Displaying items by tag: Arrested

David Hausman, a New York City antiques dealer, was sentenced to 6 months in prison for illegally purchasing rhinoceros horns. The federal court also hit Hausman with a $28,000 fine for breaking laws intended to protect endangered black rhinos.

Hausman was arrested and pleaded guilty in court last summer, admitting that he knew the horns needed to be more than 100 years old in order to be purchased legally. Hausman, whose arrest was part of a nationwide crackdown, had previously offered to help the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service fight the illegal sales of rhinoceros horn.

Rhinoceros horn carvings, which are believed to bring good luck and health, have left the world’s rhino population devastated.

Following a two-year investigation conducted by the Italian art forgery unit, Christian Parisot, president of Rome’s Modigliani Institute, has been arrested. Police seized 18 works from Parisot including prints, bronzes, and a painting attributed to the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920); the counterfeit works are said to be worth almost $8.7 million. The unit also apprehended forged certificates of authenticity from Parisot.

Parisot has worked with the Modigliani family for years and even served as secretary to Jeanne Modigliani, the artist’s daughter. Laura Nechtschein Modigliani, Jeanne’s daughter and the only living descendant of the artist, currently holds the rights over her grandfather’s works.

Modigliani’s oeuvre has proved problematic through the years; due to his consistent and distinctive style, Modigliani’s works are often subject to forgery. There are at least five catalogue raisonnés of the artist’s work and Parisot was in the process of compiling his own prior to his arrest.

Romanian authorities have arrested three suspects relating to an art heist at the Kunsthal museum in the Netherlands. The robbery, which occurred October 16, 2012 at around 3AM, was the biggest art theft in two decades in the Netherlands. The stolen works include masterpieces by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and are believed to be worth between $66 million and $266 million. The paintings have not yet been recovered.

While little is being revealed about the arrests or the suspects, it has been reported that three men are being detained for 29 days at the request of prosecutors from the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism. The suspects’ involvement is still being explored, but officials believe the stolen works might be hidden in an undisclosed location in Romania.

The seven stolen paintings, which are part of the private Triton Foundation collection, include Picasso’s Harlequin Head (1971); Monet’s Waterloo Bridge, London and Charing Cross Bridge, London (1901); Matisse’s Reading Girl in White and Yellow (1919); Gauguin’s Girl in Front of Open Window (1898); Meyer de Haan’s (1852-1895) Self Portrait (circa 1890); and Lucian Freud’s (1922-2011) Woman with Eyes Closed (2002). The Triton collection, which was assembled over the course of 20 years, includes more than 150 works of modern art ranging from the 19^th century to the present day and spans a number of important art movements.

Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman of Miami and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo of Mexico City have pled guilty to selling a stolen Henri Matisse painting on Miami’s black market. The duo admitted to FBI agents that they knew the $3 million painting, Odalisque in Red Pants (1925), had been stolen before making a deal to sell it to an undercover officer who was part of a sting operation. The pair was arrested after the sale was made.

The painting has been missing from Venezuela’s Sofia Imber Contemporary Art Museum since approximately 2002 when it was swapped for a fake. Some speculate the switch went unnoticed for years. Even though Interpol, the FBI, and police in France and Spain have investigated the case, the details of the theft remain a mystery. However, Guzman and Lazo said in court that they were told museum employees hung the forgery in place of the original.

Although the painting has been recovered, it has not been returned to Venezuela. Guzman faces 10 years in prison for conspiracy to transport and sell stolen property, while Lazo faces five years. The pair is scheduled to be sentenced in January.

On September 14^th, star bond trader, Jeffrey Gundlach, returned to his Santa Monica home to find his art collection, 2010 Porsche Carrera, watches, and rare bottles of wine missing. Two weeks later, police recovered the contemporary art trove. Including works by Piet Mondrian, Jasper Johns, and Richard Diebenkorn, the collection totaled nearly $10 million. Gundlach had offered a $1.7 million reward for the collection’s safe return.

Santa Monica police arrested two suspects after officers received a tip that the stolen art was being held at an automobile stereo shop in Pasadena. After raiding Al & Ed’s Autosound, police recovered all but one of Gundlach’s paintings. The store’s manager, Jay Jeffrey Nieto, 45, was arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property. A second suspect, Wilmer Cadiz, 40, was arrested on the same charges at his home. The final painting was recovered at a residence in Glendale.

The near-record reward is believed to have played a key role in the collections’ recovery. However, it is not clear whether the reward money will be paid to the person who provided the tip that led to the arrest of Nieto and Cadiz. Gundlach had offered $1 million for the return of the Mondrian painting, Composition (A) En Rouge Et Blanc. The offer is said to be the highest ever reward for a single painting.

It's a case of lost and found for a Pablo Picasso drawing stolen from an art gallery Tuesday in San Francisco.

The 1965 pencil drawing, "Tete de Femme," was hanging in the Weinstein Gallery when, witnesses said, a man walked through the entrance, took the drawing off the wall and left in a waiting cab. The sketch is worth an estimated $275,000.

Today, police arrested Mark Lugo, 30, of New Jersey on charges of burglary, grand theft, possession of stolen property and possession of narcotics.

After a series of investigative leads, San Francisco police said, they arrested Lugo at a hotel in Napa, Calif., where his hotel room was searched and the missing Picasso sketch was recovered.

Lugo invoked his right to remain silent, so, authorities said, they don't know what he was doing in San Francisco or if he traveled to steal the painting.

"I think a 48-hour turnaround on a crime like this another case of just unbelievable police work," San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr said.

The pencil sketch isn't damaged, but the frame was removed, authorities said.

Two surveillance videos and other tips helped lead to Lugo's arrest. The first video came from a restaurant on the block, Lefty O'Douls, and showed a man matching police and witnesses' descriptions carrying a framed piece of art.

His most notable attribute was that he was wearing a dark jacket and loafers with no socks. According to police, the frame size appeared to be the same dimensions as the stolen Picasso -- 10.5 by 8.5 inches.