Posted on August 31, 2011 by Daniel Schnapp

Million Dollar Verdict Issued in Favor of Art Theft Victim

According to this article, Michael Bakwin, who was the victim of the largest residential art theft in Massachusetts history, won $3 million in a civil judgment against the man who held the stolen works of art for two decades.

 

Bakwin has retrieved several of the paintings over the years, but it was not until last year that the final two of seven were returned. Robert M. Madirosian, convicted for the theft, was already sentenced to seven years in prison.

 

 

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Posted on August 31, 2011 by Daniel Schnapp

Art Collector as the Next President of Egypt?

Naguib Sawiris, billionaire and founder of the Free Egyptian party, hopes to become the newly liberated country's president and build a public museum to display his personal art collection. According to this article, Sawiris offered a $175,000 reward for the return of Van Gogh’s Poppies, which was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in August 2010.

 

(This entry was drafted with the assistance of Nicole Dornbusch.)

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Posted on August 31, 2011 by Daniel Schnapp

Suburban Art Crime

Typically it is the urban metropolitan museums that suffer art theft.

 

However, the Art Loss Register has issued a theft alert: two 15 x 10 x 15 inch Louhan sculptures were stolen from an "undisclosed location" within the affluent suburb of Westport, CT.  The estimated value of each of the works is $800,000.  

 

For more information about the theft read this article.  Note that the sculptures were apparently taken from a "private collection."

 

Anyone with information regarding these items should contact:

 

Lieutenant Vincent Penna

Detective Division

Westport Police Department

Tel: +1-203-341-6006

        Email: vpenna@westportct.gov         

 

or

 

Christopher A. Marinello 

Executive Director & General Counsel

The Art Loss Register

Tel: +44 (0) 207 841 5780 

Email: chris.marinello@artloss.com 

 

 

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Posted on August 31, 2011 by Daniel Schnapp

Battle for the Barnes Continues

According to this article, discussion related to the Barnes Foundation art collection reopened on Monday.  A petition was filed in Montgomery County Orphan’s Court on February 17, 2011 to stop the transfer of the art from its current Lower Merion location to Philadelphia, which is scheduled to be completed next Spring.

 

The petition was filed on behalf of several groups who are apparently dedicated to keeping the collection in Lower Merion under the terms of Albert Barnes’ will.

 

In December 2004, Judge Stanley Ott granted permission for, but did not mandate, the move of the collection to Philadelphia.  Judge Ott’s decision cited the Barnes Foundation’s precarious financial status as one of the factors that guided the Court’s decision to allow the move.

(Nicole Dornbusch assisted with this blog posting.)

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