottom shelves.

"And then these were some of the storage containers we used to keep the gems in, and they were able to crush these and pull them out through that small hole, all of them containing gems, there was a gem collection that we've been collecting for 25 years, so it's a pretty devastating loss," Quick said.

Fortunately, Quick says, they are fully insured and nothing belonging to any customers was stolen.

"Everything is accounted for, the only things that are missing belonged to us," Quick said.

Today the staff is busy cleaning and taking a full inventory of the merchandise. Quick says as upset as he is, it's part of being in the jewelry business.

"We've had armed robberies, we do everything we can, we take security very seriously, but there are people out there, and once in a while they succeed," he said.

Chicago police have made no arrests in the case.

Cop who led band of jewel thieves released after serving his time

Hanhardt completes sentence for running mob-connected crew

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-hanhardt-freed-20120114,0,4742789.story

William Hanhardt, once a legendary Chicago cop who rose to deputy superintendent only to fall from grace with his conviction as the head of a crafty crew of mob-connected jewel thieves, was released from custody Friday Jan 13th 2012 after completing a 12-year sentence, his lawyer confirmed.

Hanhardt, 83, has been confined at his home since his release from a halfway house on Chicago's Near West Side in late September. He served the bulk of his time at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. In all, he served more than 10 years in custody.

"Mr. Hanhardt served his full sentence and did so without incident, and is simply seeking to spend whatever is left of the remainder of his life quietly with his family," said his attorney, Jeffrey Steinback.

Hanhardt, a former Chicago police chief of detectives, pleaded guilty in 2001 in federal court in Chicago to running a ring that used stealth and cunning to stalk jewelry salesmen across the country and steal more than $5 million in diamonds and gems over 20 years.

When Hanhardt was sentenced in 2002, his lawyers said he was in declining health, citing congestive heart failure, pulmonary disease, emphysema, spinal cord issues and surgeries for testicular cancer. Steinback declined to discuss Hanhardt's current health.

Elderly jewel thief pleads guilty to racketeering in Chicago

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/10082328-418/elderly-jewel-thief-the-monk-pleads-guilty-to-racketeering-in-chicago.html

“The Monk,” once again, is being separated from society.

Just not voluntarily.

And he’s not heading to a monastery.

Mobbed-up, high-line thief Joseph Jerry “The Monk” Scalise, who is in his mid- 70s, faces about nine years behind bars after he pleaded guilty Wednesday on the eve of trial to racketeering and other crimes. He and two geriatric colleagues planned to rob an armored car in front of a west suburban bank as well as the fortress-like home of a brutal dead Chicago mob boss, authorities say.

Both crimes had twists out of the kind of Hollywood movies that Scalise used to consult on — as an expert on the criminal life.

The armored car the men targeted but never robbed was owned by a company whose president is J.R. Davis, who by coincidence is chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission. The commission has a thick file on Scalise, who has long been a suspect in Outfit murders, but never charged.

And the Bridgeport house Scalise and his pals were planning on robbing?

There were no riches hidden inside, despite the hopes of the three men.

One Scalise colleague, Robert “Bobby” Pullia, 70, pleaded guilty too on Thursday, and faces about 9 years as well.

The other, Arthur “The Genius” Rachel, 73, is heading to trial before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber Thursday morning.

The FBI secreted a listening device in Scalise’s van and captured hours of conversations between the men as they plotted robbing the armored car outside a LaGrange bank and breaking into the house of the late Outfit boss, Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra, authorities said.

Scalise gained notoriety in 1980 when he and Rachel were arrested for stealing the 45-carat Marlborough Diamond and other jewelry from a London store, which was never recovered,

Scalise attracted a crowd of reporters after his guilty plea, including legendary octogenarian CBS crime reporter John “Bulldog” Drummond.

When asked if he thought the Marlborough Diamond would ever be found, Scalise quipped, “If Lloyd’s (of London) wanted to pay enough money, maybe they could.”

Scalise said the decision to plead guilty was difficult.

“Nobody likes to go to jail. Let’s be realistic.”

“It would have been an interesting trial,” he said.

Stolen Art Watch, FCI Low Security Jail, Bernie Madoff Awaits Barry Landau

Disgraced collector pleads guilty to stealing historical documents

Barry H. Landau admits to stealing thousands of historic papers from museums from Maryland to Vermont

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-02-07/news/bs-md-landau-guilty-20120207_1_barry-h-landau-collector-of-presidential-memorabilia-theft-of-major-artwork

Barry H. Landau, the once-esteemed collector of presidential memorabilia, admitted in federal court Tuesday that he stole thousands of documents regarded as cultural treasures from historical societies and libraries in Baltimore and up the East Coast.

The 63-year-old's guilty plea, to two criminal counts involving theft of artwork, revealed a scheme in which prosecutors said he compiled lists of items to steal by matching names of historical figures, from poets to president, to their "potential monetary value."

In a signed agreement with prosecutors, Landau — who boasted one of the largest collections of Oval Office artifacts, and whose social circle included Hollywood elite and American presidents — admitted to being motivated not by his enthusiasm for artifacts, but by greed.

Prosecutors said the value of the stolen documents easily exceeded $1 million. One of 60 documents stolen from the Maryland Historical Society was an 1861 land grant signed by Abraham Lincoln to a former member of the Maryland militia who served in the War of 1812. It's worth $100,000, prosecutors said.

The oldest pilfered document was penned 533 years ago by Lorenzo de Medici during the Italian Renaissance. Among the most revered were three inaugural addresses delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt, with the president's handwritten notes and corrections.

Neither Landau nor his attorney, Andrew C. White, addressed reporters outside the U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Landau arrived wearing a long black overcoat, using a cane and with a black patch covering his right eye. He told the judge he was taking prescription medicine to help him sleep, along with Lipitor and the anti-depressant Prozac.

Landau leaned on the cane and addressed the judge's questions with one- or two-word answers as he pleaded guilty to theft of major artwork and conspiracy to commit theft of major artwork. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced May 7.

Several employees of the Maryland Historical Society — where Landau's scheme unraveled in mid-2011 — watched the hearing. Ashley Harper, a digital collections assistant at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, stood outside the courthouse holding a sign: "You can't steal history."

Harper said she met Landau at least a half-dozen times and pulled boxes of documents for him. Among the items taken from the Pennsylvania archives, prosecutors said, was a 1788 handwritten proclamation by John Hancock regarding the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

"It's pretty sad when things precious to a nation can be stolen," Harper said. "It was like hearing about the loss of a loved one."

Prosecutors and Landau's attorneys did not agree on a sentence, which will include paying restitution. His 24-year-old assistant, Jason James Savedoff, pleaded guilty to theft conspiracy in October and faces up to 15 years in prison. His sentencing was postponed in January; a new date has not been set.

Authorities said Landau used various means to distract librarians and staffers in four states, sometimes by offering cupcakes, but also by using aliases. He and his assistant concealed documents in secret pockets sewn into jackets, sandpapered off identifying markers and stole listings from card catalogs to make tracing the purloined papers more difficult.

The FBI found 10,000 papers and "objects of cultural heritage" during searches of Landau's apartment on West 57th Street in midtown Manhattan. Court documents say investigators traced 4,000 of the items "as being stolen from libraries and repositories throughout the United States."

Federal prosecutors have described the scope of the thefts as "truly breathtaking," with stolen documents that include an endorsement for a judge signed by George Washington, a letter written in French from Marie Antoinette, and an 1874 note from Karl Marx inquiring about the price of a book bearing his signature.

Some of the most significant thefts occurred in December 2010 from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y., which is affiliated with the National Archives in Washington.

There, prosecutors said, Landau and Savedoff took seven "reading copies" — from which live speeches were read — of addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt, including those at his inaugurations in 1937, 1941 and 1945.

The 1945 address is a five-page document with a purple ribbon securing the pages through one of four hole punches. The document has Roosevelt's notes throughout, prosecutors said, and includes his signature and a scrawl from the president on the final page: "orig reading copy."

"These items are extremely valuable, and would be sold individually for sums well in excess of $100,000," federal prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement. "From a historical perspective, these reading copies of the inaugural addresses are priceless."

Among the most valuable documents stolen was a letter written in 1780 from Benjamin Franklin to naval hero John Paul Jones about gunpowder deliveries from the French. It is worth several hundred thousand dollars, according to prosecutors.

The court documents filed Tuesday list stolen papers signed by luminaries from a broad swath of history: Susan B. Anthony, John Hancock, John Adams, Robert E. Lee, Sir Isaac Newton, Napoleon and Florence Nightingale. Another item was a letter from Charles Dickens to Edgar Allen Poe.

Landau and Savedoff were arrested July 9 at the Maryland Historical Society in Mount Vernon.

A part-time library staffer, David Angerhofer, was on alert because of the men's strange behavior. He sneaked onto a balcony in the reading room for a better vantage point and said he spotted Savedoff concealing a document under his own papers.

"They were too schmoozy to be regular people," Angerhofer said Tuesday, as society officials made their first extended comments about the theft.

Angerhofer said Landau and Savedoff arrived shortly after the library opened about 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday, and brought the staff cookies. Landau introduced Savedoff as his nephew. Though the library was busy in the morning, Angerhofer sensed something was amiss and decided to watch them "like a hawk."

He said Landau approached the circulation desk several times during the morning, acting as a "human screen" to block the two staffers' view of Savedoff. Angerhofer said he sent a colleague an email, acknowledging the odd behavior.

When Savedoff and Landau left for a lunch break, the library staffers dedicated themselves to getting "visual confirmation" of theft, Angerhofer said.

Angerhofer, who tried to stay out of view for much of the afternoon, said he watched from a balcony shortly before 4 p.m. as Savedoff slipped a society document under his own papers. The account is backed up in a police report.

"They acted very cool," Angerhofer said, describing their demeanor after he confronted them.

Pat Anderson, the society's director of publications and library services, said the staff does not believe any documents are missing, and there was no noticeable damage to the items Landau and Savedoff hid. None of the items ever left the building, she said.

Police said they seized 79 stolen documents — 60 taken from the society — hidden in a computer bag in a small coin locker in the reading room, to which Savedoff had the key.

On Tuesday, officials also showed two display cases with some of the presidential "ephemera" — dance cards from inaugural balls, admission tickets for the impeachment proceedings of President Andrew Johnson — that they said the two tried to carry out of the library.

The society is looking for funding to install security cameras in the reading room and has begun searching visitors' personal papers as they exit, Anderson said.

The investigation quickly expanded beyond Baltimore, as curators across the nation scoured their collections and reviewed visitor logs. More thefts were discovered, and librarians recalled the two men as suspicious because of their vague and shifting requests, unrelated to the topics they said they were researching.

New court documents filed Tuesday reveal an intricate scheme in which Landau and Savedoff carefully studied which documents they wanted — a determination usually based on worth rather than substance or relevance to a particular line of study.

Landau hit archives up and down the East Coast, according to the plea agreement, from the New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut historical societies, to the University of Vermont and the Roosevelt library.

Items seized from his apartment have been turned over to the National Archives, where employees have been cataloging them and trying to track down owners. Although authorities recovered the three Roosevelt inaugural addresses from Landau's apartment, court documents say four other original Roosevelt documents were sold to a collector for $35,000.

Paul Brachfeld, the National Archives' inspector general, said in an email last week that after Landau and Savedoff are sentenced, he envisioned an unusual procedure for determining the ownership of "those items for which clear and legal provenance cannot be defined." He described it as "a reverse 'Antiques Roadshow' where the public could come to view the holdings and 'claim' [them] if they have the legal basis to do so."

Assistant U.S. Attorney James G. Warwick said in court on Tuesday that many vendors who bought items from Landau have returned them to the government, and that as part of his plea, Landau is to pay them back.

Prosecutors have said in court that they believe the document thefts have gone on for years, but the charges to which Landau pleaded guilty to are limited to the past two years. Landau's defense attorney disputes one contention by authorities, that Landau ordered Savedoff to steal documents.

The plea agreement says that the men sometimes visited historical societies dozens of times, "and used various methods" to steal the documents. That included secret pockets in sports coats and jackets, "as well as distracting museum curators to disguise their true intentions."

With a document in hand, federal prosecutors said, they removed inventory markings "by applying sandpaper and other abrasive materials to the document," a process they called "performing surgery." They used checklists to keep track of author and date, which collection it had come from, and whether a document had been scanned onto microfilm.

The prosecutors said Landau often avoided taking documents that had been put on microfilm because "of the increased possibility the theft … would be discovered by the library or repository."

Landau spent years building a public persona built around his collections, and was profiled by the Associated Press after he wrote a coffee table book on White House cuisine. The story described his apartment near Central Park as "artifact-filled," complete with etchings and presidential china.

Photo albums on Landau's websites show him posing with former presidents, Al Pacino and Charlton Heston. He has said that wives of presidents consulted him for inaugurations, and that he possessed more than a million presidential items, including 26,000 presidential menus and invitations.

The criminal charges shattered Landau's image and revealed a cash-strapped collector who, after his arrest, had to get the court to let him sell an Andy Warhol print of Elizabeth Taylor to pay his $2,700-a-month rent. In court documents, he claimed that he had $1,544 to his name, and that he made $11,000 in salary last year. Prosecutors said they were skeptical of his professed money woes.

peter.hermann@baltsun.com

Description of stolen documents

•A four-page personal handwritten letter from John Jay Audubon to Gideon B. Smith, dated May 18, 1843, taken from the Connecticut Historical Society.

•A single-page letter from Marie Antoinette written in French on Oct. 2, 1784, taken from the Connecticut Historical Society.

•A letter written by Karl Marx on April 14, 1874, to P.H. King inquiring about the title and price of a book bearing Marx's signature, taken from the Wilbur Collection at the University of Vermont Library.

•Inaugural address delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, 1941 and 1945, taken from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, a division of the National Archives.

•A Baltimore City property receipt dated June 1, 1861, signed by Abraham Lincoln, granting land to Private John Larn, a former member of the Maryland militia who served in the War of 1812. It was taken from the Maryland Historical Society.

Stolen Art Watch, Modus Vivendi See's Mammoth Haul

Above, Mammoth Tusks Recovered


Stolen from Spain's Museum of Mammoth in Barcelona, ivory € 1 million

Februray 8, 2012

The Catalan Police confirmed that the theft occurred between the night of
Saturday and early Sunday, with the loss of more than * 20 * tusks,
50 kilos of * each *

Joan Surrallés, museum spokesman, confirmed the theft * ivory tusks,
diamonds and gold, valued at over one million euros. *

He explained the official, the thieves, who forced the door
entrance, disabled the alarm and escaped the surveillance system
private well be the filming of the security cameras. * It
calculated that took 20 tusks, about 50 kilos each and a
10,000 years old. *

Ivory is quoted more than a thousand euros a kilo.

In addition, the thieves, who could have acted on behalf, * also
leading figures made ​​of ivory chess sets and a pendrive also
ivory, and a figure of a cat made ​​of gold and diamonds. *

"It was a movie theft," said the curator, that each
week receives an average of 150 to 200 visitors, about 10,000 a year.

Breaking News..............

The Autonomous stop the former director of the Mammoth Museum and author of theft |
Catalonia
http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2012/02/08/catalunya/1328697078_075639.html
Februray 9, 2012

The Catalan police recovered the 20 ivory tusks removed,
worth one million euros

Some of the ivory pieces stolen last weekend. Of
left to right a figure of the Virgin of Montserrat, and fangs
a figure of a warrior on horseback.

The thief of 24 ivory tusks Mammoth Museum of Barcelona
was the former director of the center. He allegedly entered Sunday
morning by the front door, turned off the alarm, opened the windows,
Ivory took all the courage and the recordings of the cameras
video surveillance, and fled. The Police arrested him a day
below and find the valuable pieces in a warehouse in Cerdanyola of
Vallés.

The man, Ramon Manuel GA, has argued for work for the theft,
According to sources in the environment, but deny the museum, although they admit that
always suspected that the robbery had to be someone close. The
the stolen museum valued at nearly one million euros, while the Autonomous
say is not worth more than 500,000.

Security at the Mammoth Museum in Barcelona was publicly denounced
last day 3 of the heads of the center. According to these, the fangs
stolen each weighing approximately 50 kilos. In addition, the thief
took a rhino horn, a cone of skin, 600 euros in cash and
remote control of the museum.

Stolen Art Watch, Lugo Million $ Art Crime Spree, Slap On The Wrist & Released In Less Than Year

Man admits NY piece of bicoastal art-theft spree

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0kzaW1QqG12tomXJOVx_74N3uiQ?docId=3c0c022312e24816aa863b83c8676f41

NEW YORK (AP) — A wine steward who plucked artwork off hotel and gallery walls in a bicoastal spree admitted Tuesday to stealing a $350,000 drawing in New York, resolving charges here after serving jail time in California.

An art-loving thief who stole to decorate his own apartment, according to prosecutors, Mark Lugo pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the New York case.

He admitted he took the pricey sketch by the Cubist painter Fernand Leger from a lobby gallery at Manhattan's Carlyle Hotel on June 28 — one of the New York thefts prosecutors said Lugo accomplished by lifting art off hotel walls and walking off with the works in canvas tote bags. Besides the Leger, he was charged with stealing five works by the South Korea-born artist Mie Yim from another hotel on June 14.

Lugo, 31, is set to be sentenced Feb. 28 to one to three years in prison. His lawyer, James Montgomery, noted that Lugo could get out in less than a year if he succeeds in a boot-camp-style prison program.

Lugo was publicly identified as a suspect in several New York heists shortly after his July arrest in San Francisco. Authorities there said he strolled into the Weinstein Gallery, took a $275,000 1965 Picasso drawing "Tete de Femme (Head of a Woman)" off a wall, walked down the street with the sketch under his arm and hopped into a taxi. Police tracked Lugo to a friend's apartment in nearby Napa County.

At Lugo's own apartment in Hoboken, N.J., investigators then found a $430,000 trove of stolen art on display.

Among some 19 artworks at the apartment was Leger's 1917 "Composition with Mechanical Elements," the Manhattan district attorney's office said. The drawing disappeared June 28 from an employee entrance area at a gallery in the Carlyle Hotel.

Prosecutors have said a search of Lugo's apartment turned up four other pieces — including a Picasso work — that may have been stolen from Manhattan venues. But he was charged in New York only with the thefts of the works by Leger and Yim, who's known for her disconcerting images of toy bears and other creatures.

"In an effort to display stolen art in his apartment, this repeat art thief boldly walked out of two Manhattan hotels in broad daylight" with valuable works, District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement when Lugo was arraigned in New York last month.

Lugo, a sometime sommelier and kitchen server at upscale Manhattan restaurants, also is charged in New Jersey with taking three bottles of Chateau Petrus Pomerol — together worth $6,000 — from a Wayne wine shop in April.

As for the San Francisco charges, Lugo pleaded guilty in October to grand theft. He finished his 138-day sentence on Nov. 21.

Montgomery declined to comment further Tuesday; he has previously said Lugo "had no commercial motive at all" in his actions. Lugo's San Francisco attorney, Douglas Horngrad, has called him "more like someone who was in the midst of a psychiatric episode" than a calculating art thief.

Stolen Art Watch, Lost & Found In France

Stolen art found in van outside police station

http://www.thelocal.fr/2474/20120203/

Fifty valuable works of art have been discovered right under the noses of police, in the back of a van parked outside a police station.

Police became suspicious when two men were seen unloading paintings from the back of the van, reported Le Parisien newspaper on Friday.

Works include paintings by French painters Raoul Dufy and Roger-Edgar Gillet.

The van was sitting outside a police station in the north Paris suburb of Saint-Ouen.

Once apprehended, the men declared themselves to be an artist and a second-hand goods dealer.

They also claimed to have painted some of the works themselves, in the style of the originals, and bought the others at markets.

A search of the homes of one of the men on Monday uncovered a further twenty valuable paintings and sculptures.

The newspaper reported that some of the art works date back to robberies from over ten years ago.

France Demands $330 Million In Back Taxes From Art Dealer Guy Wildenstein

French authorities are claiming that art dealer Guy Wildenstein owes $330 million in back taxes to the French internal revenue service for undervaluing the estate of his father, Daniel Wildenstein, ArtInfo reports.

The French internal revenue service reportedly determined that Guy Wildenstein had hidden parts of his inheritance in trusts in Jersey, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands, according to ArtInfo (via Le Point).

Add this indictment to the list of legal challenges Wildenstein is already facing. In 2009, his stepmother sued for fraud related to his father's estate.

Stolen Pissarro Returns to France After Three Decades

Thirty years ago, back in 1981, Emile Guelton walked into the Faure Museum in Aix-les-Bains, France, only to stroll out with a Camille Pissarro monotype under his jacket.

The brazen criminal then managed to smuggle the image, entitled “Le Marché aux Poissons” to the United States where it was purchased in 1985 by J. Adelman Antiques and Art Gallery in San Antonio. The gallery sold the Pissarro monotype to the Sharan Corp for $8,500. When that company was dissolved in 1992, former Sharan company owner Sharyl Davis, displayed the Pissarro in her home for ten years before deciding to put it up at auction with Sotheby’s in 2003.

It was then that the Art Loss Register noticed the work in the Sotheby’s catalog, which even mentioned Guelton by name, and contacted French authorities.

“Le Marche aux Poissons” is a petite color monotype, one of 12 colored monotypes which Pissarro created.

Pissarro is best known as a key contributor in the Impressionism movement, and the only member of the group to show in all eight Impressionist exhibitions. He is especially known for his images of nature, often rendered in short, broken brushstrokes.

The unique monotype in question here is a genre scene, depicting women at a fish market. After being pulled from the Sotheby’s auction, a long legal battle ensued, in which Davis asserted that she was the legitimate owner and should be compensated, if not allowed to keep the image.

“Le Marche aux Poissons” is now returned to France, after having been formally handed off by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officials to the French Ambassador in a ceremony at D.C.'s Kreeger Museum on Wednesday.

An image by Renoir, “Buste de Femme” was stolen at the same time and later turned up in Japan.

Stolen Art Watch, Latin Pink Panthers, Diamonds Are Forever...Being Targeted Worldwide

Underworld jewel thieves behind one of largest heists in Palm Beach County last year

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2012/jan/30/underworld-jewel-thieves-behind-one-of-largest/

A quiet Saturday night. A dark sports utility vehicle eases into the parking lot of a Jupiter private school. The crew goes to work, unscrewing the bulbs of the motion-sensor floodlights and cutting a hole in the school's chain-link fence. They slice the phone and cable lines on a nearby pole.

The target is on the other side: Provident Jewelry store. Whether the crew knows it or not, they are about to pull off one of the largest jewel heists in South Florida history.

They pry open the rear door of an empty suite two doors down from the store. They bust through the drywall to get to the middle suite. Then they force their way into the attic, cutting alarm wires and breaking through the jewelry store's ceiling.

Awaiting them is a Class 2 vault, at least 10 inches of reinforced concrete that even under laboratory conditions takes at least an hour to bust through with high-tech tools and torches.

The crew has time. When store employees come to work Monday, there's a hole in the vault. Roughly 1,600 pieces of jewelry and watches are missing. Retail value: $15 million.

In the concrete rubble, there's a nearly empty bottle of cheap wine.

The burglars may have been celebrating early.

Theft groups target jewelers

Jewel heists are a staple of cinema — intricately planned crimes performed with panache by debonair types like Cary Grant and George Clooney. That glamorized world of gentlemen thieves doesn't exist, but organized jewel-theft rings in South Florida are a reality.

State authorities believe that one group of Cuban immigrants pulled off more than 20 jewelry store and pawn shop burglaries in 18 months. They specialized in rooftop jobs, busting through the ceiling.

Then there are Colombian gangs that rob traveling jewelry salesmen, sometimes spending days shadowing their targets. Other brazen groups use distraction techniques, with up to 10 people at once going into the store during business hours.

When it comes to unloading stolen jewelry, Miami is one of the most popular cities in the country to fence the hot goods, according to the multi-agency South American Theft Group Task Force, based out of the FBI's South Florida office.

Within a matter of hours after jewels are stolen, the thieves often meet with fences, according to task force members. Diamonds can be untraceable once they are popped out of their settings. Gold can be melted.

The recovery of stolen jewelry is extremely unlikely. Steve Wexler, the president of Wexler Insurance Agency, one of the largest jewelers' insurance agencies in the country, said it has been his experience that the recovery rate is less than 1 percent.

Hot diamonds end up in the stream of commerce and can even find their way back to retail stores, Wexler said. It is estimated fences typically pay thieves about 25 percent of the wholesale price of the stolen jewelry, he said.

"Where the money is going depends on the individual involved," said Dave Carrazana, an Aventura police officer part of the task force. "Some look into the future and some live for today. A lot will spend their money foolishly. Others have sent money back to Colombia and established businesses in Colombia to realize legalized profits."Carrazana said he believes there are more than 1,000 members of such organized theft groups operating in the United States. Members often learn the crime trade from their family members, starting off with shoplifting before graduating into stealing jewels, he said.

Tip leads to "El Loco"

The thieves who broke into Provident Jewelry on the weekend of Jan. 22, 2011, were pros. They used a combination of a jackhammer-style tool and a high-temperature cutting torch to penetrate the vault.

They disabled all 16 cameras as well as the surveillance system's digital video recorders. The two main circuit boards for the alarm system were found in a garbage bag.

Jupiter police got their first break in the case about three weeks later when one of the missing 100 loose stones ended up at the Gemological Institute of America in New York City to be examined. That led investigators to a Miami pawn shop where the loose diamonds were being sold.

Then came a tip from someone described in court records as simply "a confidential street source." The source said Pedro Luis Enriquez, aka "El Loco," played a role in the burglary. Enriquez, 40, had been languishing in theMiami-Dade CountyJail since Jan. 27, 2011, on outstanding warrants unrelated to the heist.

Jupiter police learned the Hialeah man had at least 25 prior arrests, including a handful for burglary and theft.

Investigators went to theMiami-Dade CountyJail to look at the property on Enriquez when he was arrested. They found a solid piece of evidence — a $8,000 bracelet from Provident, court records show.

A review of Enriquez's phone calls from the jail revealed that he had talked about winning the lottery and having people take care of watches and diamonds. Court records show his cellphone records also were pulled for the weekend of the heist.

At 2:38 a.m. that Sunday, Enriquez sent a text message to a friend: BINGO.

A day later, he sent another text message: SUPER BINGOOOOO.

Active investigation

Jupiter police Detective Eric Frank believes at least three people participated in the heist, but only Enriquez has been charged in the case. Enriquez is now in the Palm Beach County Jail on $600,000 bond, awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to grand theft and smash-and-grab burglary charges.

"It's still very much an active investigation and we're still hunting for the other players," Frank said. Enriquez did not come up as a primary player in known theft groups, he said.

State authorities announced in June they had busted up a high-end burglary ring responsible for breaking into 20 jewelry stores and pawn shops, netting more than $6 million in merchandise. The group, composed of at least nine Cuban immigrants, lived in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, but would travel as far as Connecticut to pull off burglaries from December 2008 to July 2010, court records show.

The group operated in crews of four to seven people, typically entering through the roof, disabling security systems and burning holes through safes, according to investigators. While they took jewelry and watches, they would not steal guns.

While they were sophisticated enough to make off with about $1 million in merchandise from jewelry stores in Davie and Greensboro, N.C., there were miscues, according to court documents. In the Greensboro burglary, one of the crew members left his cellphone behind, leading authorities to track the phone's path as well as who he called.

Eight of the alleged ring members are in custody, awaiting trial in Clay County for the burglaries. A ninth is a fugitive.Crews younger, more violent

Robert Taylor, founder of the nonprofit South American Theft Group Intelligence Network, said he firmly believes that theft crews are on the rise. Using multiple passports, group members can slide across the borders easily, said Taylor, whose groups acts as a clearinghouse for law enforcement.

Most of the crews are from Colombia with some from Peru or Ecuador, said Lou Mitchell, the FBI supervisory special agent overseeing the South American Theft Group Task Force formed nine years ago. Task force members talked to the Sun Sentinel in general about the groups, but declined to discuss specific cases.

"They commit crimes all over the country," Mitchell said. "When they first started in the United States, there was more of an art on how take property. A lot of times the victims wouldn't know [their jewels were missing] until they went back to their hotel room or left a restaurant. Crews now are younger, more impatient and willing to use violence."

The groups are sophisticated: they deploy lookouts, counter surveillance and multiple cars on a job. They will follow a traveling salesman across state lines on a stakeout, waiting for the moment to pounce.

"They are willing to surveil people for days and watch how police officers patrol a plaza and what kind of unmarked vehicles they may be driving," said Carrazana, the Aventura officer who is part of the task force.

In less than two months in the spring of 2008, there were three robberies targeting jewelry salesmen in Broward County. One thief chased a dealer with a knife at a Miramar gas station. In a Pembroke Pines parking lot, men with guns smashed out a New York diamond dealer's car windows and took $500,000 in jewels.

No fixed dollar amounts have been placed on how much in jewelry is stolen by such organized groups every year, but it is likely to be in the tens of millions, Taylor said.

Pursuit for stolen jewels continues

Rob Samuels, president of Provident Jewelry, said that one year later, the store at 828 W. Indiantown Road has recovered nicely. Gross sales in 2011 actually were up 20 percent despite the store being closed for six weeks, he said.

While insurance covered the losses, employees still monitor the Internet to see if stolen items crop up. Two watches being sold by a South Florida business were recovered and an employee recently found a third one being advertised.

"We're still looking and every time we find something we are hopeful that the trail goes backward and gets more perpetrators and leads to more recovery," he said.

Enriquez isn't talking. After his April arrest, investigators tried to question him about the burglary, according to court records.

He smiled slightly when he was told about the evidence against him. He then said he wanted to talk to his lawyer.

Stolen Art Watch, Art Crime, Out Of Africa

This oil painting, Zulu Maiden, was stolen from the JAG.

Thugs eye expensive art works

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/thugs-eye-expensive-art-works-1.1223528

All the thief needed was a couple of minutes alone, enough time to take the painting off the wall and slip it into his oversized art folder.

He represents a new kind of South African thief, one with a knowledge of art and a willingness to take the risk of tapping this new criminal resource.

The thief had gained entry to the Sandton art dealer’s house by saying he wanted to show some artworks. As the dealer was out of the room making tea, he took the opportunity to remove the George Washington Brownlow painting off the wall.

The man might have got away with it, had it not been for the private investigator tasked with recovering the painting.

Kyle Condon, of D & K Management Consultants, set up a sting. He tracked the man to Mpumalanga and, pretending to be interested in buying the Brownlow, organised a meeting.

“He did make claims that he had certain other art available,” said the PI.

He had also tried unsuccessfully to sell the artwork in a gallery.

Condon got his man, recovered the painting and returned it to the owner, who didn’t wish to press charges.

It is a rare success story at a time when art theft is on the increase.

Over the past couple of months, Condon has been approached by several clients, most of them gallery owners who wanted him to recover stolen artworks.

Art theft expert Bernadine Benson of the police practice department at Unisa agrees.

“Not specifically art theft but the incidents of thefts from museums and art galleries escalated between 2010 to 2011.”

Last month, an oil painting titled Zulu Maiden, by Trevor Makhoba, was stolen from the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG).

Three months earlier two bronze statues, Mourning Woman by Sydney Kumalo and Peter Pan by Romana Romanelli, were also stolen from the gallery.

Those doing the stealing, Benson said, fell into three main categories. “The first-level thief is the person who steals because he was there and thought something could net him a couple of bucks – usually your druggies fall into this category.”

The level-two criminal is more sophisticated. “He breaks in looking for, let’s say, electronic equipment, then stumbles across an artwork, something he has heard of, and decides to steal.

“But there is often a problem. More often than not they steal something too valuable or well known to be able to sell; sadly, these items are usually destroyed to get rid of evidence and hide the crime.”

Benson, who used to work on the SAPS’s Endangered Species Desk, which is responsible for investigating art crime, has had success only with catching level-one and two thieves.

Then you get level three, the criminal masterminds.

“You have the thief who knows his Pierneefs from his Sekotos and this is the dangerous fellow,” Benson said. “He does not get caught because either the item was ‘ordered’ or he already has a network into which he can feed the item.”

An important aspect of fighting this type of crime, Benson said, was creating awareness and getting networks to spread the news quickly when a theft occurred. - The Star

Stolen Art Watch, Murder, Manhatten & Minority Report, As Turner's Exposed In Contemporary Margate

Guards suspected in Goa's biggest robbery

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Guards-suspected-in-Goas-biggest-robbery/articleshow/11657716.cms

PANAJI: In what could be Goa's biggest robbery, items stolen from the Museum of Christian Art on Wednesday evening are valued at crores of rupees by virtue of being antiques of a unique nature. Museum security guard Luis Bogato, 55, was killed during the robbery.

Old Goa Police suspect the involvement of other security guards and have arrested Ravi Kumar, 20, from Bihar and Tikka Bahadur, 29, from Nepal, on suspicion.

"They have denied involvement. We are corroborating their claims with evidence gathered from the scene of offence. We are also looking into other aspects of the case. It is clear that the robbers' intention was to steal gold and they didn't know the value of antique items as ivory artefacts in the museum are untouched," police said.

Train tickets from Panvel to Margao found in the bushes near the museum, have raised suspicion that security guards may have executed the plan with the help of an outside hand.

"A jacket found near the bushes had railway tickets, indicating that two persons travelled from Panvel to Margao on January 24, and two bus tickets from Margao to Panaji and Panaji to Old Goa. We also found three live rounds in the jacket. We are investigating whether the plan was hatched in Goa by the security guards and executed with the help of robbers from Mumbai," police said.

"It is suspected that the security guard was attacked in front of the gate and then dragged into the compound. There was a pool of blood at the entrance when we arrived," police said.

Sources said Ravi was arrested after police found a blood-stained pant, suspected to be his, in the bushes. Two more live rounds were found in the pant pocket. "The staff at the museum said the pant belongs to Ravi, who used to regularly wear it to the museum, when he was working there. The pant size is that of Ravi's," police said. Ravi was transferred from museum security duty after the museum committee, unhappy with his behaviour, requested the security agency to replace him, sources said.

What has raised further suspicion is that Ravi has fresh minor injuries on his right hand finger and temple. "We have referred him to Goa Medical College and Hospital for medical examination to check the wound of the age. Also we are trying to verify if the blood stains on the pant are Bogato's," police said.

Interestingly, there are two men on security duty at any given time in the museum. On Wednesday evening, Bogato was alone when the robbers broke in. "Tikka was put on duty but reached the museum at about 7pm, when the police team was already at the spot. When the police asked him to open the main entrance to the museum, he said the keys were with Bogato. He also denied having his mobile number," police said.

The police team had to climb a tree and jump into the compound, where they found the body. "With a cutter we cut open the lock of the museum gate. Later, on checking Tikka's mobile, we found that he had Bogato's number," added police.

Manhattan-Based Art Dealer Charged in Manhattan Federal Court with $4 Million Fraud

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Janice K. Fedarcyk, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) announced charges today against ROBERT SCOTT COOK, a Manhattan-based art dealer, for defrauding one of his clients out of more than $4 million worth of art including works by Pablo Picasso, Edouard Manet, Henri Matisse, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Robert Cook portrayed himself as a responsible art dealer, but the allegations here paint a very different picture. As alleged, instead of acting as an agent on his client’s behalf as promised, Cook sold the works of art behind his client’s back. Cook’s charade has now come to an end.”

FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said: “Selling millions of dollars worth of someone else’s art collection and keeping the proceeds is effectively the same as stealing millions of dollars of the collector’s money. Both are forms of theft, plain and simple. The allegation of the complaint is that Mr. Cook is a crook.”

The following allegations are based on the complaint, which was filed today in Manhattan federal court:

COOK was the principal of Cook Fine Art, LLC, a gallery located on Madison Avenue in New York, New York. From 2005 to 2011, COOK engaged in a scheme to defraud one of his clients (the “Collector”) by selling 16 works of art owned by the Collector without his knowledge. The artwork, which was worth over $4 million, included watercolors, drawings, photographs, and other artwork by artists including Picasso, Manet, Matisse, Renoir, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee. COOK sold this artwork to various galleries and auction houses for $4,293,270. He failed to give the proceeds of those sales to the Collector, and lied to the Collector about the status of the art. COOK kept nearly all of the proceeds, except for approximately $100,000 that was paid to galleries as commissions.

COOK also told the Collector that he would submit a number of the Collector’s works for sale at a June 2011 auction, but never did so. In fact, COOK had already sold at least six of the works years before and kept the proceeds—which totaled nearly $2.4 million—for himself. Although COOK told the Collector that the auction had been a success and that the Collector’s works had sold for more than $5 million, COOK never paid the Collector a single dollar.

COOK, 62, of New York, New York, faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a maximum term of five years of supervised release, and a fine of the greatest of $250,000, or twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense or twice the gross pecuniary loss to the victims.

Mr. Bharara praised the investigative work of the FBI.

This case is being handled by the Office’s Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason P. Hernandez is in charge of the prosecution.

The charge and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

28 January 2012 - 13 May 2012

http://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/turner-and-the-elements

“Magnificent paintings worth crawling on your hands and feet to Margate to see”
Novelist and Psychogeographer Iain Sinclair reviews Turner and the Elements
on Radio 4 Front Row

JMW Turner, Britain’s best-loved painter, created new and unusual combinations of earth, water, air and fire and closely examined their interactions.

In Turner and the Elements, our first major show of the painter’s work at Turner Contemporary, we explore the important role that the depiction of the elements played in his landscape watercolours and paintings.

The exhibition brings together 88 works; 76 watercolours and 12 late oil paintings, many from the Tate collection. Turner’s innovative painting technique and the influence of scientific and technological developments during his lifetime were to revolutionise landscape painting.

Today, nearly two centuries since Turner’s visits to Margate, see first-hand how his dynamic concept of landscape, unconventional use of colour and near abstract watercolours and paintings secured his place as the artist of the elements and the founder of modern landscape painting.

Works on display include Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth exhibited 1842 and The New Moon; or ‘I’ve lost My Boat, You shan’t have Your Hoop’ exhibited 1840. Turner’s frequent visits to Margate and the Kent coast are vividly portrayed, with particular works chosen especially for the exhibition’s time at Turner Contemporary.

Curated by Inés Richter-Musso and Ortrud Westheider, the exhibition is the only opportunity to see this selection of works by Turner together in the UK.

Turner and the Elements is organised in collaboration with Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg and The National Museum, Cracow.

"The world has never seen anything like this picture."

William Makepeace Thackeray, Frasers Magazine, 1844

“The artist delights to go back to the first chaos of the world, or to that state of things when the waters were separated from the dry land, and light from darkness, but as yet no living thing nor tree bearing fruit was seen upon the face of the earth”.
Art critic William Hazlitt commenting on Turner’s work, 1816

"This is the moment I've been waiting for, for ten years - bringing a whole exhibition of Turner's work to Margate" Director Victoria Pomery.

Art Hostage Comments:

God forbid the Tate loses another Turner lent out to a third party Museum.

Really hope security is tight during this exhibition.

Wonder who done the Risk Assessment?

Has the possibility of a "snatch and run" been considered?

Have background checks been made of security staff, cleaners, and contractors?

Could we see a repeat of the Paris, Athens Art Heists whereby a break-in see's several Turners stolen?

Could Balkan criminal associates in England target the Turners then ship them to the Balkans where they would be held (Art) Hostage until ransomed back to willing Art Loss investigators?

Stolen Art Watch, Hot Picasso, Hot Art Sets Benchmark That Others Follow

http://www.amazon.com/Hot-Art-Chasing-Thieves-Detectives/dp/1935639382/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327679932&sr=1-1

http://www.tinhouse.com/books/coming-soon/hot-art.html

Picasso is the most stolen artist in the world with more than 1,000 of his pieces of work missing

By Rob Cooper

27th January 2012

Appeal: The Art Loss Register offer a $25,000 reward for the return of the missing painting Madeleine Leaning on Her Elbow with Flowers in Her Hair

Pablo Picasso is the artist who has more works stolen than anyone else, according to new research.

The Spanish master currently has 1,147 paintings registered as stolen, missing or disputed, which is more than twice as many as the next on the list.

That figure rose recently when his 1939 work 'Woman's Head' was pinched from the Athens' National Art Gallery in Greece.

The Art Loss Register has compiled a list of artists who have had the highest number of works stolen and the countries where the art is mostly taken from, with Britain being the most vulnerable place.

The database lists all the stolen, missing and disputed works of art around the world.

Coming second to Picasso is the modern American artist Nick Lawrence who has 557 stolen works. Most of them went missing in one go in 2004.

In third place is Marc Chagall, the Russian-French 20th century all-rounder, who has 516 stolen works.

Karel Appel, the Dutch painter and sculptor, comes fourth with 505 stolen works, just ahead of Salvador Dali with 504. Joan Miro, David Levine, Andy Warhol, Rembrandt and Peter Reinicke make up the rest of the top ten.

Other artists on the list include Henri Matisse with 205 missing works, Rubens with 169, John Constable with 155 and Thomas Gainsborough with 97.

The Art Loss Register has also revealed that 40 per cent of thefts occurred in Britain and 16 per cent of them were in America.

Stolen: Painting of a 'Dove with Green Peas' by Pablo Picasso, was taken from the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 2010 in the art heist of the century. There are fears it may have been destroyed. Woman's Head, was recently taken from the Athens National Art Gallery

While metal sculpture thefts have been on the rise in Britain because of the high prices of scrap, valuable works of art have long been stolen to order. They are often used as currency among criminals.

Detective Constable Ian Lawson, from the Metropolitan police's art and antiques department, said art theft was an 'ongoing problem'.

He said: 'There has certainly been an increase in the theft of statues because the price of metal has gone up.

Raided: Marc Chagall's 1914 oil on canvas Study for Over Vitebsk which was taken from New York's Jewish Museum in 2001

PAINTING HEISTS: THE TOP 10 MOST STOLEN ARTISTS IN THE WORLD

The top 10 list of artists with most works stolen:

1) Pablo Picasso - 1,147

2) Nick Lawrence - 557

3) Marc Chagall - 516

4) Karel Appel - 505

5) Salvador Dali - 505

6) Joan Miro - 478

7) David Levine - 343

7) Andy Warhol - 343

9) Rembrandt - 337

10) Peter Reinicke - 336

'War memorials and plaques are being taken for the same reason. They are easily melted down and it then becomes hard to prove what they are.'

He added that there were two types of art criminal - burglars who chance upon good paintings and those who steal to order.

'With other types of art there are really two categories of criminals. One is a burglar who breaks into a million pound house and strikes lucky,' he said.

'He steals a valuable painting and doesn't really know what to do with it. It might be sold on through a car boot sale or at an antiques fair.

'That's often what happens for art that is worth less than £10,000 or £20,000.

'But there are also organised gangs which target country houses and specific high-value art - such as the The Johnson family from Cheltenham.

'They targeted venues that they had researched, and had outlets for the art.

Rembrandt: The Child and the Soap Bubble which was stolen from the Draguignan municpal museum in southestern France

'Often the paintings are stolen and later are offered back to the owners or the insurance company for a tenth of the real value.

'That can be quite tempting for insurers. An example was the theft of the Madonna of the Yardwinder that was worth £50m and was stolen from a castle in Scotland.

'It was apparently offered back to the owners and several people were arrested but were not convicted.

'The other way art is used is as a currency in the underworld. The art is exchanged for drugs or guns.

'Art is easier to take abroad because customs officials won't suspect a painting as being stolen, but if someone took guns or drugs they would be arrested.

'And if a painting has been missing for many years it is quite easy for someone to claim legitimate ownership and it can be very difficult to prove otherwise.'

Charlotte Veenhuijzen, from the ALR, said: 'The Art Loss Register is the world's largest privately managed international database of over 360,000 lost, stolen and looted works of art and antiques and items in dispute.

'It has been collating historical data from private and public sources since its inception in 1990, many of these sources are not available in the public domain and are extremely hard to replicate.

Andy Warhol: Painting of Muhammad Ali which was taken in a raid on a Los Angeles home in September 2009. Orange Marilyn, arguably the artist's most famous work, was also taken

Stolen sketch: Salvador Dali sketch on the back of a restaurant menu was stolen from a house in Sherborne, Dorset. It is worth £30,000

'Registrations include losses and claims from museums, governments, banks, insurance companies, law enforcement agencies, including Interpol, and private individuals.

'The ALR offers itself world-wide as a central database checkpoint for due diligence enquiries and provenance research.

'Our pre-eminence in the field of stolen art has allowed the business to be instrumental in the recovery of over 160 million pounds' worth of stolen items

'We have around 1,147 lost, stolen, in dispute, in liens items registered by Picasso.

'And the ALR has been involved in the recovery of around 29 works by Picasso.'

Ivan Macquisten, editor of the Antiques Trade Gazette, said: 'Looking at most of the names in the top ten, they are all well-known artists who had very long careers, so produced vast volumes of work, which means there is more, potentially, available to steal.

'Picasso's work, as well as being highly valuable, is almost endless, while Chagall lived until he was 97 and Karel Appel started as a teenager, dying when he was well into his eighties.

'Andy Warhol didn't call his workshop the 'factory' for nothing - we're talking industrial quantities of art.

'And David Levine, amazingly, got an audition as an illustrator for Disney at the age of nine, before going on to a career as an illustrator for some of America's leading magazines, producing iconic images.'