Art Crime Gang One Step Ahead of Bungling Police !!

Veteran lawyer Michael Morse, above, was accused of being a mastermind of a criminal gang that targeted antique stores and auction houses. All charges against him were dropped last week in court.

Connecting the dots in art-theft 'project'

The case unravels against a colourful cast of characters accused of high-end heists

BETSY POWELL AND PETER SMALL

STAFF REPORTERS

It started with great fanfare two years ago and last week it appeared to unravel with the vindication of the supposed mastermind of one of its "cells," a veteran lawyer and Crown attorney.In October 2004, Toronto police announced they had cracked a theft ring that had been targeting high-end antique stores and auction houses. On display was some of the confiscated loot — an eclectic array of watches, coins, lamps, jewellery and designer coats, with an estimated value of $750,000.The charge sheet contained a colourful cast of characters besides the criminal lawyer, including a charming, old-time crook, two Russian brothers and a man once accused in a legendary court case.Police called it "Project Antique." Two years on, most of the original charges have either been dropped, thrown out or stayed. Then, last week in Superior Court, Justice Ian Nordheimer acquitted lawyer Michael Morse of all the charges he was facing. Charges against co-accused Joseph Gagne were also dropped, while Wayne Hines was convicted of weapons charges but nothing relating directly to the burglaries."The right hand of the Toronto police didn't know what the left hand of the Toronto police was doing," Morse said in an interview. Officers did not communicate basic facts to one another, take proper notes, or follow up obvious leads, Morse charged. He said it was only through the investigation that he and his lawyer, Anthony Bryant, conducted that key information was uncovered that cleared his name."It was Police Officer 101," Morse said. "They didn't have to go through all kinds of surveillance and employing officers of various squads to do this and that over a six-month period and spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars."Darryl Vincent, who turned 68 last week, had his charges stayed this fall while a single charge against Penny Sherman, 64, and six against Ira Hussey, 58, have also disappeared from the docket. Only Sergei Khatchaturov, 30, and sibling Yurii Khatchaturov, 24, still face charges connected to Project Antique.The genesis of the six-month investigation is almost as interesting as the ragtag group rounded up. Despite first appearances, those arrested as part of the two "cells" involved in "the organized theft of valuable artworks and antiques" were not connected in any way except by "absolute fluke, lucky" circumstances, says Rob Whelan, one of the investigators and now a sergeant at 55 Division.Connecting the dots poses a challenge.Some believe that what launched Project Antique was the high-profile theft in early 2004 of late billionaire Ken Thomson's treasured statues from a display case at the Art Gallery of Ontario.An elated Thomson got his statues back a day after police released video images from AGO security cameras showing "persons of interest" in the case. Lawyer Dennis Morris turned them over to police, citing solicitor-client privilege for keeping the identity of the suspects secret.The investigation, the public was told, was continuing.That was not the case. Much to the dismay of some officers involved in the AGO investigation, police brass — including former deputy chief Steve Reesor and with the knowledge of then Toronto police chief Julian Fantino — closed the file.But police who felt justice wasn't served started tailing the suspects, the Khatchaturov brothers, known to be clients of Morris. After it was robbed, Vincent and the older Khatchaturov were arrested.

`The right hand of the Toronto police didn't know what the left hand of the Toronto police was doing' Michael Morse, acquitted lawyer

Meanwhile, police investigating a January 2004 break-in at LuluLemon apparel store on Yonge St. zeroed in on international art thief Raymond Hobin, who was not above more mundane break and enters. It turned out he and Morse were co-signers for a Somerville rental truck similar to one seen leaving LuluLemon. Morse testified that he rented the truck partly so that Hobin, who he thought was a professional landscape architect, could conduct work at his home in east Toronto. Morse said that he had befriended Hobin, a sometime client, despite his criminal past, believing that he was trying to go straight in order to retain custody of his son.On April 14, 2004, police arrested Hobin in the LuluLemon break-in and in connection with another B and E at Norwalk the Furniture Idea, also on Yonge. When police questioned Hobin, who likely faced a long prison term if convicted, he claimed that he was coerced into the break-ins. He said Morse extorted him into joining his small ring of high-end antique-store thieves that included Hines and Gagne.He told police they targeted antique stores and other businesses to fulfill Morse's wish list."The police bought it hook, line and sinker," Morse's lawyer, Bryant, told the judge during the trial. "Raymond Hobin is not just a career criminal. He is a master con artist who has an uncanny ability to turn things inside out and upside down."Hobin took police on a tour, pointing out stores the gang had targeted. He said that Morse had stashed in his home two expensive tapestries the gang had stolen from Kantelberg Antiques on Davenport Rd. Police enlisted Hobin as their agent in a sting operation principally targeting Morse. In return he hoped for lenient treatment. A police source says investigators soon came to suspect the alleged Morse-led gang and AGO thieves were related "cells."In 2004, a surveillance team followed Morse to a house belonging to Penny Sherman, the one time "old squeeze" of a well-known Toronto rounder with her own criminal past. The police suspected Morse of laundering money though Sherman, his friend and former client, although the only charge laid against her in Project Antique — conspiracy to commit an indictable offence — was dropped last year. The net was cast wider, as it often is during these kinds of investigations, when Vincent literally walked onto the scene. "We followed Morse to Sherman's house, Morse leaves, and this unknown person to us, Darryl Vincent, shows up," says one of the police on the surveillance detail. Vincent and Sherman go back more than 40 years. One of the officers recognized the thief, whose criminal career stretches back five decades. This account then has the officers following Vincent, who leads them to an antique store in the company of another man. John Struthers was Vincent's lawyer. Sherman "sort of put a circle through it all," he said this week, sounding bemused about how Project Antique unfolded. "Darryl has some infamy with respect to thieving in Canada, but at the same time I'm not sure he had anything to do with any of this," said Struthers. "It's a strange world because people who are that good at thieving seem to somehow figure out who each other is."Vincent is less amused."You guys are being totally, totally used by the police," he said referring to media outlets who reported on the initial arrests. "They turned something that was never a project into a project."He also believes the police, "pissed off" about how the AGO theft was handled, targeted the Russians. Vincent, a veteran of art heists, was under surveillance after the thefts occurred, but denies having any part of it.Vincent has recovered most of the property seized by investigators and, not surprisingly, impugns their motives."They have to justify being paid. You have to get so many charges. That's why they have these RIDE programs right now — they're totally illegal, in my view," he says, adding that he's aware the Supreme Court of Canada sees it differently.

Who's Who


Five of those who faced charges in connection with Project Antique

Darryl Vincent, 68, has a criminal record that goes back 45 years with the vast majority of his run-ins with police involving the theft of high-end goods. He also has been convicted of similar crimes in several other parts of the world.

Penny Sherman (formerly Penny Yankula), who turns 65 next month, is no stranger to the criminal justice system. She was once charged with trafficking heroin and possessing a stolen mink coat.

Ira Hussey, 48, was one of the accused men in the so-called Askov case, in which charges were thrown out by the Supreme Court of Canada because they took too long to get to trial. In 1989, he was among 14 men charged after a police investigation into the $2 million theft of transport trailers packed with televisions, stereos and other pricey items.

Michael Morse, 59, is a defence lawyer who has practised for 30 years, including as a prosecutor. He is a married father of two boys, and collects antiques as a hobby. Police claimed he was the mastermind of a high-end antiques theft ring, but a judge acquitted him of all charges last Friday.

Raymond Hobin, 49, is an international art thief with multiple criminal convictions and several stints in jail. He was the Crown's star witness against Morse and two co-accused in the alleged antiques theft ring. A judge called him a charming con artist whose testimony was highly suspect. Morse called him the Prince of Darkness.

Italian police uncover art theft ring

Italian police uncover art theft ring

By MARTA FALCONI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ROME -- Italian police said Thursday they have uncovered an international art trafficking ring based in Rome and have recovered about 100 artifacts.

Rome Carabinieri police said 35 people, including an architect and an antique dealer, are being investigated in connection with charges ranging from illegal possession to trafficking of archaeological artifacts. They were not arrested.

The two-year investigation focused on cities including Rome, Naples and Palermo.

Police said all the artifacts were stolen over the past 20 years, and that at least some had been destined to a foreign market.

One item, a 17th-century still life by Italian painter Pietro Paolo Bonzi - stolen from a private collection - had been smuggled to France, and investigators were looking into a possible link to Florida, said Carabinieri Maj. Salvatore Altavilla. He declined to provide more details, as the investigation is still under way

"Again, Rome becomes the crossroads of art thefts," Carabinieri official Alessandro Casarsa told a news conference. "Art thefts are like double thefts: You steal the artifact from its owner but also prevent other people from enjoying it."

Also recovered was a 660-pound marble altar front with mosaics dating from the 12th century, which had been stolen near Naples in November 2003; a decorated silver head of Saint Gregory; a second-century Roman child's sarcophagus and religious paintings.

Police started the investigation in 2004 after recovering a marble piece on sale in an antiquities shop in downtown Rome.

Italy is aggressively combatting the pillage of its archaeological and artistic treasures. Its campaign also includes seeking the return of several antiquities it claims were obtained by museums illegally.

Earlier this week, an ancient statue and a marble head that were stolen in Rome in the 1980s were returned to Italy after authorities traced them to New York and Barcelona, Spain.

German police recover stolen painting

Mannheim, Germany (dpa) - A stolen painting estimated to be worth half a million euros (650,000 dollars) has been recovered by German police, nine months after art thieves took it from the Mannheim Art Gallery in the southwest of the country.


The picture, Peacetime, by Carl Spitzweg (1808-1885), depicts a 19th-century soldier guarding a fort that is being overwhelmed by vines.

Police said Thursday the painting was recovered the previous evening near the city where it was stolen late on March 18 and one person was arrested. Police said they would give more details later.

The 25-by-49-centimetre oil painting, which had been in the gallery for more than 100 years, is typical of the Biedermeier period of German art.

The gallery admitted security had been lax while workers were preparing a new exhibition in a closed part of the gallery where the painting was hanging.

Honest Antiques Dealer, A True Oxymoron !!

TV antiques expert accused of stealing paintings from elderly woman


An antiques expert who regularly appears on BBC's Bargain Hunt appeared in court on Wednesday charged with stealing two paintings worth thousands of pounds from a pensioner.

Michael Hogben, (above), 54, the star of BBC shows Bargain Hunt, Real Deal and Auction Man appeared at Folkestone Magistrates charged with two counts of theft.

The court heard how the flamboyant TV star allegedly stole a portrait and landscape painting from the elderly woman’s home between June and November 2005.

Prosecutor Anna Kachingwe said the pensioner contacted Hogben, who lives in Hythe, to ask him to value a number of pieces of antique furniture she wanted to sell.

"Mr Hogben worked as an auctioneer before selling his business in 2004.

"The defendant took a particular interest in two of the paintings - one a portrait, the other a landscape.

Ms Kachingwe said Hogben offered to have the paintings valued by an expert.

She claimed Hogben then took them away and that the woman had not seen them since.

She added: “She has not received any money for them either. The paintings were not received at the auction house.

“We do not have an exact value for the paintings but we would like this case to go crown court due to the high value of the paintings that were taken.”

Hogben, whose best man at his wedding was TV funnyman Vic Reeves, spoke only to confirm his name and address in the 10-minute hearing.

The TV star’s defence lawyer Jim Morrisson said: “Mr Hogben vehemently denies these allegations.”

The case has been adjourned until January 17 next year.

Art Hostage comments:

If Hogben produces the paintings before or at the next court appearance, then there will not be a case to answer. Some kind of excuse about a misunderstanding, or memory loss will serve the purpose.

However, if Hogben has sold these paintings and that can be proved, even if Hogben retrieves the paintings in the meantime, there is certainly a case to be answered.

Art Hostage

Art Hostage, Churchill Spirit Lives on to smash Record Price for unrecorded oil painting $1.2 million !!

Churchill, Unrecorded Gem, smashes Record Price !!

Churchill oil sells for £612,800 $1.2 million

LONDON A previously unknown painting by Sir Winston Churchill sold yesterday at Sotheby’s for a record £612,800, nearly three times its estimate.

View of Tinherir, an oil on canvas, was painted in one of Churchill’s favourite retreats, Marrakesh, in 1951. He gave it as a token of friendship to the American general George C. Marshall, the author of the Marshall Plan. Churchill called the general “the last great American” and “the true architect of victory”.



By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - A painting by wartime leader Winston Churchill sold for 612,800 pounds at auction on Monday, easily beating the previous record for the part-time artist and three times the pre-sale estimate.

"View of Tinherir" was painted in 1951 in Marrakech, Morocco, and given two years later to U.S. General George Marshall, whom Churchill considered "the last great American".

"Most significant is the provenance of this painting," said Sarah Thomas, an expert at Sotheby's which sold the work. "It was a gift by Churchill to a statesman whom he respected and revered enormously.

"Obviously also there is the 'lost painting' factor -- it was not known about before we were made aware of it."

According to Sotheby's, it has remained in the Marshall family since 1953 and was sold by award-winning actress Kitty Winn, grand-daughter of the general. It had been expected to fetch 150-250,000 pounds.

The previous auction record for a Churchill painting was 344,000 pounds for "On the Rance, Near St. Malo" set in 2005.

The successful telephone bidder asked to remain anonymous, and Sotheby's would only say that the painting went to a private collector who had expressed an interest in the work before Monday's sale.

"View of Tinherir" was painted in the year that Churchill returned to the office of prime minister and six years after the Allied victory in World War Two.


Churchill had a long association with Morroco, but remembered it foremost as the site for the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 where U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's delegation included Marshall.

The painting he presented to Marshall was one of at least three Moroccan landscapes he gave away as gifts to leading U.S. figures. The other two went to Dwight Eisenhower and Roosevelt himself, according to Sotheby's.

Marshall, who initiated the Marshall Plan to help war-ravaged countries of Europe recover, came to Britain in 1953 to attend Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and Churchill gave him the painting during that visit.

Overall the Sotheby's sale of 20th Century British art fetched more than 7.5 million pounds including the auctioneer's premium, a new record for the company.

Art hostage comments:

Here are a few classic Churchill quotes to use on your friends or enemies over the holidays:



A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Winston Churchill

A joke is a very serious thing.
Winston Churchill

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
Winston Churchill

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
Winston Churchill

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Winston Churchill

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Winston Churchill

Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Winston Churchill

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Winston Churchill

Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it.
Winston Churchill

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Winston Churchill

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Winston Churchill

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.
Winston Churchill

Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Winston Churchill

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.
Winston Churchill

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
Winston Churchill

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.
Winston Churchill

Clement Attlee is a modest man who has a good deal to be modest about.
Winston Churchill

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Winston Churchill

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Winston Churchill

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
Winston Churchill

Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Winston Churchill

Death came very easily to her. She had lived such an innocent and loving life of service to others and held such a simple faith, that she had no fears at all and did not seem to mind very much.
Winston Churchill

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
Winston Churchill

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
Winston Churchill

Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.
Winston Churchill

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.
Winston Churchill

Eating words has never given me indigestion.
Winston Churchill

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
Winston Churchill

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
Winston Churchill

For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.
Winston Churchill

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
Winston Churchill

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
Winston Churchill

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
Winston Churchill

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Winston Churchill

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Winston Churchill

He is a modest little man who has a good deal to be modest about.
Winston Churchill

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
Winston Churchill

I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use his claws.
Winston Churchill

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.
Winston Churchill

I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
Winston Churchill

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
Winston Churchill

I am bored with it all.
Winston Churchill

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
Winston Churchill

I am easily satisfied with the very best.
Winston Churchill

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Winston Churchill

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
Winston Churchill

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Winston Churchill

I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
Winston Churchill

I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence-which is a noble thing.
Winston Churchill

I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.
Winston Churchill

I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.
Winston Churchill

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
Winston Churchill

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
Winston Churchill

I like a man who grins when he fights.
Winston Churchill

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
Winston Churchill

I never worry about action, but only inaction.
Winston Churchill

I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
Winston Churchill

I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.
Winston Churchill

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
Winston Churchill

If I was your wife Sir, I'd poison you! Madam, if you were my wife, I'd let you!
Winston Churchill

If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.
Winston Churchill

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
Winston Churchill

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
Winston Churchill

If you are going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
Winston Churchill

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
Winston Churchill

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
Winston Churchill

If you're going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.
Winston Churchill

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.
Winston Churchill

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
Winston Churchill

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.
Winston Churchill

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
Winston Churchill

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
Winston Churchill

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.
Winston Churchill

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
Winston Churchill

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Winston Churchill

It is a remarkable comment on our affairs that the former prime minister of a great sovereign state should thus be received as an honorary citizen of another.
Winston Churchill

It is all right to rat, but you can't re-rat.
Winston Churchill

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.
Winston Churchill

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.
Winston Churchill

It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Winston Churchill

It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.
Winston Churchill

It's no use saying, "We are doing our best." You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Winston Churchill

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.
Winston Churchill

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Winston Churchill

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
Winston Churchill

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.
Winston Churchill

Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
Winston Churchill

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill

Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Winston Churchill

Most people stumble over the truth, now and then, but they usually manage to pick themselves up and go on, anyway.
Winston Churchill

Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.
Winston Churchill

My hand seemed arrested by a silent veto.
Winston Churchill

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
Winston Churchill

My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.
Winston Churchill

My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.
Winston Churchill

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
Winston Churchill

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Winston Churchill

Never, never, never give up.
Winston Churchill

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.
Winston Churchill

No crime is so great as daring to excel.
Winston Churchill

No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
Winston Churchill

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.
Winston Churchill

No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt.
Winston Churchill

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.
Winston Churchill

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
Winston Churchill

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Winston Churchill

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.
Winston Churchill

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Winston Churchill

Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.
Winston Churchill

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.
Winston Churchill

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Winston Churchill

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.
Winston Churchill

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
Winston Churchill

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Winston Churchill

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
Winston Churchill

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
Winston Churchill

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.
Winston Churchill

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Winston Churchill

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.
Winston Churchill

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Winston Churchill

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
Winston Churchill

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.
Winston Churchill

Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is - the strong horse that pulls the whole cart.
Winston Churchill

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
Winston Churchill

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam.
Winston Churchill

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.
Winston Churchill

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.
Winston Churchill

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill

The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.
Winston Churchill

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Winston Churchill

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
Winston Churchill

The first quality that is needed is audacity.
Winston Churchill

The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.
Winston Churchill

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Winston Churchill

The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age.
Winston Churchill

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.
Winston Churchill

The maxim of the British people is "Business as usual."
Winston Churchill

The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
Winston Churchill

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Winston Churchill

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.
Winston Churchill

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.
Winston Churchill

The price of greatness is responsibility.
Winston Churchill

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
Winston Churchill

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
Winston Churchill

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.
Winston Churchill

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
Winston Churchill

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
Winston Churchill

There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.
Winston Churchill

There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
Winston Churchill

There is no such thing as a good tax.
Winston Churchill

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
Winston Churchill

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill

There was unanimous, automatic, unquestioned agreement around our table.
Winston Churchill

These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
Winston Churchill

They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
Winston Churchill

They told me that Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.
Winston Churchill

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
Winston Churchill

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.
Winston Churchill

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.
Winston Churchill

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
Winston Churchill

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Winston Churchill

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
Winston Churchill

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.
Winston Churchill

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Winston Churchill

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Winston Churchill

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
Winston Churchill

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
Winston Churchill

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.
Winston Churchill

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
Winston Churchill

We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.
Winston Churchill

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.
Winston Churchill

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic.
Winston Churchill

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
Winston Churchill

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
Winston Churchill

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
Winston Churchill

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
Winston Churchill

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
Winston Churchill

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.
Winston Churchill

When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
Winston Churchill

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.
Winston Churchill

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
Winston Churchill

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
Winston Churchill

When you took your seat I felt as if a woman had come into my bathroom and I had only the sponge to defend myself.
Winston Churchill

Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.
Winston Churchill

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.
Winston Churchill

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.
Winston Churchill

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
Winston Churchill

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Winston Churchill

Happy Churchill Quoting !!

Something To Be Proud of in this Vacuous World !!

Monument Man' Who Saved Artwork from Nazi Looters Honored

By Hannah Guillaume - The art was stolen, or about to be, but U.S. soldiers got there first, swiping and saving 10 million works of art from Nazis during World War II.

Known as "Monument Men," they stopped the greatest theft in history.

On Capitol Hill Wednesday, one of 13 known surviving Monument Men joined Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, as she introduced a resolution to honor them.

"To give is more rewarding than to take," said Harry Ettlinger, 80, of Rockaway, N.J., who was drafted into the Army and worked for the War Department's fine art and archive section.

Ettlinger, 80, whose Jewish family fled Germany in 1938, worked to locate and store art, from paintings to church bells. He worked on more than 900 cases during World War II.

Granger said she is glad to have gotten the resolution going, "which I think is overdue, but not too late."

In 1939, European museum directors and local volunteers emptied the Louvre Museum in Paris and other museums, hiding their treasures in castles and other buildings in small towns before invading Germans could loot them. Near the end of the war, Ettlinger and others went into Germany to find artworks that had been stolen.

The sergeant kept safe artworks including Rembrandt's 1650 "Self Portrait" while it was stored in the Heilbronn salt mine in Southern Germany.

The Heilbronn mine took 10 months to empty. Ettlinger accompanied the final shipment of artworks on a train to Paris.

"Everything which was underground was in good condition," Ettlinger said.

He worked with the 400 other Monument Men - and women - from 15 different countries. Other soldiers gave the unit its nickname because of the work it did.

Museum directors were also involved, including those of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Mo., the Legion of Honor in San Francisco and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Ettlinger and other Monument Men were able to stop the Allied nighttime bombings in the center of Cologne, Germany, to preserve the city's Gothic cathedrals, including the Rhine Cathedral.

Their work also took place in the U.S. during the war. One week after Pearl Harbor, 71 paintings were moved from the National Gallery of Art to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., for protection in case the U.S. capital was bombed.

"The officers issued a manifesto that said, 'To the victors do not go the spoils of war,'" he said. "We are here to make it a better world."

After the war, artwork stored by museums in the U.S. was returned to countries of ownership, including Holland, Belgium and France.

Robert Edsel, author of "Rescuing Da Vinci," a book of pictures that shows the work of the Monument Men, said Congress and the museum directors should recognize he Monument Men's preservation efforts.

"They have at their roots the work of these men and women," Edsel said. "He's [Ettlinger] the hero that changed the course of civilization."

Art Hostage

Art Hostage, Tate unites Turners to save masterpiece, Where is the $20 million from the Turner thefts?

Where is the $20 million from the Turner thefts, Squandered on Demonic Serota's Modern Art Choices !!

Tate unites Turners to save masterpiece

Dayla Alberge, Arts Correspondent

Gallery to raise £4.95m for purchase
Temporary bar placed on export



Arts

The Times December 07, 2006



The Blue Rigi, for which the Tate must raise £4.95 million



The Tate is to bring together for the first time three of Turner’s greatest watercolour paintings as part of a campaign to raise nearly £5 million to prevent one of them, The Blue Rigi, from going abroad.

The Blue Rigi, The Dark Rigi and The Red Rigi — shimmering depictions of Mount Rigi, as seen from Lake Lucerne — are widely regarded as Turner’s finest works, if not the finest watercolours of all.

Each of the three paintings depicts the mountain at a different time of day and is characterised by a defining colour or tone.

The Red Rigi has been in the National Gallery of Melbourne since 1947, but the other two have, until this year, been in private hands.

David Lammy, the Culture Minister, has placed a temporary export bar on The Blue Rigi. The Tate must raise £4.95 million by March 20 to save it for the nation. If successful, it would be the most expensive single work of art it has bought.

Mr Lammy’s ruling followed a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, which described the painting as “of outstanding aesthetic importance”. The committee gave it a starred rating, meaning that “every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country”.

Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, said: “The acquisition of The Blue Rigi would have a significant impact on our ability to reveal the full brilliance of his mature work. This is a chance we dare not miss.”

The exhibition, at Tate Britain in London, will run from January 22 to March 25. It will unite the extraordinary, finished watercolours — late works dating from 1842 — with the gallery’s own collection of Turner’s preparatory material for the Rigi series.

The Dark Rigi was sold this year by Simon Dickinson, the London dealer, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for £2.7 million, subject to an export licence being granted. Then the dealer “sold it to the first UK buyer to match the price . . . who always planned to lend it to a UK institution”.

The Blue Rigi was sold this year, at Christie’s, where it made £5.83 million, having had a £2 million estimate. The buyer is thought to be American.

Art Hostage comments:

The Blue Rigi was purchased by Steve "Mr Magoo" Wynn at auction this year.

My question is, where is the $20 million from the Turner thefts that the Tate extorted from AXA and Hiscox?

This money, as with the terms of the Turner bequest should be used to purchase the said Turner watercolor.

As with all elitist institutions like the Tate, they have spent the Turner theft money on modern art, and now have the balls to ask the public for the money to keep the Blue Rigi in Britain.

Dalya, bless her, seems to omitt the money left over from the Turner theft, although I think it is her editor that has sanitised her reporting.

The honourable thing for the Tate to do is to sell the modern artworks purchased by Demonic Serota, then use that money to buy the Blue Rigi.

Is this too much to ask from the Criminal gangsters at the Tate, who hide their blatent criminality behind the cloak of respectability?

Art Hostage

Art Hostage, Hat-trick of Artworld Deaths, Stolen Vermeer

Hat-trick of Artworld deaths, a Thief, a Cop, and a Dealer

Hat-trick of Artworld Deaths !!
Pittsburgh Area man held for murder of Wealthy Antiques Dealer
By Jeff Oliver
VALLEY INDEPENDENT
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

A 39-year-old Elizabeth man was charged with criminal homicide Tuesday in the murder of a New Eagle man at his home.

Orville Leland Trail has been charged with criminal homicide, aggravated assault, theft and robbery in the death of Ira Wyne, 62, of 444 First Ave., state police from the Belle Vernon barracks revealed at a press conference yesterday afternoon.

Wyne's body had been discovered Monday at 7:15 p.m. and state police immediately began searching for a white box truck that was allegedly stolen from Wyne's home.

A criminal complaint in the case stated that Trail and Wyne were friends and that Wyne allegedly owed Trail money for work he had done for him.

On Monday, Wyne picked up Trail and brought him to Wyne's home to help unload antique items from a truck, according to the complaint. Wyne was an antique dealer.

At approximately 6 p.m., Holly Szedon, 18, came to the house to borrow Wyne's sport utility vehicle. While she was there, Wyne told her "an old friend named Orville" was visiting, the complaint states.

Szedon told authorities that, while she was at the house, she heard a man's voice in the basement.

The girl returned to the home approximately 90 minutes later and knocked at the door

After receiving no answer, she noticed that Wayne's white box truck was missing police said.

However, she heard a television inside the house and discovered the door was unlocked, so she decided to go inside, according to police.

After Szedon went into the home, she discovered Wyne's body naked in a pool of blood at the bottom of the steps in the basement, the complaint states.

Wyne, who was face down in the blood, had suffered a large laceration on the back of his head. He also had cuts to his shoulder and arms.

State police began looking for Trail and the truck Monday evening.

The truck was found abandoned before dawn Tuesday in Elizabeth, near Route 51.

Trail was discovered at the home of his girlfriend in Elizabeth Township sometime after midnight Tuesday morning.

He was hiding under a bed, still covered with blood.

Trail claimed, according to the affidavit, that Wyne owed him money.

He asked Wyne for $100 for cleaning and repairing some silver for the victim, the affidavit said.

Trail said that Wyne told him he could not pay and then made sexual advances toward him while naked.

Trail told police that Wyne came too close to him and that Trail pushed him away and started hitting him with various articles, including a candelabra, a pitcher and a vase.

Trail said he then began searching for the keys to Wyne's box truck and found them in the victim's pants and fled the scene. The box truck allegedly contained antiques valued at approximately $500,000.

Wyne was pronounced dead at 8:53 p.m. by Washington County Deputy Coroner Timothy Kegel. Cause of death was ruled as blunt force trauma to the head and manner was listed as homicide.

Trail was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Mark Wilson, of Monongahela, and placed in the Washington County Jail without bond.

A preliminary hearing will be held 9:30 a.m. Dec. 6 at Central Court in Washington County.

State police were assisted in the investigation by Monongahela police.

Art Hostage comments:

These three deaths come from different sides of the art world but yet all have some connection, the power of art to steal, investigate, or deal !!!

Art Hostage

Art Hostage, Broken Hearted Art Cop succumbs to Heart Attack !!

Tragic Death for renowned Art Cop, A Broken Heart??

`Art cop' and author Robert Volpe dies at 63

11/30/2006, 11:13 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Volpe, a retired NYPD detective renowned for tracking down art fraud and theft — and the father of the officer imprisoned for the notorious attack on Abner Louima — has died at the age of 63.

Volpe, who wrote "Art Cop," a book about his experiences, died of a heart attack on Tuesday. He attained fame in the 1970s as the only detective in the country assigned to investigate art fraud and theft.

Volpe, who lived on Staten Island, was a graduate of Manhattan's High School of Art and Design, and had his first gallery showing in his late teens. After serving in the Army in the early 1960s, he briefly worked as a graphic designer before joining the New York Police Department.

He spent 10 years working undercover before becoming the department's art-theft expert. After his retirement in the early 1980s, he lectured at universities and government forums, including the FBI training facility in Quantico, Va.

Justin Volpe, the youngest of his three sons, pleaded guilty in 1997 to sodomizing the handcuffed Louima with a broken broomstick. Two other officers were convicted of obstructing the investigation into the brutal attack.

Robert Volpe is survived by his wife, Grace; two other sons, Rob and Damian; two brothers, Andrew and John; and a sister, Jane Graziano.

A viewing was scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the Scalia Funeral Home on Staten Island. A funeral Mass will be held Saturday morning at Holy Child Church, with burial at the Resurrection Cemetery.

Information from: New York Post, http://www.nypost.com

Art Hostage

Art Hostage, Scream Thief, Overdose, or Mickey Finn ??

Scream Thief, Overdose, or Mickey Finn ??

"The Scream" thief died of overdose, police say

OSLO (Reuters) - One of three thieves who stole Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream" and another of his paintings has died of an apparent drug overdose while still at large, Oslo police said on Thursday.

"The Scream" and "Madonna" were stolen in August 2004 by two masked gunmen in an audacious raid on Oslo's Munch Museum in front of stunned tourists. The artworks were recovered by police this August.

The raiders forced visitors to lie on the floor, yanked the paintings off the wall, and escaped in a getaway car driven by a third man.

The dead 27-year-old was identified as one of the thieves by an undercover police officer who infiltrated a group of drug users, police district said in a statement.

It said the man died on November 3, presumably of an overdose of heroin, but they were still waiting for the autopsy results.

"Through the information obtained in this operation, police believe that the third thief has been identified with a high degree of certainty," it said.

In May three men -- one who drove the getaway car and two who were involved in providing the car -- were convicted by an Oslo court and sentenced to four to eight years in jail. They have lodged appeals.

The court acquitted three other men accused of involvement in the theft.

Police Inspector Iver Stensrud declined to say what role the dead man played in the theft or to identify him by name. "Most of this information will be used in February next year in the appeals court," he said.

Police have also declined to reveal how they recovered the paintings in August.

Stensrud said he hoped the police investigation was now closer to getting to the bottom of the theft "but we have to wait and see because there still will be a lot of questions during the (appeals) court case".

Art Hostage

Art Hostage Doing the Honourable Thing in a Vacuous World, Stolen Vermeer

Stolen Art, Forget About It !!!

Letters to the Editor

The Times November 28, 2006

Stolen art works
Sir, We are deeply concerned at the Government’s proposal to give complete immunity to those who wish to display stolen and looted art works by making them available for exhibition in this country. The proposed legislation, buried in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill, would provide automatic protection from seizure to lenders outside Britain, making them safe from the legitimate claims of the rightful owners.

The justification is that the UK’s position as a leading centre for world-class exhibitions will be jeopardised unless all loans are protected from seizure. This reasoning results from pressure exerted by museums and those overseas whose concern for the provenance of art works owned by them is at best cavalier. In fact, the result will be that Britain will become one of the few countries in the West where such ill-gotten gains can be displayed with impunity and where the rights of the true owners will be so easily frustrated.

The public interest must surely be in upholding the rule of law, rather than promoting an international free-for-all through the unrestricted circulation of tainted works of art. Do we really wish to educate our children to have no respect for history, legality and ethical values by providing museums with the opportunity freely to exhibit stolen property?

The morally correct and legally responsible approach, adopted by many countries, is for objects proposed for loan to galleries and museums to be subject to rigorous inquiries to determine their provenance and that rightful owners have the opportunity to recover works surfacing in this way. The current proposals, giving automatic and indiscriminate protection against seizure mean that otherwise respectable institutions in this country will have no reason to make such inquiries. This legislation shames us and should be opposed rigorously.

LORD CARLILE OF BERRIEW
Liberal Democrat

LORD FELDMAN
Conservative

BARONESS GOLDING
Labour

LORD HOGG OF CUMBERNAULD
Labour

LORD JACOBS
Liberal Democrat

LORD JANNER OF BRAUNSTONE
Labour

LORD KALMS
Conservative

BARONESS LUDFORD, MEP
Liberal Democrat

BARONESS NEUBERGER
Liberal Democrat

BARONESS O’CATHAIN
Conservative

LORD CAREY OF CLIFTON

Art Hostage comments:

A line in the sand must be drawn, societies in general have a duty to set an example to its citizens.


In the US, anti-seizure provisions do not always apply to stolen works. In New York, the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law 12.03, was changed in 2000 to limit its scope to civil proceedings only. Similarly, the Texas anti-seizure legislation adopted in 1999 under the Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code dictates that works of art on loan may not be seized, except for stolen artworks. In addition, the Federal Immunity from Seizure Act, 22 U.S.C. Section 2459 requires applicants seeking protection to certify that it has no reason to know of any circumstances with respect to the potential for competing ownership claims.

Pandora's box has been opened and who knows where the chips will fall.

Works of art imported into the United States by dubious means, even if that was during the nineteenth century/Twentieth century may be held up to scrutiny unless there is a cut off date agreed, because if not then issues such as the Elgin Marbles will become prominant and if they were to be handed back to their rightful home, Greece, then any works of art illegally exported and imported after this date, 1806, will become targets.

This could, in the years ahead create a whole re-sale of some of the worlds most valuable works of art.

There is historic documentation in archives that quote art collectors from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries almost boasting about, "How they smuggled certain Vermeer's, Rubins, etc out of 19/20th century Europe, by stashing them at the bottom of their luggage trunks,"

If the transit of artworks is called into question dating back Two hundred years, it will certainly provide a spectical and merry-go-round of art collections to rival any art collecting period.

The one thing that I would have reservations about is if artworks were not on public display and hidden in private collections.

The Honourable Ronald S. Lauder has set a benchmark, and this should be the gold standard of future art collecting, a true example of humanity rarely seen in todays vacuous world.

Art Hostage

Art Hostage Tate Turners Recovery May Have Been illegal !!

Recovery of Tate Turners Investigated By German Authorities

Row over Tate's stolen Turners

By Dayla Alberge
German police suspect gallery may have broken federal law in the recovery of £24 million paintings

German police are investigating how the Tate secured the return of two Turner paintings stolen from an exhibition in Frankfurt, where they had been on loan.

The gallery announced two years ago that it had recovered Shade and Darkness — the Evening of the Deluge, and Light and Colour (Goethe’s theory), which were stolen in 1994.

The Times learnt yesterday that German police are investigating whether the Tate had broken German federal law.

One source said that the police were outraged when they discovered that the Tate had not only paid €3 million (£2 million) for information that led to the recovery of the paintings but, they believe, had put at risk investigations into the Serbian underworld figures thought to have staged the robbery.

The source said that German police had tried for years to catch the gangsters, who are also believed to be involved in drugs and arms.

Through the stolen Turners, detectives thought that they were getting close to catching the gangsters. Then they discovered that they had not been involved in the final negotiations for the recovery of the paintings.

Disclosing that German police had contacted the Tate’s insurers about the case, the source said: “In a situation like this, the gallery should have worked with the police.

“They failed to involve the police sufficiently, which is what has made the authorities so angry.”

The Tate has said that it paid only for “information” and the costs of the investigation leading to the recovery of the paintings. But experts say that paying money to get stolen property back could encourage other thefts.

The paintings were stolen from the Schirn Kunsthalle, in Frankfurt. A security guard was tied up in the raid.

The two thieves and their getaway driver, who were caught in 1999, were given sentences ranging from three to eleven years. The mastermind behind the theft remains free, however.

The insurers and the Tate are said to remain angry over revelations about the case in the autobiography of Geoffrey Robinson, the former Paymaster General. Before the paintings were recovered he disclosed that they were insured for £24 million, confirming their value to the gangsters, who were then able to use the figure when making their ransom demands.

The paintings were fully insured. The insurers included Hiscox and AXA Art, who paid the £24 million in full.

But in 1998, before the works were recovered, the Tate paid the insurers £8 million to buy back the rights, leaving it with a potential profit of £16 million if the pictures were recovered. Soon afterwards one was. The second turned up in 2002. As the millions generated interest, the Tate not only got its paintings back but also an extraordinary windfall from the insurance payout.

The German police have contacted Hiscox and AXA Art.

The German police and the Tate declined to comment. But a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt confirmed that an investigation was taking place.

Selby Whittingham, a Turner scholar and editor of the journal J.M.W. Turner, RA, welcomed the news. He said: “We’ve never got to the truth of the matter about the payments.”

An art expert who declined to be identified said: “A lot of people will be pleased to learn about an investigation. It’s been smoke and mirrors until now.”

Art Hostage comments:

This really was a case of "The Foxes Guarding the Hen House"

The two Scotland Yard Detectives, Detective Superintendent Mick Lawrence and Detective Sergeant Jurek Rokoszynski (known as Rocky) were working on the Turner case before they suddenly retired, subsequently, they were employed by the Tate Gallery as private detectives.

They were instrumental in the recovery, but along the way billed the Tate Gallery for nearly $2 million dollars for security.

The scam was to hire Polish bodyguards, who were friends of the now ex-Scotland Yard detective, Sergeant Jurek Rokoszynski (known as Rocky), for $100 dollars a day per man, then bill the Tate Gallery for $2,000 a day per man, sometimes there were up to Ten bodyguards used, round the clock, the false bills were presented to the Tate, Sandy Nairne, and these were duly paid by the Tate Gallery.

The Tate Gallery knew that one painting was about to be returned and that recovery was delayed whilst the Tate negociated the settlement with the insurers. Once the Tate had bought back legal title to the Turners for $16 million it left the Tate with $32 million dollars in the bank.

The first Turner came back within a short time, as previously promised to the Tate, and so the Tate had one picture, $32 million and was ready to recover the other Turner.

The lawyer for the Serbian mastermind of this plot, German Edgar Liebrucks signed a contract with the Tate gallery, (who had gone to the British High Court to seek judical approval for the deal to take place in Germany), but also asked the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office for legal immunity and, according to Liebrucks, this was granted. He received in total $6 million approx and the other Turner duly surfaced.

The immoral part of this unsavoury story is the dishonest dealings by the Tate towards the insurers, Hiscox, AXA, and their shareholders, coupled by the dishonest billing for $2 million dollars by Detective Superintendent Mick Lawrence and Detective Sergeant Jurek Rokoszynski (known as Rocky) who were the original official police officers to investigate the case.

There is a case for recovering stolen art by making payments, however, the Tate and the ex-cops seem to pose the question:

"who are the bad guys, and who are the good guys"

Another person to do well out of the Turners theft is Sandy Nairne, he was rewarded by being given the Directorship of the National Portrait Gallery.

As for "Old Nick" Serota the Demonic Director of the Tate, since this all transpired, he has had the balls to try and use the ill gotten gains from the Turners theft to buy Modern art, circumventing the wishes and terms of the Turner bequest, which stipulates that any monies from the bequest be only, I repeat only, be used to purchase further works by Joseph William Mallard Turner.

His excuse at the time was there are not many Turners out there to buy.

He failed to mention the several Turners that have been sold on the open market recently, they fetched some tens of millions of Dollars.

Why, this April 6th,2006, Steve "Mr Magoo" Wynn, yes him of the "Elbow through the Picasso" paid $35.8m (£20.5 m) for JMW Turner, Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio.

Two Venice scenes in watercolor have been sold this year for nearly $20 million.

If "Old Nick" was sincere, he would have used the insurance money to buy these Turners, not go off galavanting and buying his own modern art tastes for the Tate collection.





To be continued........

Art Hostage

Art Hostage, Valuable Racing Trophies Stolen !!