When works by Picasso, Degas and Matisse were pilfered last year from a San Pedro warehouse, Los Angeles police quickly jumped into action.
But on Friday, nearly a week after a Red Skelton clown self-portrait was spirited away from a San Pedro art gallery, Los Angeles detectives had yet to interview the sales clerk on duty when the lithograph was lifted. Nor had the LAPD's art theft specialist yet been called in to investigate the caper.
"I'm not even aware of it happening," said LAPD Det. Don Hrycyk, who is assigned full-time to investigate art thefts.
The thieves who entered the Parkhurst Galleries in San Pedro last Saturday afternoon apparently knew exactly what they wanted. They weren't after the Thomas Kinkade landscapes or the seascapes by the gallery's owner, Violet Parkhurst. They seemed to have their eye on one thing, a colorful lithograph by Skelton, the venerable rubber-faced comedian and artist who died last month.
While the sales clerk was distracted by one couple, another pair with a baby stroller allegedly made off with the signed piece titled "Big Red," depicting a frowning Skelton dressed in his trademark clown outfit. It was valued at $2,850 and was being sold by the gallery on behalf of a private owner.
Austin Knight, who has worked at the gallery for more than 15 years, recalled being shocked by the fast-acting thieves, who left five other Skeltons untouched. "I turned around like this," said Knight, opening her mouth and throwing her hands up towards her face, "and it was gone."
Knight, 64, said she was working alone when the lithograph disappeared from the gallery, which is tucked away in Ports o' Call, a mock fisherman's village next to the Port of Los Angeles. The gallery is one of a handful in the nation authorized to sell Red Skelton paintings and lithographs, whose prices, some say, have nearly tripled since the entertainer died Sept. 17.
Skelton, whose acting and comedic career spanned six decades, spent his later years painting clowns and images of the well-known characters he portrayed, such as Freddie the Freeloader and Clem Kadiddlehopper. He made a small fortune from his artwork, earning as much as $80,000 for a single canvas. At his death, he had completed more than 1,000 oil paintings--all portraits of clowns.
