Insurer pays $44K to Art Center for alleged sorority damages

Parkersburg, West Viriginia. – A West Virginia insurer planned to issue a check Monday (June 14) on a claim a Parkersburg arts facility filed in connection with alleged heavy vandalism during an Ohio University sorority formal March 6. Though other media outlets in the area have been reporting that the check had previously been issued, Diane Holley-Brown, director of communication for the West Virginia Department of Administration, said Monday morning that the check for more than $44,000 was just being [...]

Senator Christopher Dodd Says Artifacts Held by Yale Belong to Peru

NEW HAVEN (AP).- Incan artifacts removed from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago and held by Yale University belong to the people of Peru, U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd said Wednesday. Peru has had a lawsuit pending in federal court in Connecticut since 2008 demanding Yale return artifacts taken by scholar Hiram Bingham III between 1911 and 1915. Yale says it returned dozens of boxes of artifacts in 1921 and that Peru knew it would retain some. Dodd, a member of [...]

Armenian Church Sues Getty Museum over Bible Pages

LOS ANGELES (AP).- The Armenian church has sued the J. Paul Getty Museum to demand the return of seven pages ripped from a sacred Armenian Bible dating back to 1256. The Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles. The lawsuit alleged the church had the Bible authenticated in 1947 or 1948 and it was returned with the pages missing. It states the identity of the thief was never determined. A spokeswoman [...]

Founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team Publishes New Book

NEW YORK, NY.- The Wall Street Journal called him “a living legend.” The London Times dubbed him “the most famous art detective in the world.” In Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his remarkable career for the first time, offering a real-life international thriller to rival The Thomas Crown Affair. Rising from humble roots as the son of an antique dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing [...]

Old Charge Resurfaces Against Prominent Tibetan

BEIJING (REUTERS).- A leading Tibetan collector of antiquities has been in detention nearly five months, his lawyer said Tuesday, and faces charges dating back over a decade that critics fear may be politically motivated. Karma Samdup was due to face trial Tuesday for excavating and robbing ancient tombs — a charge brought and dropped in 1998 — but lawyer Pu Zhiqiang said he arrived at the court to find the hearing was postponed indefinitely. The philanthropist was arrested in southwestern [...]

New York Judge Urges Settlement in Obama Poster Dispute

NEW YORK, NY (AP).- A judge urged Friday that a copyright dispute between an artist and The Associated Press over the Barack Obama “HOPE” image be settled quickly, saying it was likely the AP would win the case. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein made the suggestion at a hearing in which he ordered Fairey’s lawyers to turn over records of communications Fairey had with his lawyers before he sued the AP in February 2009. He also said AP lawyers can [...]

Israeli Art Detectives Crack a Forgery Riddle

JERUSALEM (AP).- The portrait of a glum, bespectacled man was about to go on auction in Amsterdam when someone at Sotheby’s noticed a problem: Israel’s national museum owned precisely the same painting. One of them had to be a fake. For curators at the Israel Museum, cracking the riddle of the Jozef Israels self-portrait and its mysterious twin meant tracking down a tale about a forgotten Turkish pasha and an eccentric Jerusalem artist, and using infrared cameras to peer underneath [...]

Another Picasso Stolen in French Fine Art Robbery

MARSEILLE (REUTERS).- Interpol said Saturday it had alerted its 188 countries member countries about the major theft from the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris and added the works to its stolen art database. Museum officials discovered the paintings, which included works by Spanish master Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani, missing Thursday after noticing a smashed window pane. “The French authorities have made sure that police around the world now have the information they need to assist in locating [...]

Paris Heightens Museum Vigilance After Big Heist at Museum of Modern Art

PARIS (AP).- Paris City Hall, embarrassed by a major art heist at a museum with a broken alarm, urged security guards Friday to be more vigilant — and pleaded with the perpetrators not to damage the Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani spirited away from the city’s Museum of Modern Art. Despite mounting criticism of museum security following Thursday’s $123 million theft and other recent heists, the deputy mayor for culture said there were no plans to add security personnel or make [...]

Five Masterpieces Stolen in $123 Million Paris Museum of Modern Art Heist

PARIS.- A broken alarm system made it as easy as 1-2-3: A masked intruder clipped a padlock, smashed a window and stole a Picasso, a Matisse and three other masterpieces from a Paris museum Thursday — a $123 million haul that is one of the world’s biggest art heists. Offloading the artwork may prove a tougher task, however, with Interpol and collectors worldwide now on high alert. In what seemed like an art thief’s fantasy, the alarm system had been [...]

California Attorney General Supports Claim for Art Seized in WWII

LOS ANGELES.- California’s attorney general filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday in support of a Connecticut woman who wants a Pasadena museum to return two 500-year-old paintings seized by Nazis during World War II. Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the court to consider an appeal by Marei von Saher of Greenwich, Conn., who sued the Norton Simon Museum for the paintings in 2007. The pair of 16th century wood panels by German artist [...]

With Disabled Security System Thief Steals Five Paintings from Paris Museum of Modern Art

PARIS (AP).- A lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said Thursday. The paintings disappeared early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital’s most tourist-frequented neighborhoods. The museum’s security system was disabled, and [...]

Greek Police Seize Two Rare Statues From Two Farmers

ATHENS.- Police in southern Greece have seized a rare twin pair of 2,500-year-old marble statues and arrested two farmers who allegedly planned to sell them abroad for €10 million ($12.43 million), authorities said Tuesday. Police said two Greeks aged 42 and 48 were arrested in the Peloponnese area late Friday as they were loading the illegally excavated figures of young men into a truck. Authorities are seeking a third man suspected of belonging to a smuggling gang that planned to [...]

Police in Argentina Recover 77 Paintings Stolen Last November

BUENOS AIRES (REUTERS).- Some 77 paintings and other art objects by national and international artists valued at about $ 4 million were recovered by police in Argentina on Saturday. Among the recovered works are paintings by artists like Antonio Berni, Raul Soldi, Lino Spilimbergo and other Argentine artists, together with original porcelain of high value. The objects were stolen last November from a private collection in the town of Pilar about 60 kilometers from Buenos Aires. The collection belongs to [...]

Park West Gallery: Fine Art Registry Misrepresents Outcome of Federal Trial

SOUTHFIELD, MI.- A press release posted May 13, 2010 by Fine Art Registry completely distorts the outcome of a recent Federal trial. The jury in Park West Gallery vs. Fine Art Registry made no findings whatsoever on the authenticity of artwork sold by Park West Gallery, including works by Salvador Dali. On May 11, Park West Gallery filed a Motion for Judgment as a Matter of Law and For A New Trial requesting Judge Zatkoff overturn the jury’s decision or [...]