FBI Hopes DNA can Help Solve 1990 Gardner Museum Art Heist

BOSTON.- The FBI is hoping advances in DNA technology can help solve a 20-year-old Boston art heist. A spokeswoman for the FBI’s Boston office tells The Boston Globe the lead agent in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum case is resubmitting evidence taken from the scene for DNA analysis. Agent Geoffrey Kelly said he could not disclose what evidence would be reviewed, but experts familiar with the case said it would probably include duct tape used to bind two museum security [...]

Woman Convicted in Case of Stolen Antoinette Watch

LOS ANGELES.- The widow of a notorious Israeli thief has been convicted of receiving stolen property from a 27-year-old heist that included more than 100 expensive timepieces and museum artifacts, including what’s been called “the Mona Lisa of the clock world.” Nili Shamrat, 64, of Tarzana, was convicted Feb. 23 and sentenced to five years’ probation and 300 hours of community service, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced Tuesday. In 1983, 106 timepieces, paintings and artifacts were taken from the [...]

Greek Police Arrest Two Men with Valuable Antiquities

THESSALONIKI.- Greek police arrested two men trying to sell several artifacts, including a bronze sculpture of emperor Alexander the Great from the 4th century B.C., for which the asking price was euro7 million ($9.5 million), authorities said Sunday. Police identified the suspects as a 48-year-old Thessaloniki businessman and a 51-year-old farmer, but did not provide their names. The men were arrested Saturday morning near the town of Kavala, east of Thessaloniki, police said. Police searched their car and found a [...]

Gold foetus sculpture stolen

An £8,000 gold-plated cast of an illegally aborted foetus has been stolen from a London gallery. Two thieves smashed into the Orel Art UK gallery in Victoria in what is thought to be a pro-life protest. If Jesus Had Been An Abortion How Happy Would We Be by American artist Stephen J Shanabrook is a bronze cast of a foetus from the Sixties, plated in 24-carat gold. Gallery owner Julian Farrow said no other exhibits were touched: “It will be [...]

Woman Taking Class at the Met Has Accident Involving Picasso’s “The Actor”

NEW YORK, NY.- An important Picasso painting accidentally damaged by a visitor last week will be repaired in time for a large exhibition of the artist’s works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in April. “The Actor,” a painting from Picasso’s rose period, will be restored at the museum’s onsite conservation laboratory, the Met said Monday. The museum described the damage as an irregular 6-inch tear to the lower right-hand corner of the painting, Conservation and curatorial experts “fully expect” [...]

Lawyer Says Disputed Van Gogh Worth Up to $150 Million

NEW HAVEN, CT.- A Van Gogh painting at the center of a dispute between Yale University and a man who believes the artwork was stolen from his family during the Russian Revolution is worth $120 million to $150 million, the man’s attorney told The Associated Press on Friday. The evaluation is the first public estimate of the painting’s value, and the lawyer, Allan Gerson, said it comes from a top auction firm. Gerson represents Pierre Konowaloff, the purported great-grandson of [...]

Italian Authorities Recover Euro165 Million in Stolen Art, Relics

ROME.- Ancient frescoes, statues and decorated vases that graced tables more than 2,000 years ago were among tens of thousands of artifacts recovered last year by Italy’s art police, officials said Thursday. Authorities said they recovered or seized nearly 60,000 pieces of looted or stolen artwork and archaeological artifacts worth euro165 million ($239 million) in 2009. That compares with the euro183 million in art and artifacts recovered in 2008, the Carabinieri art squad said in its annual accounting of the [...]

Stolen Painting “Beach in Pourville” by Claude Monet Found After 10 Years

WARSAW.- A Monet painting that was cut from its frame 10 years ago at a museum in western Poland and replaced with a copy painted on cardboard has been recovered, police said Wednesday. Officers also have arrested a suspect who had the French Impressionist’s “Beach in Pourville” in his possession and confessed to stealing it, officials said. Poznan police spokesman Romuald Piecuch said that officers detained the 41-year-old man in the southern city of Olkusz Tuesday. The painting, which shows [...]

California Dealer Tatiana Khan Charged with Selling Phony Picasso

LOS ANGELES, CA.- A West Hollywood antiques dealer has been charged with selling a phony Picasso for $2 million. Federal prosecutors said Friday that 69-year-old Tatiana Khan was charged with wire fraud and other crimes. She’s free pending arraignment but could face 45 years in prison if convicted. A call to her lawyer wasn’t immediately returned. a forged Pablo Picasso pastel called “The Woman in the Blue Hat” which sold for $2 million. Federal prosecutors said Friday Jan. 8, 2010 [...]

4-Ton Sculpture Missing From Utah Shop is Found

LINDON, UT.- The mystery of a missing 4-ton sculpture outside a Utah motorcycle shop has been solved. It disappeared over the weekend and apparently the artwork’s sculptor took it back. The attorney for Springville sculptor Jeffrey Decker says Decker owns the statue and was legally entitled to remove it. A $100,000 sculpture — which depicts an old-time speed racing motorcycle — was erected two years ago outside the Timpanogos Harley-Davidson store in Lindon, Utah. Police say thieves must’ve used heavy [...]

Iraqi Police Seize Artifacts on Tuesday Amid Smuggling Fears

BAGHDAD.- Iraqi police on Tuesday seized a small cache of ancient statues and other artifacts in the south of the country that officials said were set to be smuggled abroad and sold. Iraq, home to relics of the world’s most ancient urban civilizations, has had its priceless heritage plundered and sold to collectors abroad in the chaotic years since the U.S.-led invasion. The 39 artifacts were discovered stashed in a hole near a shrine outside the southern city of Nasiriyah, [...]

Somali Charged in Attack on Danish Cartoonist whose Work Ignited Riots

COPENHAGEN.- A Somali man was charged Saturday with two counts of attempted murder for an attack on a Danish artist whose 2005 cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad ignited riots and outrage across the Muslim world, authorities said. The 28-year-old Somali — who had ties to al-Qaida — broke into Kurt Westergaard’s home in Aarhus on Friday night armed with an ax and a knife, said Jakob Scharf, head of Denmark’s PET intelligence agency. The 75-year-old artist, who has been the [...]

Guard Arrested and then Released in Theft Of Degas Painting

MARSEILLE.- Several media outlets reported today that a security guard has been arrested in the theft of an Edgar Degas painting from a museum Wednesday night. The New York Times later published that the watchman had been released after questioning. The pastel work, “The Chorus,” was worth an estimated 800,000 euros ($1.15 million), the prosecutor said. Local media had originally said it was worth an estimated 30 million euros. Three policewomen while waiting to enter the Cantini Museum in Marseille [...]

Edgar Degas Impressionist Painting “Les Choristes” Stolen from Marseille Museum

PARIS.- Thieves stole a valuable painting by 19th century artist Edgar Degas overnight from a French museum, police said Thursday. The colourful image of singers performing on a theatre stage was missing when staff opened up the Cantini Museum in the southern port city of Marseille, prosecutor Jacques Dallest said. The national museums service said the picture was a pastel work titled “The Chorus”, worth 800,000 euros (1.14 million dollars), correcting an estimate given by local police that it was [...]

Police Recover Picasso’s ‘Little Guitar’ Toy Sculpture Made for Paloma Picasso

Little Guitar, a toy sculpture made by Pablo Picasso for his youngest child, Paloma, is heading for a museum after police recovered it from the home of a Roman businessman. Carabinieri police say Picasso had given the toy to his friend, Italian artist Giuseppe Vittorio Parisi. talian Carabinieri paramilitary police officers display Picasso’s “Little Guitar” toy sculpture made for the artist’s daughter Paloma, during a press conference in Rome, Tuesday Dec. 29, 2009. Police say they have recovered from a [...]