Art Thefts

Like an Impressionist painting, the outlines of a massive art theft in Pebble Beach have blurred over the last week as the victims offered varying accounts of just what was stolen and how much it was worth. But the changing details brought the situation into sharp relief for law enforcement officials. "They're clearly lying to us," said Cmdr. Mike Richards of the Monterey County Sheriff's Department, raising questions about whether two men sharing a rented $4-million home in a gated community ever actually possessed the Rembrandts, the Jackson Pollock, the Van Gogh and the other works they say have gone missing.

A man suspected of hiding precious artwork stolen from the Paris Museum of Modern Art last year claims that in a panic, he threw the paintings into the garbage. Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Matisse and Leger paintings stolen in May 2010, and worth about $134 million, may have been dumped in a garbage bin on a Paris street and destroyed with the rest of that day's trash, according to testimony by one of three suspects connected to the theft. The suspect, a 34-year-old watch repairman, was identified only as Jonathan B. by the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

An official once in charge of guarding cultural relics has been sentenced to death in China's biggest antiquities theft case since the start of Communist rule in 1949. Li Haitao was convicted of stealing 259 objects, some of them national treasures, from an imperial villa in Chengde, a city north of Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported this week. Four accomplices were sentenced to terms ranging from two to seven years for trafficking in stolen relics, Xinhua said.

Villazon to sing again Star tenor Rolando Villazon says he will make his comeback at the Vienna State Opera in March after recovering from throat surgery. The singer announced in April that he needed surgery to remove a cyst on his larynx and has been resting his voice in order to make a proper recovery. Villazon said on his website Monday that he will perform the role of Nemorino in Gaetano Donizetti's "L'Elisir d'Amore" -- known in English as "The Elixir of Love" -- in the Austrian capital on March 22. It will mark his first public appearance after surgery and will be followed by more stints in a slew of other cities, including Berlin, Paris and Zurich.

Richard L. Weisman, the noted art collector who made news recently when he decided to forgo a multimillion-dollar insurance policy for stolen art, had some critical words for the LAPD detectives investigating his case. "Maybe if they would do their job . . . and spent some time looking for the art instead of being accusatory of the person who had it stolen, they might actually find it," Weisman said in an interview last weekend. The art world was set abuzz in early September with word that a series of original works by Andy Warhol had been stolen from the walls of Weisman's home on Los Angeles' Westside.

The Laguna Art Museum has confirmed that a work of art was stolen last month from its satellite at South Coast Plaza--the first such loss, according to museum officials, since the annex was opened in 1984. The disappearance of George Goodrich's mixed-media work "Dawn Patrol" was discovered Sept. 7 during gallery hours by an employee making a security check. The 13 3/4-by-15 1/4-inch work, owned by the artist, had been part of "Kustom Kulture," a popular exhibition that continues through Nov. 7.

A Van Nuys woman accused of stealing a 19th century oil painting from UCLA during her tenure there as a director of counseling pleaded not guilty Monday to federal fraud charges. Jane Crawford, 50, was indicted last month in connection with the 1994 theft of "Frost Flowers, Ipswich 1889" by American painter Arthur Wesley Dow from the university. She was accused of selling the painting through a middleman to New York City's Spanierman Art Gallery for $200,000.

A man who posed as a Hungarian count to steal what is believed to be a Goya painting was found guilty of grand theft Wednesday. If authentic, the work could be worth $7 million, police said. Gabor Eordogh, 42, of Hungary befriended an elderly couple and offered to have the painting cleaned in 1997, police said. He fled with the artwork and tried to market it for as much as $75 million, claiming to be the owner, said LAPD Det. Dan Schultz.

A mother and daughter were arrested Monday on suspicion of stealing a $20,000 painting from a private club, Los Angeles police said. Fawn Harris, 55, and Doe Harris, 30, of Beverly Hills, who ran an antique show at the Ebell Club, at the historic Wilshire Ebell Theatre in the Mid-Wilshire district, stole William Wendt's "View of Morro Bay" in late November, Detective Bill Martin said.

Police and the FBI launched a two-tiered probe Tuesday to find the thieves who stole two purported Old Masters paintings worth an estimated $9 million and to determine if the works are indeed authentic. "We want to talk to independent art experts to see if these were really Old Masters or just some antique wall hangings," Monterey Police Detective Doug Sanderson said. "We know this isn't going to be easy. It's an interesting case."

Richard L. Weisman, the noted art collector who made news recently when he decided to forgo a multimillion-dollar insurance policy for stolen art, had some critical words for the LAPD detectives investigating his case. "Maybe if they would do their job . . . and spent some time looking for the art instead of being accusatory of the person who had it stolen, they might actually find it," Weisman said in an interview last weekend. The art world was set abuzz in early September with word that a series of original works by Andy Warhol had been stolen from the walls of Weisman's home on Los Angeles' Westside.

The owner of a multimillion-dollar collection of artwork stolen last month has unexpectedly waived the insurance policy he owns to protect the paintings, Los Angeles police detectives confirmed Thursday. The art world was abuzz in early September with word that a series of original works by famed Pop Art icon Andy Warhol had been stolen from the walls of noted art collector Richard L. Weisman's Westside Los Angeles home. In all, 11 brightly colored silk screen paintings were gone -- 10 are portraits of famous athletes and one is of Weisman, 69, who was friends with Warhol and commissioned the series in the late 1970s.

Like an Impressionist painting, the outlines of a massive art theft in Pebble Beach have blurred over the last week as the victims offered varying accounts of just what was stolen and how much it was worth. But the changing details brought the situation into sharp relief for law enforcement officials. "They're clearly lying to us," said Cmdr. Mike Richards of the Monterey County Sheriff's Department, raising questions about whether two men sharing a rented $4-million home in a gated community ever actually possessed the Rembrandts, the Jackson Pollock, the Van Gogh and the other works they say have gone missing.

A multimillion-dollar collection of original work by famed Pop Art icon Andy Warhol was stolen last week from a Los Angeles home, police said Friday. On Sept. 3, a housekeeper for noted art collector Richard L. Weisman walked into the dining room of Weisman's residence and saw that 11 large portraits that had been on the walls the day before were gone, according to Det. Donald Hrycyk, head of the LAPD's art theft detail. The housekeeper called police, and investigators soon brought in Hrycyk, who has spent years chasing forgers and thieves in the shady art underworld.

A second defendant indicted after an investigation into the theft and illegal trafficking of American Indian artifacts from the Four Corners area has been found dead in an apparent suicide, the FBI said Friday. The body of Steven L. Shrader, 56, of Santa Fe, N.M., was found behind an elementary school in Shabbona, Ill., on Friday. The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office said he died of two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the chest.

A 450-year-old painting by Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder has been stolen from a Lutheran church in the southern Norway town of Larvik, police said. Art expert Gunnar Krogh-Hansen estimated that "Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me" could be worth $2.1 million to $2.8 million. It was probably painted around 1540. The theft was discovered when firefighters responded to an alarm at the church and found a broken window and a ladder outside. The roughly 3-foot-wide work, painted on wood, had hung in the church for about 330 years.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art says it can't be held accountable in court for an art theft committed by Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1918. At issue are 25 of the 76 paintings from Moscow's State Pushkin Museum currently on display at LACMA in a touring exhibition that runs through Oct. 13. The grandson of a Russian aristocrat sued last month in U.S.

An early 19th-Century portrait of George Washington stolen from UCLA in 1985 was found hanging in a San Marino living room, and a West Los Angeles stockbroker has been charged in connection with the theft, police said Wednesday. Christopher Brown, 29, was arrested Monday on charges of receiving or concealing stolen property, according to Detective William Martin of the LAPD Art Theft Squad. Brown, who was released on $5,000 bail and is scheduled for arraignment Sept. 30, is the son of John C.

With their floppy ears, shiny brown eyes and whimsical grins, they were the faces that launched a legal battle extending from Paris to Beijing. On Monday, a French judge ruled that the 18th century Chinese bronze heads depicting a rabbit and a rat can be auctioned off this week at Christie's in Paris as part of the estate of the late designer Yves Saint Laurent.

When Peter Sachs was only a year old in 1938, the Nazis seized his father's collection of 12,500 rare posters on the orders of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Sachs' father, Hans, a Jewish dentist, was then thrown into the Sachsenhausen concentration camp north of Berlin. After his wife managed to secure his release, the family fled to Boston, leaving the posters behind. Today, about 4,000 of the posters, worth at least $5.9 million, are in the possession of the German Historical Museum in Berlin, largely in storage.