German art smuggling suspect Nils Jennrich leaves China after more than 100 days in prison

BERLIN (AFP).- A German man held in a Beijing prison for more than 100 days last year on suspicion of art smuggling has left China, Germany’s foreign minister said Tuesday. Guido Westerwelle said in a statement that Nils Jennrich had departed China on Tuesday and voiced relief that “many months of uncertainty and concern” for his family was “over for the present”. The foreign ministry declined to give information about his current whereabouts. Westerwelle said the proceedings in China against Jennrich were [...]

United States returns stolen 16th century Virgin Mary and baby Jesus tapestry to Spain

WASHINGTON (AFP).- A 16th century religious tapestry stolen from a Spanish cathedral in 1979 and sold at auction three years ago for $369,000 was returned to Spain on Wednesday by the US customs service. In a statement, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said special agents from its Homeland Security Investigations unit seized the artifact last November from the unidentified Texas business that had bought it. The wool and silk tapestry, depicting the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, had been stolen in [...]

One million euro stolen gold egg recovered near French-Swiss border during a routine roadblock

GRENOBLE (AFP).- A bejewelled golden egg stolen four years ago in Geneva and worth an estimated one million euros ($1.3 million) has been recovered by French police near the Swiss border, police said Monday. The precious egg, made in the style of the famous Faberge pieces, was discovered on Thursday in a “suspect” BMW pulled over during a routine roadblock near the Swiss border, driven by two Belarusian men who were promptly arrested. A third Belarusian, a Swiss resident, trailing in a [...]

Italian police recover painting by Marc Chagall stolen from United States yacht more than a decade ago

ROME (AFP).- A painting by Marc Chagall stolen from a US yacht moored in Italy has been recovered more than a decade later in a private collector’s home, Italy’s art theft police division said on Monday. The Russian-born Jewish painter’s “Le Nu au Bouquet” was stolen in 2002 while the boat was being repaired in the port of Savona in northern Italy and was replaced with a forgery. The work, which was bought by an unnamed wealthy US national for his yacht [...]

Dutch won’t ask for Romanian suspects who stole paintings from Rotterdam’s Kunsthal

THE HAGUE (AFP).- Dutch prosecutors will not ask Bucharest to extradite the suspects in a spectacular art theft from a Rotterdam museum last year, saying on Thursday it was a Romanian matter. “The Public Prosecution is not planning to ask for the extradition of the suspects who are currently in custody,” it said in a statement issued from Rotterdam. “The suspects are being prosecuted in Romania, it is a Romanian investigation and because they are Romanian,” the prosecutor’s office gave as reasons [...]

Seven paintings stolen during World War II returned to heirs in emotional Paris ceremony

PARIS (AFP).- Six paintings that fell into the hands of the Nazis after their Jewish industrialist owner was forced to sell in order to flee occupied Paris in 1941 were on Tuesday returned to his grandson. In an emotional ceremony at the French culture ministry in Paris, Thomas Selldorff, 84, from near Boston said he was “very happy” to accept the 18th century German and Italian works which he last saw at his grandfather’s Vienna home as a small child. They were [...]

FBI provides new information regarding the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist

BOSTON (AFP).- The FBI said Monday that they finally know who conducted a daring art heist in Boston exactly 23 years ago — but the thieves can no longer be prosecuted. For two decades, the 1990 theft of 13 works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, including rare paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer, has been one of America’s greatest unsolved crimes. Now, says the FBI’s Boston chief Richard DesLauriers, agents “confirmed the identity of those who entered the museum and [...]

Serbian police find Rembrandt stolen in 2006, painting already been stolen 10 years earlier

BELGRADE (AFP).- Serbian police have recovered a painting by 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt that was stolen in 2006, and arrested four people, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Rembrandt’s “Portrait of the Father” was found on Monday during a police operation in Sremska Mitrovica, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Belgrade, the spokeswoman told AFP. It was stolen from a museum in the northern town of Novi Sad, 70 kilometres from the capital, with three other works. Four people were arrested during [...]

Romanian police arrest mother of Dutch art heist suspect on suspicion of complicity

BUCHAREST (AFP).- Romanian police on Friday said they had made another arrest linked to the spectacular 2012 art heist at Rotterdam’s Kunsthal museum, detaining the mother of one of the male suspects. Judicial sources said Olga Dogaru, whose son Radu Dogaru was arrested in January for direct involvement in the robbery, was arrested on suspicion of complicity in the theft of seven paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse and Monet. Experts have estimated the paintings’ value at more than 100 million euros ($130 [...]

The Keith Haring Foundation filed a lawsuit against The “Haring Miami” show for copyright infringement

NEW YORK, NY.- The Keith Haring Foundation (the “Foundation”), which owns intellectual property rights in Keith Haring’s works, as well as a significant collection of Haring artwork, filed a lawsuit today in federal District Court in Miami. The suit seeks emergency relief in the form of a restraining order and an injunction against the organizers of an exhibition advertised and promoted as “Haring Miami.” In addition to a complaint for copyright and trademark infringement, the Foundation submitted an Emergency Motion for a [...]

Suitcase used by one of the suspects in Dutch art heist found during a search in Romania: police

BUCHAREST (AFP).- Romanian investigators have found a suitcase allegedly used to hide seven masterpieces by artists such as Gauguin, Monet and Picasso stolen in October from a Dutch museum, judicial sources said Tuesday. “An empty suitcase allegedly belonging to one of the Romanian suspects, Radu Dogaru, was found during a search in Romania,” a police source told AFP. Judicial sources cited by the Mediafax news agency said “the paintings were apparently stored in the suitcase” that was found buried in a yard [...]

Dutch police arrest Romanian woman over art heist; girlfriend of one of three suspects

THE HAGUE (AFP).- Dutch police on Monday arrested a young Romanian woman on suspicion of helping smuggle a haul of masterpieces stolen from Rotterdam’s Kunsthal museum out of the country. The 19-year-old woman is the girlfriend of one of three suspects being held in Romania for alleged involvement in October’s swiftly-executed theft of works by Picasso, Monet and Gauguin, among others. “Detectives investigating the art heist at the Kunsthal on Monday afternoon arrested a 19-year-old Romanian woman who is suspected of being [...]

Man arrested in New York Dali heist

NEW YORK (AFP).- US authorities said Tuesday they have arrested a Greek man for making off with a Salvador Dali watercolor and ink painting worth about $150,000 from a New York private art gallery in June. Phivos Istavrioglou, 29, was arrested Saturday at JFK international airport in a sting that lured him to the United States from Italy, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced. “After surveillance images of a suspect were released to the public, the drawing … was anonymously mailed back [...]

France to return art from the 17th and 18th centuries stolen during World War II to Jewish heirs

PARIS (AFP).- France will return seven paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries to the heirs of two Jewish families whose artworks were stolen during World War II, the culture ministry told AFP on Thursday. Six paintings by Italian and German artists will be returned to Thomas Selldorff, the octogenarian grandson of Austrian textile magnate Richard Neumann, who was forced to flee his country in 1938. Neumann came with part of his art collection to Paris but fled to Spain when the [...]

‘Unbalanced’ woman vandalises famed Eugene Delacroix painting at the Louvre in Lens

LENS (AFP).- One of the most iconic paintings in French history, Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People”, was defaced by a woman with psychiatric problems but escaped permanent damage. The 28-year-old woman, who was being held by police Friday, is accused of using a black marker to deface the masterpiece at a recently opened satellite branch of the Louvre in Lens, northern France. Her motives were unclear but her scrawling of “AE911″ had some wondering if she was suffering from delusions involving [...]