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Showing posts with label art theft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art theft. Show all posts

March 4, 2024

New developments in Spain's theft case of five artworks by Francis Bacon

 

In the summer of 2015 thieves entered a five-story building on the Plaza de la Encarnación —an affluent area in the center of Madrid near the Spanish Senate and the Royal Palace.  Once inside, the burglars broke into the residence of banker José Capelo Blanco. 

Entering his apartment without being seen by the doorman or other residents, the raiders quickly disabled the businessman's alarm system and set about stealing five visceral portraits, made by the Irish-born British figurative painter Francis Bacon. The paintings would later be estimated to be worth €30 million. In addition to the high value fine art, the thieves also accessed the homeowner's safe and stole jewellery and a collection of ancient coins valued at €400,000.  Newspapers would later report that the crime was exceedingly professional and left behind few clues.  

By the early autumn, an accomplice, with prior convictions for drug trafficking, began making the first of multiple efforts to try to sell the hot Bacons through market contacts in Spain. One of these involved trying to persuade a distant member of his extended family, who worked in the art world, that he could make a lot of money, if he could help find a buyer. 


Up until this point, images of the paintings had not been shared publicly, as the artworks were gifted by the artist directly to Capelo Blanco and had therefore never appeared in circulation prior.  The fact that images of the Bacons did not appear publically, perhaps emboldened the thieves to make their first mistake. 


In February 2016, the first major break in the case came in when an individual queried the Art Loss Register trying to establish if one of  Capelo Blanco's portraits had been flagged internationally as stolen.  Writing anonymously, the inquirer sent photographs of the painting which could only have been taken by individuals with access to the artworks after the theft in Madrid.


This exchange proved critical to the investigation and the ALR worked with the Spanish National Police turning over the communique which allowed investigators to draw a red circle around their first group of potential suspects. 


In early March 2016 the four individuals were taken into custody:

• Ricardo Barbastro Heras, the alleged organiser of the fencing network

• Antonio Losada de la Rosa 

• José Losada Manzano

• Rafael Heredia González

All were charged with crimes of concealment of robbery with force.


By May 28, 2016 Spanish news sites reported that agents working with the Central Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) had arrested another six individuals in Madrid who were also believed to be connected to the 2015 theft in some way. This included:

• Alfredo Cristian Ferriz González, AKA Cristian Ferriz, who has a long police record, eight of them for robbery with force, three for vehicle theft, one for threats and another for drug traffic. 

• Art dealer Cristóbal García

• Agustín González Serrano

• Jorge de las Heras Escámez

• Juan Manuel Marce Gea

• Aquilino Jiménez Bermúdez

 With ten suspects named, two more, unnamed, were added to the list, bringing the total number of suspects to twelve. 

In July 2017 investigators announced the recovery of three of the five Bacon artworks.  By January 2021 Dutch private investigator Arthur Brand tweeted a series of "proof-of-life" images which showed the two portraits which remained missing.  One of these photos depicted one of the Bacon creations lying beside a copy of Spanish newspaper El País dated October 6, 2019.  Another showed the left bottom corner of the one of the painting's verso, which showed the Irish painter's handwriting and signature. 

In various articles Brand indicated that he had received word that underworld buyers were considering the two outstanding stolen paintings, telling journalists that he had been passed the video by an unnamed informant, which seemed to indicate that the two remaining artworks were being shopped by an individual using the name which appeared to be shopped by an individual using the nom de plum, "Jason".  

Accompanying the video was a piece of paper which implied perhaps that the remaining two paintings might still be in Spain, even if the thieves had widened their buyer's net internationally.  Handwritten on the piece of paper which accompanied the video was the contact's alleged name "Jason" noting it was signed at "Starbucks Madrid," on the date of "2020-5-11."

In touch with the Spanish authorities, Brand had announced the contact on his social media channel hoping the unwelcome publicity would serve to dissuade potential purchasers who might be considering the stolen Bacons. Meanwhile Spanish authorities continued to tighten the screws, arresting two more not publicly named individuals, which brought the total number of persons of interest (publicly announced) to twelve. 

Last month, on 29 February 2024 the Historical Heritage Brigade of Spain's National Police arrested two more people in the southern area of ​​Madrid.  The pair are believed to be the persons with physical control of the two outstanding artworks.

Aged 53 and 25, one of the arrestees is named as Rubén Sánchez Hernández.

Considered to be the mastermind behind this robbery, he is also believed to have been involved in the Pink Panther-styled robbery of Ángeles Farga jewelry store, on Ortega y Gasset Street in the capital.  According to Spanish news sites, Sánchez Hernández has connections to Roberto Anaut's gang, the 'Dragonems' and disciple of Ángel Suárez Flores, who was in charge of another outstanding paintings theft involving 17 paintings stolen from the residence of businesswoman and philanthropist Esther María Koplowitz y Romero de Juseu, the 7th Marchioness of Casa Peñalver in August 2001.

The artist Francis Bacon died on April 28, 1992 at the Ruber clinic in Madrid at 82 years of age.  Prior to his death he was reportedly in love with the young Spanish financier to whom gifted the paintings.

For now, the last two paintings remain listed on Interpol's stolen Works of Art database. 

January 18, 2024

Thursday, January 18, 2024 - ,,,, No comments

Breakthrough in Decade-Long Art Heist: Stolen Chagall and Picasso Paintings Recovered in Antwerp Raid

In a stunning turn of events, two valuable paintings, L’homme en prière by Marc Chagall and a version of Tête by Pablo Picasso, stolen from a Tel Aviv villa in February 2010, have been recovered after a decade-long investigation. The breakthrough came on January 10, 2024, when police in Namur, Belgium, executed searches at the residence of a 68-year-old Israeli luxury watch dealer, known only as "Daniel Z."

The heist, which took place in February 2010 at a villa owned by the Herzikovich family of art collectors, saw the thieves make off with the Chagall and Picasso masterpieces valued at $900,000 (£710,000). In addition to the paintings, jewelry worth $680,000 was stolen from a safe, with the burglars showing a selective focus by bypassing other artworks displayed in the home.

The stolen paintings eventually made their way to Europe, specifically an Antwerp neighborhood, where they remained hidden for several years.

The breakthrough in the investigation occurred at the end of 2022 when law enforcement officers in Namur received a tip-off about an individual attempting to sell the stolen Chagall and Picasso works. A thorough investigation led to the identification of a suspect, prompting months of surveillance and intelligence gathering.

By 2023, Belgian law enforcement confirmed that the suspect was indeed in possession of the stolen paintings and likely stored them at his residence or with an associate. Subsequent checks and resources implemented in 2023 pointed to the suspect's potential possession of the artworks.

On January 10, 2024, police executed a search at the home of "Daniel Z" at the public prosecutor's request. While a significant amount of money was discovered, the two stolen paintings were not found. The suspect confessed to possessing the artworks but refused to disclose their location.

Continuing with leads in the investigation, authorities in Antwerp, conducted a search of a building purportedly linked to past cases of stolen paintings which resulted in the recovery of the Chagall and Picasso masterpieces. Stored in wooden boxes with screwed lids, the artworks were found undamaged and still in their original frames.

According to The Times, Alexander Besedin, the building's caretaker, revealed, "Those wooden boxes were untouched for four or five years, without me really paying attention to them. It was a favor to someone I considered a friend. When I asked him at the time what was in it, he said it was family paintings. They were nailed shut, so I couldn’t see into them."

The main suspect, described as a 68-year-old Israeli luxury watch dealer, has been charged with receiving the two stolen paintings and has been placed under arrest. 

December 20, 2023

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And the epigraphic fragment of the marble lararium lived happily ever after...

Our story begins at the house of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus, a banker from Pompeii, whose residence was found buried under a blanket of ash and lapilli during the Bourbon excavations in 1844.  Between 1875-1876 researchers exploring his residence discovered a stash of some 154 waxed boards, which gave us the occupant's historic profession.  These recorded the commissions paid (1-4%) for loans with the banker between 52 and 62 AD.  Most covered transactions for real estate rents, securities, trade goods, and in some cases the purchase of animals and slaves.  

Three of these recovered apochae, (receipts from a creditor acknowledging the payment of a debt) offered a captivating peek into the everyday life of the home's enigmatic "banker," who, before Vesuvius blew, in 79 CE, once lead a comfortable life in this domus.  They also serve as a window into the everyday transactions of Pompeii's middle class merchants and landowners as they documented items sold, alongside the identities of sellers and, in one case even the buyer. Issued to Iucundus, in front of named witnesses, these ancient documents cover sums ranging from a few hundred sesterces to as much as 38,000 sesterces, each meticulously recorded as transactions between the merchant banker and his private clients or at auctions for small transactions.  

Walking inside the vestibule of the house of Iucundus, with its floor mosaic depicting a guard dog, you arrive to his atrium, with its central impluvium surrounded by a mosaic of geometric figures.  One of the most important rooms in a Roman house, it is here, in the north-west corner that Iucundus placed his lararium, a shrine to the guardian spirits of his Roman household, where the banker, his family and his servants, likely performed daily rituals to guarantee their protection.  

We know from the details of the carved frieze on two sides of this home chapel that the lararium was positioned here after the famous earthquake which shook the city in 62 CE because it details, on two of its bas-reliefs, the damage from that event. The first bas-relief, found intact, details the collapse of the Capitolium in the Forum of Pompeii next to a ceremony propitiating the Goddess Tellus.  


The second relief depicts the damage suffered by the Porta Vesuvius which collapsed as a result of the earthquake and to its left the castellum aquae.  This marble slab was not found inside Iucundus' house, but in the areas adjacent to it.  Why the banker chose to memorialise this mournful event is unknown, but perhaps having born witness to the earlier destruction and having escaped catastrophe, he wanted to offer a ex voto to his tutelary deities for the grace they bestowed on his family. 


Originally stored in the Antiquarium of Pompeii, these two marble reliefs were eventually reinstalled in the house of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus when his lararium was restored.  They and depicted in numerous photos, in situ, from the 1930s onward.   The piece depicting the Porta Vesuvius was cemented into the north wall above the base of the lararium, perhaps because of its imprecise find spot.  There, both reliefs remained, that is until thieves began prying pieces loose in the 1970s. 

Subsequent to the theft, the remaining bas-relief was moved to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, for safekeeping, while all that remained of the second fragment which depicted the Porta Vesuvius was its cast impression, taken in the 1930s and part of the collection at the Museo della Civiltà Romana in Rome.  There were no further traces of the stolen bas-relief until it was identified some 50 years later, cemented into the staircase of another family home, this time in Flanders, Belgium.  

Raphaël De Temmerman, 80, and his son, Geert De Temmerman, told authorities that they visited Pompeii in 1975, (long after Italy's cultural property laws went into effect.  While touring the archaeological site, the pair were approached by an unidentified man who offered to sell them an ancient souvenir.  Without thinking if their actions were legal or not, the tourists purchased the ancient marble and returned home to Belgium with a 2000 year old momento of their trip.  

Back home in Tongeren, the relief was cemented into the family's stairwell, wherte remained in the De Temmerman's home until Geert contacted the Gallo-Roman museum in Flanders hoping to get the piece appraised.  From there it was identified as the well documented artefact stolen from the Pompeii banker's domus. 

Anyone who has visited Pompeii in the 1970s comparing it with today has seen the devastation the influx of tourists to archaeological wonders can cause, (with or without theft).   The sheer volume of visitors, coupled with a lack of awareness or disregard for preservation, has led to an erosion of delicate frescoes, as well as the deterioration of centuries-old structures, and wear-and-tear on the very remnants that attract these crowds. 

Trampling on restricted areas, unauthorised touching, and even instances of graffiti also contribute to the gradual degradation of this historical marvel, despite the best efforts of its site managers, who do their best to strike a balance between making this cultural treasure accessible to the public and still safeguarding the city for future generations. 

Legends speak of the spectral inhabitants of this archaeological site, the echoes of lives abruptly interrupted by the cataclysmic eruption.  Some say that the spirits of Pompeii's past residents wander amidst the remnants of their homes and streets, quietly observing the influx of modern-day visitors. Visiting this archaeologicalsite, ARCA recommends that tourists take only memories and leave only footprints, lest the restless souls of the city's past inhabitants subject you to their ethereal disapproval. 







September 12, 2023

Vincent Van Gogh's stolen painting, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, has been recovered.

After extensive work on the part of the Dutch National Police and a private investigator, authorities have announced that Vincent Van Gogh's “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring” was recovered yesterday.  The painting, which is part of the Groninger Museum's collection was stolen on 30 March 2020 while on loan at the Singer Laren museum for its The Mirror of the Soul exhibition. To steal the painting, police indicated that the thief accessed the museum by brazenly smashing his way in through the reinforced glass front door with a sledgehammer. 

Once inside, he had obtained entry through the front door, then moved past the ticket desk and gift shop and smashed open a second locked door, cherry-picking this singular Van Gogh painting and quickly leaving the way he came in, with the artwork tucked under his right arm and carrying the sledgehammer in his left hand.

Long rumoured to be in the hands of the drug underworld, the Van Gogh painting's artnappers had previously tantalised law enforcement authorities by sending a  cheeky "proof of life photo to Arthur Brand, a private art crime investigator based in Amsterdam who's made headlines with a string of high-profile art recoveries.  

The hostage-like photograph, sent to Brand on June 18, 2020 showed Vincent's painting laying flat on a garbage bag, sandwiched between a New York Times newspaper and a Dutch copy of the autobiography "The Master Thief" written by Octave "Okkie" Durham, the thief who stole two other Vincent van Gogh paintings on the evening of 7 December 2002 from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. 

Later, Nils Menara, AKA Nils M., was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Lelystad court in the Netherlands for the theft of this painting as well as the second theft of Dutch Golden Age master Frans Hals' 1626 painting  Two Laughing Boys taken from the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden Museum in Leerdam on 26 August 2020.

During Menara's trial, Prosecutors noted his DNA presence at both crime scenes, and gave convincing testimony which detailed how the criminal underworld has an interest in stolen art as it can be used to demand ransom, or used as a medium of exchange for a penalty or as collateral for drug deals.  Menara was also convicted for possession of a firearm and a large amount of hard drugs and was described by the court as an "incorrigible, calculating criminal".

This week authorities announced that the painting was recovered Monday, after it was dropped off at Arthur Brand's home in Amsterdam, wrapped carefully in bubble wrap and placed in a blue IKEA bag following talks Brand held over the weekend with an informant on the Amstelveld, a square in the middle of the historical centre  in Amsterdam. 


In February 2021 Brand had already indicated that through indirect negotiations, that he had been told that the Van Gogh was in the hands of individuals affiliated with Peter Roy Kok, who was later convicted and is currently serving a 12 year prison sentence in a separate case involving the large-scale import and export of cocaine.  It is believed that the painting was to be used as collateral. 

Richard Bronswijk, head of Art Crime at the police, told Dutch Newspaper De Telegraaf  “The perpetrator is in custody and the job is back. That is a one hundred percent score that we are very happy with. Especially for the Groninger Museum. We have had an excellent collaboration with Arthur Brand.”

During his lifetime Van Gogh only sold one painting.  But when opportunity has knocked, art thieves have often had a preference for his works.  To learn more about the 37 Van Gogh works of art which have been stolen, 3 of them two times each, over the course of 15 separate art thefts, please check out my earlier reporting. 

By:  Lynda Albertson

September 27, 2021

Three convictions and one acquittal, the number of museum thefts Nils Menara, AKA Nils M., has been charged with.


Nils Menara, AKA Nils M., has been sentenced to 8 years in prison by the Lelystad court in the Netherlands for the theft of two artworks:

Vincent Van Gogh's 1882  painting Parish garden in Nuenen stolen from the Singer Laren Museum on 30 March 2020

Dutch Golden Age master Frans Hals' 1626 painting  Two Laughing Boys taken from the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden Museum in Leerdam on 26 August 2020.

Neither painting has been recovered.  

Menara was also convicted for possession of a firearm and a large amount of hard drugs and was described by the court as an "incorrigible, calculating criminal".  In making their case, prosecutors had noted Menara's DNA presence at both crime scenes, and one the basis that the modus operandi from both thefts, as well as others in the past. 

The fact that Menara was tripped up by his own DNA is either ironic or just plain stupid, given that in 2009 Dutch police tracked the thief and an accomplice through DNA traces left on a crowbar and bolt cutters, at the scene of a 2009 museum burglary at the Stadsmuseum IJsselstein in the Netherlands.  There, burglars stole six landscape paintings from the 17th and 19th centuries, including works by Jan van Goyen and Willem Roelofs.  In that case Menara was acquitted.  Despite the DNA traces, the judge cited that this evidence alone was insufficient because the tools could also have been touched elsewhere.

Perhaps emboldened by shaking the charges relating to the Stadsmuseum IJsselstein, three years later in 2012 Menara violently entered the Gouda museum using semtex explosives blasting through the museum's front door.   In less than five minutes, he made off with a gilded silver monstrance created in 1662 by Johannes Boogeart which had been on loan to the museum from the parish of St. Anthony of Padua, fleeing the scene on a motorbike.  Adding insult to injury, debris from the explosion pierced a painting by Ferdinand Bol and another work of art.

This time though, Menara's luck didn't hold.  A short while after, Dutch Police tied him to the blowing up an ATM with explosives, which helped them in obtaining a warrant to tap his phone, which gave the police the much-needed evidence which tied him directly to the Gouda Museum burglary.   

In June 2013 the investigation department of the Central Netherlands police, working on the Eiffel investigation into a series of explosions and ram raids at jewellers caught suspects Nils Menara and Erik P., on tape relating to two criminal events, one of which was a conversation about explosives and the other the 2012 Gouda museum theft.  The pair also talked about the Schiphol Airport diamond robbery in 2005, to the great frustration of the police and judicial authorities as the suspects had been previously arrested for this, but then released due to lack of evidence.

Upon his arrest for the Gouda Museum burglary, Menara was found to have heavy weapons, ammunition, money and drugs in his house. 

Thankfully, this time, his charges stick and on 5 February 2016 Menara was sentenced by the court in Utrecht to six years in prison for the robbery at the Gouda museum, two years less than the sentence requested by the Public Prosecution Service. 

In January 2017 seven more suspects were arrested in Amsterdam and Valencia, Spain with the help of a lucky break involving the Nils Menara wiretap.

Despite all this, it appears that Menara's stint in prison hasn't deterred him from a life of crime and remains mum as to who he handed the artworks over to. 

May 25, 2021

Arundel Castle Theft: Among the losses, Mary, Queen of Scots rosary beads, once carried at her execution

Execution Of Mary Queen Of Scots, 8 February 1587 by William Aubrey
 
On May 21, at approximately 10:30 pm, an alarm sounded at the medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England.  Despite responding within minutes of the alarm going off, Sussex police arrived to find a burnt-out car, thought to be connected to the heist, and a display cabinet in the dining room
at Arundel Castle stripped of £1 million worth of historic gold and silver artefacts, many of great historical significance.

The objects stolen from the ancestral home of the Dukes of Norfolk include:

A 16th Century set of gold and enamel rosary beads made up of a crucifix and a string of five decades made up of small beads, with five larger beads.   The fleur-de-lis in the design serve to create the circle of the Celtic cross, and the vine shapes on the shaft end in three small pearl drops

This rosary was carried by Mary Queen of Scots to her execution at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587 and was bequeathed by her to Anne, Countess of Arundel, wife of St. Philip Howard.  

Several coronation cups given by Mary to the Earl Marshal of the day, and other gold and silver treasures not itemized by the Sussex police in their public report.

Confined for most of the time between 1568 and her death, Mary's rosary was complete and undamaged prior to the theft.   The total value of the stolen items from the Duke of Norfolk’s collection is listed as £1 million, however they have immeasurably greater historic importance. 

Anyone with information about the theft or these pieces can contact Detective Constable Molly O'Malley of Chichester CID either online or by calling 101, quoting Operation Deuce.

quoting Operation Deuce or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously in the UK at 0800 555 111.

April 20, 2021

Restitution: Manhattan and US authorities hand over 33 artefacts stolen from the the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Image Credit - HSI ICE

Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been plagued by war and corruption.  That vulnerability has long made it a target for looters, many of whom have stripped thousands of Buddhist and Hindu antiquities, some dating back more than 1,800 years, from their find spots.  But while decades of conflict have devastated the Afghanistan countryside and left its populations impoverished, its dealers like Subhash Kapoor with his tony Art of the Past gallery on Madison Avenue in New York who turned other peoples' misery and misfortune into personal profit.  

Kapoor's clients turned a blind eye to the provenance of the artworks he procured, as did important museum institutions who readily purchased work through the dealer or accepted tainted donations from his well-heeled clients with regularly.  As seen in the restitutions over the last month, this network involved with this single New York ancient art dealer was able to source, procure, and sell illicit material from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Southeast Asia, and southern India, often in quantities of a staggering scale.                                                                            But this week, thirty-three of those plundered artworks were handed over to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, via its first female Ambassador to the United States, Roya Rahmani.  In accepting these artefacts Ambassador Rahami knowledgeably stated: 

“The environment that allows for the plundering of Afghanistan’s treasured antiquities is the same environment that allows for the perpetuation of conflict...traffickers are not just robbing Afghanistan of its history, they are perpetuating a situation where peace does not manifest and the region does not stabilize. Looting Afghanistan’s past is looting Afghanistan’s future.

Image Credit: The office of Afghan ambassador, Roya Rahmani

Image Credit: The office of Afghan ambassador, Roya Rahmani

The 33 artefacts restituted this week were part of a hoard of 2,500 objects valued at $143 million which were seized between 2012 and 2014 as a result of the Subhash Kapoor investigation and the ongoing case being built against the dealer in the United States.  Since August 2020, the Manhattan DA's office, their Antiquities Trafficking Unit and their partners at Homeland Security Investigations have successfully restituted 338 stolen objects to seven countries.

Image Credit - HSI ICE

As we can see from the substantial number of restitutions over the last four weeks, including two artefacts to the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and three 13 - 16th century CE artefacts stolen from the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the breadth of the problem of illicit material in liberal circulation on the legitimate ancient art market is not a minor problem, but rather something more pernicious.  

Despite this, the New York success stories over the last month demonstrate what public prosecutors can do, when art crimes are given a higher priority.  Allocating sufficient resources and allowing collaborative access to experts can serve to facilitate successful law enforcement investigations into criminal activity within the ancient art market which stretches over years and between jurisdictions.  The result being the plundered heritage can be confiscated and returned back home in accordance with the laws of particular jurisdictions involved.

Restitution: Manhattan and US authorities hand over three 13 - 16th century CE artefacts stolen from the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.

One week after its last restitution, on the first of April, the Consulate General of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal in New York received three more Kapoor-handled artefacts at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Those artefacts were: 

  • a 13th century CE wooden beam depicting a colored Apsara
  • a 14th-15th century CE gold seated Buddha in Bhumisparsa Mudra, 
  • a 15th-16th century CE seated Ganesha 
All three of these ancient objects were seized pursuant to the Manhattan DA's investigation of antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor.  In furtherance of the occasion, Consulate General Mr. Bishnu Prasad Gautam, and District Attorney of New York County Mr. Cyrus Vance Jr. signed an agreement establishing the recovery, hand over, and repatriation of the antiquities to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.  


Mr. Gautam expressed his thanks to the United States Department of Homeland Security and Acting Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Eric Silverman, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr., and Assistant D.A. Matthew Bogdanos, Senior Trial Counsel and Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit, who handled the recovery of the Nepali artefacts along with Special Agents Brenton Easter and John Paul Labbat and Investigative Analyst Apsara Iyer of the Manhattan DA's office. 


The Nepal officials honoured those responsible for the artefacts' restitution,  bestowing them with a traditional Tibetan Khata, a scarf offered as a symbol of respect and gratitude.  

To date, several investigations have tracked many false provenances provided by Subhash Kapoor. This methodology of back-tracking an artefact to its theft site and searching out the smuggling methods from the source country to Kapoor's U.S. gallery and the collectors who purchased from him has led to several recoveries.  One of those, a 10th- or 11th-century mūrti of Lakshmi-Narayana (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी-नारायण, IAST: Lakṣmīnārāyaṇa), a manifestation of Vishnu in the Hindu religion disappeared from the Narayan Temple in the Patko Tol neighbourhood in Patan, in 1984.  That sacred object was eventually purchased six years later in March 1990 by David T. Owsley, (a client of Kapoor's) who in turn lent the object to the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA).  On 2 March 2021 officials from the Dallas FBI Field Office and the Dallas Museum of Art announced the voluntary restitution and formal transfer of that mūrti back to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.


Restitution: Manhattan and US authorities hand over two Kandyan Period artefacts depicting the Lord Buddha in Abhaya Mudra stolen from the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

As can be seen, by the restitutions accomplished via Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance's team over the last month, New York continues to lead the way in the United States in making a significant impact in the identification and restitution of unprovenanced artefacts; objects which fuel a transnational trade in stolen objects and the depredation of both sacred and archaeological sites.

Image Credit: Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations New York

Looking back over the last month, on Thursday, March 25th the DA's office in Manhattan handed over a pair of Kandyan Period (18th Century) Sri Lankan artefacts depicting the Lord Buddha in Abhaya Mudra, which were seized pursuant to ongoing investigations into the dealings of ancient art dealer Subhash Kapoor.  These historic objects represent the first two sacred artefacts to be returned to Sri Lanka from the United States.

Abhaya in Sanskrit means fearlessness, and the abhayamudrā symbolizes protection both aptly fitting to the commitment of the New York DA's Antiquities Trafficking Unit, led by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, who, along with his team of analysts, collaborates with officers of the Homeland Security Investigations, all of whom strive to identify and pursue those who seek to profit from the trade in illegally exported cultural property. 

Assistant D.A. Matthew Bogdanos, Senior Trial Counsel and Chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit handled the Sri Lankan recovery along with Investigative Analyst Apsara Iyer and Special Agents Brenton Easter and John Paul Labbat from Homeland Security Investigations. 

Ambassador Pieris and Asst. District Attorney Col. Matthew Bogdanos exchange agreements establishing the recovery, hand over and repatriation of the antiquities.

Arrested on 30 October 2011 in Frankfurt, Germany and extradited to India in July of 2012, Subhash Kapoor is presently jailed at the Tiruchirapalli Central Prison.  In India he is on trial for smuggling 28 idols from the Sundareswarar temple, the Varadaraja Perumal temple, and from the Arulmigu Pragatheeswarar temple in Tamil Nadu.  The 71-year-old former Manhattan-based dealer will then have to answer to additional charges in the US, for his role in what prosecutors believe was a $145 million smuggling ring which prosecutors charged laundered stolen artefacts from many countries through his gallery Art of the Past.  

Law enforcement authorities in several countries believe that over a period spanning some thirty years, the disreputable dealer handled thousands of looted antiquities incentivising plunder from those within his network.  Pursuant to the USA/New York investigation, the D.A.’s Office and HSI have recovered more than 2,500 artworks, all believed to have been handled by Kapoor's web of middle-tier dealers, thieves, and smugglers between 2011 to 2020.  The bulk of these historic artefacts were pillaged from heritage sites in Afghanistan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. 

The restitution ceremony for the Sri Lankan pieces in New York was attended by H.E. Ambassador Mohan Pieris, Permanent Representative of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Satya Rodrigo, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Asst. District Attorney Col. Matthew Bogdanos, members of the District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit, as well as HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh, HSI Deputy Special Agent-in-Charge Erik Rosenblatt, HSI Group Supervisor Stephen Lee, and HSI Special Agents John Paul Labbat, Robert Fromkin and Igor Gamza of Homeland Security Investigations.  District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr joined the official ceremony virtually. 

Ambassador Pieris, Satya Rodrigo, DPR, Special Agent John Paul Labbat & Apsara Iyer, Antiquities Trafficking Analyst
Image Credit: Permanent Mission of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York

For Sri Lankan's thoughts, H.E. Mohan Pieris, reminded listeners that:

Cultural property is intrinsically related to the evolution of a nation’s identity. It forms a vital link to the past, wherefrom the present and future may be nurtured and enriched. It is therefore a moment of joy and cultural renewal when artefacts are recovered and returned to their rightful owners. Regrettably, however, we are dismayed to know that for every return there are thousands that are stolen, looted and trafficked through underground and illicit channels.

District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., for his part, stated that his office issued an arrest warrant for Subhash Kapoor in 2012, followed by a criminal complaint in 2019 that estimated that the “total value of stolen antiquities known to have been trafficked by Kapoor exceeds USD 145.71 million”.  Extradition paperwork has been formally filed in Manhattan in July 2020 which will ensure that Kapoor will face justice in New York as well as in India for the crimes he has been charged within New York's jurisdiction. 

On Monday, the first of April the Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. announced a further return of artefacts, related to this ring of traffickers, this time to the people of Nepal.

February 25, 2021

The art of loss: Mourning "Charley Hill" the intrepid undercover agent who recovered Edvard Munch's "The Scream"


It's hard to write a second In Memoriam 
in less than one year for someone who spent a goodly part of their life dedicated to the recovery of stolen art. 

In the first days after Charles Hill's death, on Saturday, February 20th, words completely eluded me.  Trying to think of what I could write or should write, and knowing a man's successes are not a sum of his career, I also thought to his family trying to cope with his unexpected loss.  These are the people who knew Charley, not as a respected Detective Chief Inspector or private investigator, but by the more important titles he held: Father and Husband. 

In writing this goodbye, I mulled over some of the conversations Charley and I had over the years, most of which occurred in letters that often made me laugh out loud for their wit and sarcasm, doled out in equal measure.   More rarely, when our paths would cross in Rome or in England, I was fortunate enough to listen to his soft-spoken quips about art as currency in the underworld, about clan funerals in Tullamore, County Offaly, or his work with the Historic Houses Association. 

I remember one conversation seven years ago almost to the day when Charley was doing what Charley loved, chasing a pair of picturesque Venetian scenes by the 18th-century Italian painter Francesco Lazzaro Guardi.  These two landscape paintings depicting Venice, really bothered him, as they are the last of eighteen artworks stolen by Dublin gangster Martin Cahill's gang during a 1986 burglary at Russborough House, that remain missing. 

Back in 1993 Hill had already worked on the multicountry investigation that recovered Goya’s Doña Antonia Zárate, Gabriel Metsu’s Man Writing a Letter, Antione Vestier’s Portrait of the Princesse de Lamballe and Johannes Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid, taken from the same stately Irish home.  Although the Vermeer pleased Charley the most, perhaps because it was one of just two Vermeers in private collections, (the second is owned by Queen Elizabeth II), it was the two Guardi paintings that remained outstanding that prevented him from closing the Russborough House case with satisfaction.  For the paintings already recovered, Hill had posed as a dapper, if not dubious, art dealer claiming to have Arab buyers lined up to purchase the stolen paintings.  To bring them home, he met with the underworld accomplices alone in a multi-storey car park at the Antwerp airport.

But back to our conversation in 2014.  For more than a year Charley had been following up on every vexing lead, no matter how improbably proposed, trying to get the two stolen Guardi paintings back.  He wanted to keep a promise he had made to Lady Beit eighteen years earlier when they had met and discussed his work on the recovery of Russborough's artworks. In our conversation he described his hunt for the paintings and his relationship with one of his more frustrating Irish informants unabashedly, saying "we're a bit like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and I'm the short, fat fox trotter on the donkey, but with all of the best lines."  

Hill understood that many of the leads he was given, and the promises being made, were akin to tilting at fabled windmills.  Despite this, he felt driven to see each through, tackling each misadventure and subsequent disappointment with sardonic humour, saying it only takes one solid piece of evidence.  In many ways it was this perseverance, coupled with earthy wit and optimism that all puzzles could eventually be solved, that kept him tenaciously plodding forward, where others might have given up. 


Retiring from the Metropolitan Police in London in 1997 Hill could have sat back and enjoyed the fact that his name will forever be remembered for the recovery of Pieter Brueghel's Elder's Christus en de overspelige vrouw stolen from the Courtauld Gallery in 1982 and the recovery of Edvard Munch's Der Schrei der Natur, more commonly known as The Scream, stolen from the Nasjonal Museet in Oslo during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.  


He could have relaxed in a pub, over a blended scotch telling the story of how he was laid out on the ground and handcuffed alongside the criminals when he was unable to get a signal to his German counterparts, during the recovery of a hoard of paintings and statues stolen in Moravia and Bohemia that included Lucas Cranach's The Old Fool from the National Gallery in Prague.  But instead, after the Marquess of Bath received a ransom demand, Charley continued post-retirement chasing up leads on the missing Riposo durante la fuga in Egitto by Tiziano Vecellio,  better known as Titian.  That work had been stolen in January 1995 from the grand rooms of the Elizabethan manor Longleat.

After seven years and a succession of false leads, one lead on the 16th century Renaissance painting Rest on the Flight into Egypt paid off. To bring the painting home required coordinating a lot of moving parts, the last of which involved Charley going to a simple bus stop in Richmond, south-west London where he was to find the Titian undamaged, stashed without its frame and wrapped in brown parcel paper, plinked inside a nondescript, red, white, and blue plastic shopping bag. 


But aside from these victories, are the many works that remained outside Hill's reach.  Art objects in which he never lost hope of being recovered. The most famous of these being the 13 works of art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990.

A Fulbright Scholar in his early years before joining Scotland Yard, Hill had studied history at Trinity College, Dublin, most likely where is knowledge of Ireland and the Irish began.  He then went on to attend King’s College in London, where he read Theology and at one point considered becoming a member of the Anglican clergy.  

Perhaps this is why Charley was good at talking with the local clergy and members of their flock, both righteous and sinner.  For Hill, the lost and stolen icons and religiously significant objects of worship deserved to come home as much as the better-known paintings.  Doggedly, he never gave up on searching for a cross stolen from the Church of San Giuseppe in Piazza Armerina in Sicily, the missing pages from the Aleppo Codex, the oldest Hebrew Bible, or Italy's most famous painting, Caravaggio’s Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence.

The Oratory of San Lorenzo, in Palermo, missing its
“Nativity” by Caravaggio

In describing his work with thieves, fraudsters, art criminals, and informants Hill told people that he took a page from the lesson book of anti-mafia crusader Judge Giovanni Falcone and his questioning of Cosa Nostra pentiti [mafia informants].  The pair were at dinner together in London when Falcone, referring to his negotiating said "When I tell someone I'll do something, I do it." The phrase was one Hill took to heart saying was good advice on how to deal with all kinds and conditions of men and women.
As I reminisce on this, I try and remind myself that with every passing, a person leaves behind something to be remembered by and to draw comfort from. Sometimes it is a pair of tortoiseshell spectacles, a Donegal tweed jacket made of Irish lowland wool, or saved letters read and reread.  I will think of Charley every time I see the fruit of his labours hanging back where they rightfully belong. Where these works of art can be enjoyed by this generation and many generations after.  

Charley leaves behind his wife Caroline, his three children Elizabeth, Christ and Susannah, and histwo grandchildren, Georgia and Olivia. 

NB:  His friends called him Charley, never Charles and certainly not Charlie.  

By:  Lynda Albertson


The two missing Russborough House paintings of 18th Century Venice by Francesco Lazzaro Guardi,  that Charley Hill was chasing. 




January 20, 2021

Restitution: Belgian authorities hand over a 1st century BCE Roman statue stolen from Rome in 2011

Today, authorities from the General Directorate of the Economic Inspection of the SPF Economie in Belgium turned over a lifesize 1st century BCE Roman statue of a man to officers from the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.  The seizure, and subsequent restitution, come at the conclusion of an investigation conducted by Belgium's Economic Inspectorate, in cooperation with the Brussels public prosecutor's office.

Stolen during a theft in Rome in 2011, this headless 2000-year-old Roman marble togatus was located in a Brussels' gallery by the Carabinieri TPC and was then determined to be on consignment by an individual already on the radar of the Italian authorities.  According to the report given by the Belgian authorities, the sculpture's restitution is the first result of a series of investigations linked to fraud in the art market, which are currently being carried out by the Economic Inspectorate under the aegis of the Brussels judicial authorities.  It also shows how law enforcement in multiple jurisdictions can, and are, actively working together to investigate and combat cross-border thefts and trafficking of art and antiquities. 

As the Belgian authorities indicated this is just the first of a series of investigations. And given the frequency illicit antiquities continue to penetrate the legitimate art market, frequently in Brussels' Sablon, embroiling its galleries and their owners in the repetitive drama of plausible deniability, it might be wise for dealers to take a look at their consignment practices.   Being complacent when handling stolen and illegally-exported (illicit) antiquities, is never good for one's reputation, even if the items are accepted in good faith.   It would behove dealers to be more stringent when accepting works of art from potential consignors, not only to ensure that they are not support organized criminal enterprise through the illicit antiquities trade but also so their client's don't lose faith in their expertise and ability to satisfactorily vet the artefacts they recommend to their clientele. 

Likewise, the prudent purchaser should do their own homework, carefully vetting the trophy works that they wish to purchase for their collections. In cross-checking all of the accompanying documentation, they should ask themselves, the gallery and where applicable the consignor

  • Does your toga-wearing headless man have an export license? 
  • Does his documentation look authentic? 
  • Might the license be falsified?  
  • Is the country of origin falsified? 
  • Does the country of export match with the country of the object's origin?  
  • Does the object have a known find spot?   
  • How far back can the chain of ownership be demonstrated? 
  • and lastly, are there any other red flags like "property of an anonymous Swiss collector"?

By:  Lynda Albertson


January 11, 2021

Monday, January 11, 2021 - , No comments

New Zealand Police want help in finding the owners of recovered stolen artworks

Image Credit:  Waikato Police

Law enforcement authorities with the Waikato Police have posted photos of numerous artworks to their Facebook page which officers believe were taken during a spate of burglaries from properties around the Waihi Beach and Coromandel area at the western end of the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand's North Island. 

Image Credit:  Waikato Police

ARCA's readers are encouraged to make a report online at 105.police.govt.nz if you recognize any of these artworks or artists in these photographs.  If you have any information and are regionally located in New Zealand you can also call 24/7 on the Police Non-Emergency Reporting number, 105.





 on their Facebook page today which they believed were stolen in burglaries over the past several months.