Displaying items by tag: Theft

The insurance company Lloyd's has claimed in court that it won't pay for an insured Edgar Degas sculpture, purported to be worth $3 million, which disappeared in shady circumstances, "Daily News" reports.

“The claim of the loss of Degas bronze results from theft or dishonesty by a person to whom the insured property was entrusted," the insurance giant said in a Manhattan Supreme Court complaint. “Accordingly, the [Degas bronze] claim falls within exclusion of the policy."

Although the insurance policy covered losses until August 2014, exclusions applied in cases of “mysterious disappearance or unexplained loss," which seem to fit the description of the circumstances in which Degas' "La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans" vanished.

A pair of American tourists were pinched by Italian police when Fiumicino airport authorities in Rome discovered a stolen Pompeii relic in their luggage, reports the Local. The remarkably ill-advised crime rivals our favorite Italian art news story of the year, “Italian Student Smashes Sculpture While Taking Selfie” in its general stupidity.

The massive artifact, which was removed from a building at the historic site, weighed more than 65 pounds, but that wasn’t about to stop the thieves from smuggling it on board an aircraft and back to the States.

Four Romanians behind a spectacular art heist in the Netherlands were ordered Monday to pay 18 million euros, with the fate of the stolen masterpieces by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin and Lucien Freud still a mystery.

Seven paintings that were temporarily on display at the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam were stolen in 2012 in a raid that lasted only three minutes, in what the Dutch media called "the theft of the century."

A court in the Romanian capital ordered the heist's mastermind Radu Dogaru, his mother Olga, Eugen Darie and Adrian Procop to reimburse the paintings' insurers.

In a world of technology that grows at break-neck speed, our everyday life is constantly being altered. Everything from phones and cameras to sneakers, watches, air conditioners and even dog collars are “smarter” than us. As an art appraiser, my clients are prominent art collectors – predominantly high-net worth, sophisticated and tech-savvy. As such, they are often the first to try out the latest technological marvel. Except, as it turns out, when it comes to their art collection.

Considering that every week there is inevitably at least one news story relating to a high-value artwork theft, damage, fraud or authentication scandal, there is certainly a need for technologies to prevent such calamities. Those are only the stories that make the news, usually high profile works of art worth tens and even hundreds of millions dollars. As an appraiser, I am frequently called by clients who have had a theft, or even simply misplaced art, silver and decorative objects. The values are not comparatively impressive, but still worth a considerable investment in preventative technology.

The FBI agent in charge of the investigation into the theft of $500 million worth of masterpieces from a Boston museum nearly a quarter century ago says the bureau has confirmed sightings of the missing artwork from credible sources.

MyFoxBoston.com first reported that FBI Special Agent Geoff Kelly, who lead the international investigation for more than 10 years, says the trail for the missing artwork has not grown cold.

"We believe that over certain periods of time, this artwork has been spotted," Kelly told the station. "There have been sightings of it, confirmed sightings."

The presumed mastermind of a brazen art theft from a French Riviera museum involving four paintings by Monet, Sisley and Breughel denied any role as he went on trial on Monday.

The Miami-based Bernard Ternus, who is in his sixties, was sentenced in the United States to five years in prison in 2008 over the theft at Nice's Jules Cheret museum a year earlier.

Transferred to France last year after serving his sentence, Ternus -- who is being held in custody -- told the court in Aix-en-Provence in southern France that he had been framed.

A French man admitted to police that he stole Rembrandt’s “Child with a Soap Bubble” from the Municipal Museum in southeastern France. The work was recovered last week after French police caught the unidentified man and an accomplice attempting to sell the painting, which is estimated to be worth around $5.4 million. The painting has been missing since 1999.

The burglar, who said that he never earned any money from the painting, told police that he stole the canvas by breaking into the municipal library next door to the museum during a Bastille Day parade. Authorities returned the painting to curator Jeanine Bussieres on Thursday, March 20. Bussieres told the AP, “We are thrilled...this Rembrandt was one of our masterpieces. The child in the picture is smiling because he has a soap bubble. But yes, he could be smiling now because he’s been returned to us.”

The Municipal Museum acquired the 17th century painting in 1794, making it one of institution’s first acquisitions.  

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.

Amherst College in Massachusetts and the FBI are reopening the investigation into a theft from the campus art museum that took place nearly 40 years ago. In February 1975, three centuries-old paintings worth more than $400,000 were stolen from the college’s Mead Art Museum. Two of the paintings were recovered in 1989 following a federal sting operation in Illinois, but “Interior with Figures Smoking and Drinking” by the Dutch artist Jan Baptist Lambrechts was never found.

Since joining the Mead in 2006, the museum’s head of security, Heath Cummings, has been examining museum files, college archives and old newspaper stories as well as speaking with various art experts and law enforcement agents. Cummings brought his information to the FBI, hoping that the agency would agree to take a fresh look at the case.

The FBI is hoping that the renewed search will generate new leads and tips from the public.