Displaying items by tag: dna

After more than 17 years, police have reopened the investigation into a theft from the Ricci-Oddi Gallery in northern Italy. In February 1997, while the gallery was undergoing a renovation, thieves made off with Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of a Woman.” The assailants, who either entered the gallery through the main entrance or removed the work through the building’s skylight, left a partial fingerprint on the painting’s frame. Investigators hope that today’s state-of-the-art technology will help identify a DNA match for the print.

The Klimt painting, which depicts a dark-haired woman, was acquired by the Ricci-Oddi Gallery in 1925. “Portrait of a Woman” is one of the most sought-after stolen paintings in Italy.

Klimt, an Austrian symbolist painter, was one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. He is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.

Pedro Luis Enriquez who goes by the nickname “El Loco” or “the Madman” has pleaded guilty to stealing $15 million worth of jewelry and watches from Provident Jewelry in Jupiter, Florida.

Investigators believe that three people were involved in the heist that took place on January 22, 2011 although Enriquez, 41, was the only suspect who has been apprehended. The thieves used a jackhammer-style tool and a high-pressure cutting torch to open a vault surrounded by 10 inches of reinforced concrete. Inside the vault, police found an open bottle of wine and a small flashlight, which contained DNA matching Enriquez’s.

Miami-Dade County Police have recovered 170 of the 1,6000 pieces of jewelry, loose stones and watches that were stolen; four arrests have been made in connection to the trafficking of the stolen goods.

Investigators received their first break in the case three weeks after the robbery when one of the stolen loose stones turned up at the Gemological Institute of America in New York. Police tracked the stone to a pawnshop in Miami and were able to recover another 100 stones.

Enriquez, who will serve 15 years in prison, has not volunteered any information about the heist or his accomplices.