Post by Barnaby Cuthbert on Oct 17, 2015 11:05:26 GMT -8
West Seattle museum art theft an inside job?
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(KJET News) Police in the West Seattle are looking for suspects in one of the largest art heists in recent history.
David Noviello, director of The Art Theft Registry, an organization that tracks stolen artwork, says the high level of sophistication with which the crime was pulled off suggests the thieves had inside information.
"The police will be looking at friends and relatives of various museum personnel, looking into their backgrounds to see if they can find some kind of a connection," he said. "It just went too smoothly, this theft."
Thieves got away with paintings by some of the world's most revered living artists.
With a level of precision only Hollywood could duplicate, thieves broke into West Seattle's West Seattle Fine Arts School and Museum at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning and walked off with three pieces of artwork. The list of stolen work reads like a textbook in contemporary art history. They include Carlo Morelli's 'Sunset Seattle' and acclaimed painter Richard Tomkins masterwork "Empty Rooms", as well as one other piece by the artist.
No guards were on duty at the time of the robbery, though one guard, now missing was scheduled to be on shift that evening. Police arrived at the museum just five minutes after the morning shift guard arrived and the police were called.
Stanley Forger, spokesman for the West Seattle Police Department, said, "The alarm system in the exhibition was supposed to be state-of-the-art, so we have got no reason to believe that it's not. But somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out and they found time to take three paintings."
Together, the paintings have an estimated value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would make this one of the biggest art heists in recent history. But Noviello says despite the high value carried by the art, the people who took it will have a hard time selling it. Each piece was valued at around $300,000.00.
"You take these to Vancouver, or Doha, you are not going to be able to sell them," Marinello said. "No respectable dealer or auction house is going to touch them."
Officials remain optimistic that the stolen artwork will soon be recovered.
But who could have stolen this art? KJET News senior correspondent Kris Nagles, a former sheriff's deputy, said on "Northwest Morning," the art thieves aren't necessarily who you think they are. He said, "I know who we want the art thieves to be. We want them to be like a James Bond actor in 'A Thomas Crown Affair.' We want them to be this sophisticated thief who is handsome, cultured, has appreciation for art. The real art thief is usually a knucklehead. That's the short version. The long version is they are great burglars and thieves. They are lousy businessmen. That's because they spend a lot of time planning their way in to get the thing, but not a lot of time planning what they are is going to do with it after. We'll steal it, find the black market and then find the black market doesn't exist."
One of three things happens to the art in cases like these, Nagles said. "Number one, they actually find a buyer and the buyer brings in a curator and that person is so far 100 percent of the time an undercover FBI agent. The second thing that happens is because they can't find a buyer, they find the insurance carrier and say, 'We can sell this back for the reward' and some countries are on to this. In 2001, Great Britain passed a law that said you can't give the award unless it comes with an arrest. The third thing ... a lot of the time we see these things end up in somebody's garage and crawl space, and for that particular thief, it just sits there for the get-out-of-jail card for the next time they get arrested for something else."
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE
West Seattle Police have positively identified the body of missing security guard Todd Baker in his West Seattle apartment. The guard, who was supposed to be on duty during last weekend's art theft was found dead, shot in the back of the head. Hidden in his apartment was one of the stolen paintings from the recent art heist reported by KJET news. Police suspect an inside job gone wrong, and are searching for the thief, now turned murderer, who is suspected of being Baker's accomplice in the inside job theft of over 900,000.00 worth of fine art at the West Seattle Fine Arts Exhibition. The Richard Thomkins masterwork "Last Voyage", valued at over $300,000.00 was recovered in Baker's apartment, rolled up and hidden in a concealed area above his closet. Baker lived alone, with no pets. He is survived by his sister, Lisa Baker of Norville, SD.
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(KJET News) Police in the West Seattle are looking for suspects in one of the largest art heists in recent history.
David Noviello, director of The Art Theft Registry, an organization that tracks stolen artwork, says the high level of sophistication with which the crime was pulled off suggests the thieves had inside information.
"The police will be looking at friends and relatives of various museum personnel, looking into their backgrounds to see if they can find some kind of a connection," he said. "It just went too smoothly, this theft."
Thieves got away with paintings by some of the world's most revered living artists.
With a level of precision only Hollywood could duplicate, thieves broke into West Seattle's West Seattle Fine Arts School and Museum at around 3 a.m. Sunday morning and walked off with three pieces of artwork. The list of stolen work reads like a textbook in contemporary art history. They include Carlo Morelli's 'Sunset Seattle' and acclaimed painter Richard Tomkins masterwork "Empty Rooms", as well as one other piece by the artist.
No guards were on duty at the time of the robbery, though one guard, now missing was scheduled to be on shift that evening. Police arrived at the museum just five minutes after the morning shift guard arrived and the police were called.
Stanley Forger, spokesman for the West Seattle Police Department, said, "The alarm system in the exhibition was supposed to be state-of-the-art, so we have got no reason to believe that it's not. But somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out and they found time to take three paintings."
Together, the paintings have an estimated value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, which would make this one of the biggest art heists in recent history. But Noviello says despite the high value carried by the art, the people who took it will have a hard time selling it. Each piece was valued at around $300,000.00.
"You take these to Vancouver, or Doha, you are not going to be able to sell them," Marinello said. "No respectable dealer or auction house is going to touch them."
Officials remain optimistic that the stolen artwork will soon be recovered.
But who could have stolen this art? KJET News senior correspondent Kris Nagles, a former sheriff's deputy, said on "Northwest Morning," the art thieves aren't necessarily who you think they are. He said, "I know who we want the art thieves to be. We want them to be like a James Bond actor in 'A Thomas Crown Affair.' We want them to be this sophisticated thief who is handsome, cultured, has appreciation for art. The real art thief is usually a knucklehead. That's the short version. The long version is they are great burglars and thieves. They are lousy businessmen. That's because they spend a lot of time planning their way in to get the thing, but not a lot of time planning what they are is going to do with it after. We'll steal it, find the black market and then find the black market doesn't exist."
One of three things happens to the art in cases like these, Nagles said. "Number one, they actually find a buyer and the buyer brings in a curator and that person is so far 100 percent of the time an undercover FBI agent. The second thing that happens is because they can't find a buyer, they find the insurance carrier and say, 'We can sell this back for the reward' and some countries are on to this. In 2001, Great Britain passed a law that said you can't give the award unless it comes with an arrest. The third thing ... a lot of the time we see these things end up in somebody's garage and crawl space, and for that particular thief, it just sits there for the get-out-of-jail card for the next time they get arrested for something else."
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE
West Seattle Police have positively identified the body of missing security guard Todd Baker in his West Seattle apartment. The guard, who was supposed to be on duty during last weekend's art theft was found dead, shot in the back of the head. Hidden in his apartment was one of the stolen paintings from the recent art heist reported by KJET news. Police suspect an inside job gone wrong, and are searching for the thief, now turned murderer, who is suspected of being Baker's accomplice in the inside job theft of over 900,000.00 worth of fine art at the West Seattle Fine Arts Exhibition. The Richard Thomkins masterwork "Last Voyage", valued at over $300,000.00 was recovered in Baker's apartment, rolled up and hidden in a concealed area above his closet. Baker lived alone, with no pets. He is survived by his sister, Lisa Baker of Norville, SD.