Police offer $200,000 reward in theft of Encino couple's paintings
The artwork, including pieces by Marc Chagall and Diego Rivera, is worth millions and was taken while the couple was at home.
Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles police offered a $200,000 reward today for information leading to the return of at least a dozen paintings worth millions, including works by Marc Chagall and Diego Rivera, that were stolen from an Encino home.
Investigators believe a thief entered the home near Ventura Boulevard and the 405 Freeway on the morning of Aug. 23 through an unlocked side door while the maid was out, said Los Angeles Police Detective Donald Hrycyk, one of two investigators with the art theft detail.
The thief took the paintings from the walls of two rooms closest to the side door while the couple who own the home were in another room at the back of the house, Hrycyk said. The theft was discovered later after the maid returned, he said.
"Somebody did this very quickly," Hrycyk said.
The stolen paintings also included works by Hans Hofmann, Chaim Soutine, Arshile Gorky, Emil Nolde, Lyonel Feininger and Kess van Dongen, Hrycyk said. The owners, whose names were not released, are wealthy real estate investors who had been collecting for more than 50 years, Hrycyk said.
Their house was equipped with an anti-theft system, and they had never been burglarized before, he said.
Investigators believe the thieves were either familiar with the couple's routines or incredibly lucky, Hrycyk said. Detectives are trying to develop suspect descriptions to help narrow their search for the missing paintings.
"We try to gauge the sophistication of the thief because it may give us an indication of whether it will show up at a swap meet or a thrift shop or somebody may sit on it for a decade before trying to sell it overseas," Hrycyk said.
The pieces are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each and will be difficult for the thief to sell, he said. Unlike cheaper artwork, he said, "When you get into this range, most people who want to buy art want to know the provenance of the piece."
If a potential customer or auction house checks the artwork's history, they will find Hrycyk flagged all as stolen in the New York-based Art Loss Register, FBI and Interpol stolen art files.
Hrycyk, who has been investigating art thieves for 14 years, has seen paintings recovered through the Art Loss Register up to 30 years after they were taken.
molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com
