tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61534451845107328822024-02-19T23:06:26.639-08:00Unsolved '72 Theft of Montreal Museum of Fine ArtsCatherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-76995235172831683392017-10-12T09:38:00.000-07:002017-10-12T09:38:05.912-07:00Anthony Amore, security director for The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, writes an opinion piece on the search for the art stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Art in 1972<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's the <a href="http://observer.com/2017/10/after-45-years-no-efforts-to-find-montreal-musem-of-fine-arts-stolen-masterpieces/">link</a> to Anthony Amore's opinion piece about the search for the art stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Art in 1972.<br />
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http://observer.com/2017/10/after-45-years-no-efforts-to-find-montreal-musem-of-fine-arts-stolen-masterpieces/<br />
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Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-25186707481590155582017-09-04T14:31:00.000-07:002017-09-04T14:31:02.230-07:0045th anniversary of Canada's Biggest Museum Theft<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/45-years-mmfa-heist-1.4273365">link</a> to CBC's article on the 45th anniversary of the 1972 theft of Montreal's Museum of Fine Art.<br />
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Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-36580100760981240512014-09-04T15:14:00.000-07:002014-09-11T15:14:58.854-07:00Canada's Largest Art Theft: The 42nd anniversary of the 1972 robbery of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMKWw5fI0zLFhJoWJf5hxDMDFBcylsfT4GaC4WJUpthyUsZ1o3n8V-uVMMufTQAv6YdcTVTZMWAer_Zuc63OxCvuB9QZ_Wmo5n3ZPHzIFQGHacHH50xslQFfgxg1zAl08fdG02mTKJsbk/s1600/Courbetlandscape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMKWw5fI0zLFhJoWJf5hxDMDFBcylsfT4GaC4WJUpthyUsZ1o3n8V-uVMMufTQAv6YdcTVTZMWAer_Zuc63OxCvuB9QZ_Wmo5n3ZPHzIFQGHacHH50xslQFfgxg1zAl08fdG02mTKJsbk/s1600/Courbetlandscape.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;">Gustave Courbet, French, 1819-77</span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;">Landscape with rocks and stream</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;">, 1873</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;">Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 1/8 inches</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 18.4799995422363px; text-align: start;">Lady Allan Bequest, 1958</span></td></tr>
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by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, </div>
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ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief</div>
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Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Canada's largest art theft, the unsolved 1972 burglary of the prestigious Montreal Museum of Fine Art. </div>
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Readers may find an overview of the theft in last year's <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2013/09/montreal-museum-of-fine-arts-theft.html">post on the ARCA blog</a>. If you would like additional information, here's a <a href="http://unsolved-1972-theft-montreal.blogspot.it/">blog</a> dedicated to the art crime, including a list of the <a href="http://unsolved-1972-theft-montreal.blogspot.it/p/paintings-stolen-from-mmfa-in-1972.html">stolen paintings</a> by Jan Breughel the Elder, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, Narcisse-Virgile de la Peña, Thomas Gainsborough, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Jean-François Millet, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, and François-André Vincent. The thieves had selected twice as many more paintings -- what one witness guessed was an intention to clean out the collection -- but had dropped many when spooked into running away by a secondary alarm.</div>
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This theft, first brought to my attention in Ulrich Boser's book "The Gardner Theft" -- about the infamous unsolved 1990 Boston case -- had been widely publicized hours after the theft by <a href="http://unsolved-1972-theft-montreal.blogspot.com/2012/06/bill-banteys-obituary-in-globe-and-mail.html">Bill Bantey</a>, an experienced journalist who was then serving as the museum's director of public relations. In 2009, when I wrote about the Montreal theft for a paper for ARCA (under the supervision of Anthony Amore), Boser directed me to the retired Bantey who was endlessly patient with my questions, my theories, and my attempts to understand the relevance of the theft. Bill Bantey read my 20,000 word report, leaving his comments in the margins -- either his opinions or corrections on grammar -- and when I was in Montreal cooked a five-course meal for his wife and I. Both Bill and his wife Judy have since passed away so it is on this anniversary that I mourn the death of a generous and fascinating couple as I hope that the paintings will someday become available again to the public -- from wherever they have been hidden -- whether in a nearby Montreal neighborhood or a Central American country.</div>
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Retired Montreal police officer Alain Lacoursière investigated the case decades after the theft. Three years ago Lacoursière <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/05/suspected-art-thief-uses-internet-to.html">received a video</a> from his <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/05/part-two-alain-lacoursiere-mercedes.html">prime suspect</a>, the one depicted in the <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/05/part-one-alain-lacoursieres-biographer.html">book</a> (<a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/05/part-two-alain-lacoursieres-biographer.html">biography</a>) and film, <i>L'Colombe de l'art</i>. Otherwise, no other information has been made public.</div>
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Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-14394703009378009092013-09-04T12:05:00.000-07:002013-09-24T12:06:18.143-07:00The 41st anniversary of the theft: and still counting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, <b>ARCA Blog Editor</b></div>
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Canada's largest art theft occurred during Labor Day weekend more than four decades ago.</div>
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After midnight on Monday, September 4, 1972, a man with picks on his boots -- the same equipment used to scale telephone poles -- climbed a tree onto the roof two-story 1912 Beaux-Arts building on Sherbrooke Street which held the collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He found a long construction ladder and lowered it to two accomplices on the ground who joined him on the roof.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rembrandt's <i>Landscape with Cottages</i> - stolen 1972</td></tr>
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The trio walked over to a skylight that had been under repair for two weeks, opened it, and slid down a 15-meter nylon cord to the second floor. A plastic sheet placed over the skylight had neutralized the security alarm. At 1.30 a.m., one intruder twice fired a 12-pump shotgun into the ceiling when a guard completing his rounds hesitated before dropping to the floor. Two other guards were overpowered, bound, and gagged. All three guards were held at gunpoint by one of their assailants (one of the guards would later untie himself an hour after the thieves left the building).</div>
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After 30 minutes of selecting paintings and jewelry, the thieves used a guard's key to open the door of the museum's panel truck parked in the garage. In the process, a side door alarm was tripped and the trio escaped on foot, abandoning more than 15 paintings by artists such as El Greco, Picasso, and Tintoretto and stealing 39 pieces of jewelry and 18 paintings by Rembrandt, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Corot, Courbet, Daumier, Delacroix, Gainsborough, Millet, and Rubens.</div>
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<b>The Museum's Vulnerability</b></div>
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The museum's art collection, assembled over the past century from some of the wealthiest families in Canada, was insured for almost $8 million. Many of the stolen paintings had been widely publicized in <i>Masterpieces from Montreal</i>, an exhibition that had visited eight cities in the United States in the 18 months leading up to the Montreal Expo in 1967. The building itself was more than 60 years old and had not been updated (in 1973 it would close for three years for extensive renovation and expansion). Financially, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art was struggling -- many of the English-speaking, mostly Protestant art patrons that had supported the MMFA had fled Montreal when Quebec nationalists gained political power. The provincial government provided grants making up only 40 percent of the museum's revenues. During Labor Day weekend, many of the top museum officials -- the MMFA's president, director, and the head of security and traffic -- were on their summer holidays outside of Canada. The highest ranking museum official -- and the first one called after the robbery -- was the director of public relations.</div>
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<b>Recovery Efforts</b></div>
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The museum director received an envelope containing snapshots of the paintings as 'proof of life' and a ransom demand later negotiated down to $250,000. Someone with a "European" accent called the museum director and asked him to send someone to a telephone booth near McGill University where a pendant was recovered from inside a nearby cigarette package. The MMFA demanded additional proof that the thieves had possession of the paintings and were led to a locker at Montreal's Central Station and a painting by Brueghel the Elder (now re-attributed as belonging to the School of Brueghel). A rendezvous arranged between the thieves and an "insurance adjuster" (who was really a police officer) to exchange the ransom for the paintings was aborted when a squad car from a neighboring police district drove by the meeting spot. The insurance companies posted a $50,000 award for information leading to the arrest of the thieves or the recovery of the art before paying more than $1.9 million to settle the museum's claim. In 1973, a "wild good chase" between an anonymous caller and an insurance agent cost the museum board of directors $10,000 but recovered none of the paintings.</div>
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<b>Suspects</b></div>
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The museum guards described two of the thieves as 'long-haired' men of medium height wearing ski hoods and carrying sawed-off shotguns. Two of the thieves spoke French, the third English. A week into the investigation, police officials focused on five art students from the neighboring Ecole des Beaux-Arts and surveilled them for 15 days without arresting anyone. In Montreal, local criminal organizations included French-Canadian mobsters, the English-speaking Irish West End gang that controlled the seaport, and the Italian mafia. However, the thieves' method of entering the museum through a skylight under repair led some police officers to believe that the thieves represented an experienced international crime network.</div>
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In May 1972, two criminals working for Florian "Al" Monday robbed the Worcester Art Museum in central Massachusetts, taking four paintings, including the gallery's only Rembrandt, <i>St. Bartholomew</i>. (All four paintings were returned within a month). </div>
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<b>"Art-napping" in the 1960s in the South of France</b></div>
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Since 1960, criminal networks from Corsica or Marseilles had stolen paintings and held them for ransom in the South of france. An art dealer's home outside of Niece had been robbed of 30 paintings and two months later thieves climbed up the building of a museum in Menton to steal seven paintings. The next month, thieves broke into a restaurant through a window and stole 20 paintings. In July 1961, thieves in Saint Tropez climbed a fence to steal 57 paintings; the next month, thieves stole eight paintings by Paul Cézanne from a guarded temporary exhibit. Most of these artworks were found months later upon payment of ransom, showing the profitability of "art-napping", the holding of a work of art to extort money. In December 1971, a Rembrandt painting was stolen from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Tours, France.</div>
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<b>Where are the paintings now?</b></div>
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The paintings may have been destroyed to prevent the 'evidence' being used against the thieves in the prosecution of the crime. None of the paintings, listed by Interpol and the Art Loss Register, have been knowingly sold at public auction. However, the paintings may have been sold through small art dealers who did not check the stolen art databases. Before 1985, not even the larger auction houses checked stolen art databases. If the paintings have been sold privately, the value may have been discounted. One or more of the paintings may be in the winter residences belonging to one or more of the members of the West End gang who are beyond the jurisdiction of Canadian authorities in Costa Rica. </div>
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<b>After the Theft</b></div>
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More than 25 insurance companies paid the MMFA $2 million for the missing works. In 1975, the museum purchased a large painting by Peter Paul Rubens, <i>The Leopards</i>, with a substantial part of the insurance proceeds. On the 35th anniversary of the theft, the painting by Rubens was placed in storage following an expert opinion that the work was not by the artist but by assistants from his studio.</div>
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Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-8217109403957677212012-09-05T10:25:00.001-07:002012-09-05T10:26:04.160-07:0040th anniversary of the unsolved theft of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art passes quietly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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by Catherine Schofield Sezgin</div>
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<i>Forty years ago yesterday three men robbed the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts -- they have never been caught and 17 of the paintings have never been found.</i></div>
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When three men stole 18 paintings by such well-known artists as Rembrandt, Corot, Courbet, Breughel and Millet from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on September 4, 1972 it was the largest art theft in North America. The thieves have never been arrested for this art heist and the pictures remain missing but it was not the perfect crime. The setting off of an old security alarm scared the thieves off and prevented them from stealing more art. And the attempt to ransom back the loot, which also included 39 pieces of jewelry and decorative art, failed.</div>
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One of the difficulties of describing the robbery of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1972 is that the police do not show the crime's files to journalists or researchers since the case remains open. Luana Parker's reporting after the heist for <i>The [Montreal] Gazette</i> under the headline "Art worth $2 million stolen from museum" provided the foundation for much of information about the thieves' physical description and how they stole the paintings and 39 pieces of jewelry and decorative art. Her work is footnoted in an academic article on this subject published in the Spring 2011 issue of The Journal of Art Crime. Five years ago, retired journalist Bill Bantey, the museum's director of public relations and the first official alerted to the art heist, wrote an article about the theft. In 2009, I met with Mr. Bantey and retired Montreal police officer Alain Lacoursière to piece together information about the theft. Mr. Lacoursière discussed information he recalled from working on the case in the 1990s while investigating art crime.</div>
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Here's a synopsis of my version of the art heist nicknamed "The Skylight Caper" (by columnist L. Ian MacDonald writing "Montreal this morning" for <i>The Gazette</i> in 1975):</div>
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The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was robbed in the early hours of Labor Day on September 5, 1972. The city had plenty of distractions that weekend. On Friday night, three men set fire to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Bird_Caf%C3%A9_fire" target="_blank">Blue Bird Café and Wagon Wheel</a> killing 37 people of the 200 trapped on the supper floor of the country western bar. On Saturday night, Canada's national hockey team l<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Series" target="_blank">ost 7-3 to the "amateur" team from the Soviet Union</a> which stunned overly confidant fans. Sunday's newspapers were filled with stories about the victims from Montreal's fatal fire, otherwise Montreal residents were looking forward to a rematch against the Russians in Toronto the next day and marking the end of a summer exposition with fireworks.</div>
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The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the city's most prestigious art gallery was expecting a quiet weekend. The museum's director, its head of security, and even the president of the Board of Trustees were on vacation in Mexico and the United States. The 60-year-old building housing the art collection, created through donations from some of Canada's wealthiest residents, had a skylight under repair and was scheduled to be closed for a major renovation.</div>
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Early Monday morning a man wearing "picks" on his boots (similar to equipment worn by telephone and utility repair personnel) scaled a tree outside of the building on Sherbrooke Street to reach the roof. He found a construction ladder, slipped it down to the ground for two more men to join him on top of the museum building. The three men walked over to the skylight under construction and opened it up. A plastic tarp laid down by the construction crew had de-activated the skylight's alarm. The thieves, who had a 12-pump shotgun and a .38 Smith and Wesson handgun, slid down nylon ropes at about 1.30 a.m. They ordered a security guard to lie down on the floor, when he did not move quickly enough, two shots were fired into the ceiling. Two more guards arrived and the thieves tied up the three guards. While one man watched the security guards, the other two men gathered up paintings, jewelry and other valuable portable objects. Luana Parker cites this description of the thieves from the police report:</div>
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They said they saw two long-haired men, about five feet, six inches tall, and wearing ski hoods and sports clothes. One spoke French, the other English. But they heard another French voice of a man they never saw.</blockquote>
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The thieves planned to escape in a museum panel truck parked in the garage. However, one of the thieves "tripped the side-entry alarm on his way out with the first load, the men ran out, taking what they could" (Parker).</div>
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While Parker reported that the thieves "escaped in a panel truck", Alain Lacoursière told me that the thieves ran out of the building, carrying only half of the paintings that they had selected.</div>
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Bill Bantey, the senior museum official on duty that weekend, received a phone call from the head security guard about an hour after the thieves had escaped. He told the security guard to call the police, and then Bantey went down to the museum in the early morning hours. Ruth Jackson, a long-time museum curator, also arrived at the museum, now a crime scene, and would describe later what she saw:</div>
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There was a sea of broken frames and backings, and smashed showcases. Upstairs in the room where the major theft took place, it was just devastation. They'd cleaned it out completely. </blockquote>
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For the second pile, they'd gone around selecting from various rooms. I shudder when I think what might have been if they hadn't opened that door ... With what they'd proposed to remove, if they'd been undisturbed -- it was just like they meant a general clear out of the museum.</blockquote>
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Mr. Bantey organized a press conference a few hours later and released information about the stolen paintings. Only one painting was recovered a few months later.</div>
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Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-68254175116264160472012-08-30T21:18:00.002-07:002012-08-30T21:23:26.457-07:0040th anniversary approaching <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Forty years ago, someone was plotting the largest art theft
in Canadian history. The plan was
to steal the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ masterpiece paintings over Labor Day
Weekend. Although the thieves
aborted the job and ended up taking fewer paintings, the three men who entered
the museum on September 4, 1972, have never been arrested or imprisoned for
this robbery.</div>
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In 1972, the art collection was housed in a three-story
building that was already 60 years old.
Workers had been on the roof repairing a skylight for weeks. The thieves may have been one of the
people who had sat in chairs on the roof seeking relief from the sweltering
August heat. They would have had
the opportunity to watch the routines of the security guards, typically unarmed
university students also charged with managing the parking and traffic around Canada’s
oldest art institution.</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Summers in Montreal are typically hot and humid and nearly
empty. Residents traditionally retreat
to the Laurentian Mountains or south of the Canadian border to escape the
heat. On that weekend, the
museum’s president of the board of trustees, its director, and security
director had all fled to the United States and Mexico for their holidays
leaving Bill Bantey, the museum’s director of public relations, the most senior
museum official on duty that weekend.</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mr. Bantey, a political and criminal journalist who had also
worked for two decades for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, was my mentor in
2009 when I traveled to Montreal to study this unsolved museum theft. I was not allowed to read the police
files on this still-open case although I met twice with a semi-retired Montreal
police officer, Alain Lacoursière, who told me what he recalled from his
investigation and his recollection of the information in the files. Mr. Lacoursière appeared to have been
the only one to investigate the case in recent years. Both Mr. Bantey and Mr. Lacoursière had appeared in a film, <i>Le Colombo d’Art</i>, which identified a
suspect in the theft who refused to confess or release information as the
whereabouts of the stolen paintings supposedly by Rembrandt, Jean Brueghel the
Elder, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier,
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, Narcisse-Virgile de la Peña, Thomas
Gainsborough, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Jean-François Millet, Giovanni Battista
Piazzetta, Peter Paul Rubens, and François-André Vincent. </div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The museum opened its archives to me and I spent days
reading about the stolen paintings and jewels. Many articles had been written in the more than 35 years
since the robbery on the theft, the attempted ransom, and speculation on the
whereabouts of the missing 17 paintings.
In separate conversations with me, both Mr. Bantey and Mr. Lacoursière
believed that the paintings had not been destroyed and had probably been sent
out of the country to a jurisdiction friendly to members of organized crime who
spent Quebec’s cold winters in warmer southern climates.</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
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On this anniversary I find myself wondering about the three
thieves who climbed up onto the roof of a three-story building, opened up an
unsecured skylight, and vaulted down ropes into the museum. At least one of the three carried a gun
and shot off a round when the first guard hesitated to drop to the floor. Then the thieves tied up three guards
and spent about one-half to an hour in the museum selecting 39 paintings, which
also included works by El Greco, Picasso, Tintoretto, and a second
Rembrandt. The thieves piled up
the paintings and then one of them opened the door into the garage where they
had planned to use a museum van to escape. However, the alarm to that door was engaged and frightened
the thieves who did not know that the alarm was not hooked up to a source
outside of the museum. The thieves
panicked, grabbed the paintings they could, and supposedly escape on foot out
of the museum down Sherbrooke, a major east-west boulevard that transverses the
city from some of the wealthiest residential neighborhoods passed McGill
University and the École des beaux-arts.</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think about the three thieves running supposedly unseen
down the street with more than $2 million worth of insured paintings. Was this their first theft? Did they
steal again? Were they art students paid to rob the museum for an ‘art dealer’
who’s clients were willing to purchase stolen paintings?</div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the 1966 art heist movie <i>How to Steal a Million</i> starring Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn,
two thieves rendezvous in the bar at the Ritz Hotel in Paris the day after
committing the robber: “We did it! Did you see the paper and the television?
Did you hear the radio? It’s the crime of the century, practically, and we did
it!”</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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Who wants the bragging rights to having robbed the Montreal
Museum of Fine Arts more than four decades ago?</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-26007919302332303932012-06-14T15:30:00.003-07:002013-09-24T10:42:27.716-07:00Bill Bantey's Obituary in the Globe and Mail<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not until today did I find Bill Bantey's <a href="http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20101203.OBBANTEYATL/BDAStory/BDA/deaths">obituary</a> in the Globe and Mail.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here's a <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/montrealgazette/obituary.aspx?page=notice&pid=148701751#fbLoggedOut">link</a> to his wife Judy's obituary in <i>The (Montreal) Gazette</i>. She died on February 13, 2011, at the age of 83, just 2 1/2 months after her husband Bill.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bill Bantey did not want me to include in my article on the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts the dinner that he made for Judy and me in their home. It was a five course meal that began at 6.30 in the evening and lasted until 1 o'clock in the morning. Bill, recently out of the hospital and not well-enough to go out to a restaurant, prepared the entire meal for us and would not let either of us do a thing. He vacillated between being gruff with us and being charming. We had such a good time the three of us. And their home was filled with beautiful art displayed in the most casual way.</div>
</div>
Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-58259383726621227972012-06-14T12:24:00.001-07:002012-06-14T12:24:32.610-07:00Millet's "Portrait of Madame Millet"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDLiAyijmrBbwPDq-79ZYdIjCPBesVgGIssioSnAo1WziQKskEwrjn43yJLWzwcaH9Eq5qBC6E6yEnaAw1dgMWgKYPP47rq-E40zKdoPxAw8Vp6nvSReFjDcKJ66l0KOvU5HGf2zS8h67D/s1600/MadameMillet.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDLiAyijmrBbwPDq-79ZYdIjCPBesVgGIssioSnAo1WziQKskEwrjn43yJLWzwcaH9Eq5qBC6E6yEnaAw1dgMWgKYPP47rq-E40zKdoPxAw8Vp6nvSReFjDcKJ66l0KOvU5HGf2zS8h67D/s1600/MadameMillet.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Jean-François Millet. French, 1814-75</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Portrait de Madame Millet</i><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Oil on canvas, 13 3/8 by 10 ½ inches</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Miss Olive Hosmer Bequest, 1963</span></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-57077529845675919432012-06-14T12:17:00.004-07:002012-06-14T12:23:25.526-07:00Millet's "La baratteuse (Young Woman Churning)"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz79mXP2LM7QMyHrlOIdT0-qW_ztj7ifP7CClPRAfhajKvHIRn_J3WzDkFI9_HJEmgQ6izHTy8Cz2q2anSXyj7YCpw_z8WkG7Ws2FAV9WGj7FC6emp1e4YqG5G5M43JHWOotJVJJ2X3eKQ/s1600/MilletChurning.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz79mXP2LM7QMyHrlOIdT0-qW_ztj7ifP7CClPRAfhajKvHIRn_J3WzDkFI9_HJEmgQ6izHTy8Cz2q2anSXyj7YCpw_z8WkG7Ws2FAV9WGj7FC6emp1e4YqG5G5M43JHWOotJVJJ2X3eKQ/s1600/MilletChurning.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Jean-François Millet. French, 1814-75</span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">La baratteuse (Young Woman Churning)</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">, about 1849-50</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Oil on panel, 11 ½ x 6 ½ inches</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Mrs. R. MacD. Paterson Bequest, 1949</span></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-20233261577416244272012-06-14T12:06:00.000-07:002012-06-14T21:42:45.084-07:00Corot's "La rêveuse à la fontaine" (The Dreamer at the Fountain)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJcC_okVk0JSN1oUS5DJw6Gsi6CJd2MX1xHMcqaxoYtbGRk8K1P2Z0JoDDksPVt8b_xiocXLAFGZRYrRnzqeJaiNvEoF67KF4qPGI1H4sohjUMPbCNhg20j8rpEfTHjoBY4MQL6-6yl1i9/s1600/CorotDreamer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJcC_okVk0JSN1oUS5DJw6Gsi6CJd2MX1xHMcqaxoYtbGRk8K1P2Z0JoDDksPVt8b_xiocXLAFGZRYrRnzqeJaiNvEoF67KF4qPGI1H4sohjUMPbCNhg20j8rpEfTHjoBY4MQL6-6yl1i9/s1600/CorotDreamer.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French, 1796 – 1875</span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">La rêveuse à la fontaine (The Dreamer at the Fountain)</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">, 1855-63</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Oil on canvas, 25 ¼ x 18 ¼ inches</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Gift in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Wiliam F. Angus, 1962</span><br />
<div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-73935920301063640382012-06-14T12:00:00.001-07:002012-06-14T12:04:00.869-07:00Corot's "Jeune fille accoudée sur le bras gauche"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuT4P1w4PlMLwNHcr_H1qbLgd0CYugQHVMs-kf_BT9XPi9CTXgfzgtrInqgZzAcD0TjKkrCAtWSTn-M4eeKp1u2bGTp4WjgNHy4Hi8rxotaqyL93KKCI5SgLVFFA2aDDuN5cnwcMHFdNpm/s1600/CorotJeunefille.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuT4P1w4PlMLwNHcr_H1qbLgd0CYugQHVMs-kf_BT9XPi9CTXgfzgtrInqgZzAcD0TjKkrCAtWSTn-M4eeKp1u2bGTp4WjgNHy4Hi8rxotaqyL93KKCI5SgLVFFA2aDDuN5cnwcMHFdNpm/s1600/CorotJeunefille.jpeg" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French, 1796 – 1875</span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Jeune fille accoudée sur le bras gauche</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">, 1865</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Oil on canvas, 18 ¼ x 15 inches</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Miss Olive Hosmer Bequest, 1963</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br /></span></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-24112842702729687832012-03-29T20:30:00.002-07:002012-03-29T20:30:55.050-07:00Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Received a Gift of Old Masters from Michal and Renata Hornstein<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On March 20th, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts issued a <a href="http://www.mbam.qc.ca/pdf/2012/COMMUNIQUE20-03-12ANG.pdf">press release</a> announcing the gift by Michal and Renata Hornstein of "close to" 80 works of 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings valued at $75 million.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The existing collection includes works by artists such as Veronese, El Greco, Rembrandt, De Heem, Snyders, Poussin, Claude, Tiepolo, Boucher, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Chassériau, Bouguereau, Daumier, Corot, Pissaro, Monet, Sisley, Rodin, Renoir, Matisse, Van Dongen, Giacometti, Dix, Rouault, and Picasso.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This reminds me of the great generosity of museum benefactors in the first half of the 20th century.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A new pavilion will be built to display the collection.</div>
</div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-1292420618954910622012-03-28T00:30:00.000-07:002012-03-28T00:30:02.343-07:00Was the 1972 theft of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts the second use of guns in a robbery of an art museum?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Now here's something interesting: <a href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20120305/NEWS/103059790/0/BUSINESS">Anthony Amore</a>, security director of <a href="http://www.gardnermuseum.org/">The Isabella Stewart Gardner</a> Museum and author of <i>Stealing Rembrandts</i>, pointed out that the first use of guns in a robbery of an art museum was committed in May 1972 in Worcester, Massachusetts.<br />
<br />
Was the second use of guns in September 1972 in Montreal, Quebec in the robbery of the <a href="http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/">Museum of Fine Arts</a>?</div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-38742012893614093752012-03-27T00:05:00.000-07:002012-03-26T13:54:40.515-07:00Speculating on the whereabouts of the 17 paintings stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Early in March, the <a href="http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/MenuServizio/TutelaCulturale/index.html">Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale</a> (TPC), Italy's 300-member art crime military police unit, found 37 paintings that had been stolen more than four decades ago from a residence in the Parioli district at the home of a neighbor.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A 50-year-old widow had put four paintings up for sale (the auction had has not been publicly identified) and the images of the artworks had been published in a sales catalogue. In a routine check of objects for public sale against an in-house stolen art database of 3 million objects, the Carabinieri discovered that four of the paintings (I don't know which ones) that had been put up for sale had been reported stolen in 1971. The current owner of the paintings, which upon further investigation was found to have 37 of 41 stolen paintings from the 1971 burglary, is reported to have said that she and her husband purchased the paintings in a private sale more than two decades ago and that she was selling them to raise money after her husband's death.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Could the paintings stolen from Montreal's Museum of Fine Art still be in Montreal, located within walking distance of the museum, maybe in one of the lovely residences adjacent to Rue Sherbrooke east toward Westmount or west toward McGill University?</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<br /></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-40791082576476756612012-03-26T11:17:00.000-07:002012-03-26T11:19:38.493-07:00Earlier this month, The Guardian Reported "Stolen Paintings Recovered in Rome 40 years after art heist"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5csLF5TzN5FubmKvljpAeb1RpjyAhDkaq-hy4YQYUlhwRGip63WACNSbd1FmslZfAlUIZBZm1bESpIbkPbgx-9bzB4pHjGgx-8LY0ImOOIOEp2DJV5EVTR_CTu1JaEiBpfBQF3T8ka-Z/s1600/Press+conference.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg5csLF5TzN5FubmKvljpAeb1RpjyAhDkaq-hy4YQYUlhwRGip63WACNSbd1FmslZfAlUIZBZm1bESpIbkPbgx-9bzB4pHjGgx-8LY0ImOOIOEp2DJV5EVTR_CTu1JaEiBpfBQF3T8ka-Z/s400/Press+conference.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carabinieri TPC's Press conference in March to announce<br />
the finding of 37 paintings stolen from a neighbor's house<br />
in the Parioli district of Rome more than 41 years ago. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Tom Kington in Rome reports for <i>The Guardian</i>, "<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2012/mar/09/stolen-paintings-rome-art-heist?newsfeed=true">Stolen Paintings Recovered in Rome 40 years after art heist.</a>"</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In his article, subtitled "Italian police find stolen paintings hanging in a house in the same district of Rome from where 42 works disappeared", Kington writes:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
"It was one of the most audacious art thefts seen in Rome: one night in 1971 a gang of thieves slipped into the plush residence of a construction magnate in the upmarket Parioli neighbourhood and walked out with 42 rare paintings, including works by Van Dyck and Poussin."</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here's <i>Frommers</i> note on the Parioli district:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Parioli, Rome's most elegant residential section, Parioli, is framed by the green spaces of the <b>Villa Borghese</b> to the south and the <b>Villa Glori</b> and <b>Villa Ada</b> to the north. It's a setting for some of the city's finest restaurants, hotels, and nightclubs. It's not exactly central, however, and it can be a hassle if you're dependent on public transportation. Parioli lies adjacent to Prati but across the Tiber to the east; like Prati, this is one of the safer districts. We'd call Parioli an area for connoisseurs, attracting those who shun the overrun Spanish Steps and the overly commercialized Via Veneto, and those who'd never admit to have been in the Termini area. [<a href="http://www.frommers.com/destinations/rome/0064020048.html">Frommers</a>]</blockquote>
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The 17th century <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/evilla.htm">Villa Borghese</a> of course houses many beautiful paintings from the 15th to the 18th century (including works by <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edavicara.htm">Caravaggio</a>, <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/evencra.htm">Lucas Cranach</a>, <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/corsini/en/edyck.htm">Anton Van Dyck</a>, <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edeporube.htm">Pieter Paul Rubens</a>, and <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/eamor.htm">Titian</a>) and lovely sculpture by artists such as <a href="http://www.galleriaborghese.it/borghese/en/edavid.htm">Bernini</a>. On my first trip to the Galleries Borghese we actually had seen so many lovely artworks on the ground floor that we had to force ourselves to the upper floor (and not all of our group had the stamina) only to find exquisite paintings by Raphael.</div>
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More information about the theft, the images of the paintings, and a list of the paintings can be found on ARCA's blog <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2012/03/carabinieris-tpc-division-for.html">here</a>, <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2012/03/would-you-have-recognized-these.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2012/03/list-of-artworks-recovered-by.html">here</a>.</div>
</div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-87813216096100389852011-11-02T09:46:00.000-07:002011-11-02T09:46:04.340-07:00Journal of Art Crime Publishes Article on Québec Art Crime Squad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNxE2bgukKAa2nXuZcOnFdV37n6c2oeFSc8aWQbgdvURGjc552wv5OeboVe79ESi5XJQ8lKcb6_Tm8UFlrbbUENfm9KhhQ2N4LM9giYN1Dvu9qIejDYpTAnjxEReLc2f7vqZNG0EvwiHc/s1600/Quebec%2527sArtCrimeSquad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSNxE2bgukKAa2nXuZcOnFdV37n6c2oeFSc8aWQbgdvURGjc552wv5OeboVe79ESi5XJQ8lKcb6_Tm8UFlrbbUENfm9KhhQ2N4LM9giYN1Dvu9qIejDYpTAnjxEReLc2f7vqZNG0EvwiHc/s1600/Quebec%2527sArtCrimeSquad.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quebec's Art Crime Squad</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Journal of Art Crime</i> (Spring 2011) published an article on Québec's Art Crime Squad. The ARCA blog ran the Q&A with the team in April <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/04/q-with-quebecs-first-art-crime.html">here</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jean-François Talbot recently emailed me to thank the ARCA Blog for recent coverage on art reported stolen (see the post <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/10/surete-du-quebec-polices-art-crime.html">here</a>) and to inform me that the team is now being led by Sargent Alain Dumouchel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Photo (left to right): Jean-François Talbot, Alain Gaulin, Alain Dumouchel, and Sylvie Dubuc.</div></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-13037661376811027632011-10-06T13:36:00.000-07:002011-10-06T13:38:21.056-07:00ArtInfo's Benjamin Genocchio raves about the expanded MMFA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIf04thjh0TgWe_uEInhOPlrPepcCKar4GxgAzjZR469lTTawvxEyhJIVrEuEgx-_NUxb56AXVBnz0L4bjBva83-cRqjCaiJWjWVcxIFGEn-Q-Et5l481m_D841bOfAtDuMyzkNuiSNtxF/s1600/mmfa+expansion.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIf04thjh0TgWe_uEInhOPlrPepcCKar4GxgAzjZR469lTTawvxEyhJIVrEuEgx-_NUxb56AXVBnz0L4bjBva83-cRqjCaiJWjWVcxIFGEn-Q-Et5l481m_D841bOfAtDuMyzkNuiSNtxF/s400/mmfa+expansion.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Benjamin Genocchio for ArtInfo has done a flattering and intelligent <a href="http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/38798/in-montreal-a-museum-addition-thats-a-marvel-of-both-innovation-and-common-sense/?page=1">critique</a> of the new wing of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The photo above is from the ArtInfo website; the building on the left is the one that was robbed in 1972. One of the questions about Canada's largest art theft could be how it affected the museum in Montreal? Well, after closing for three years to renovate, and moving from a fairly Anglophile base some 150 years ago to a bilingual institution provides inexpensive access to Canadian and European art -- it's doing just fine, merci beaucoup!</div></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-86755344968620285582011-09-28T08:38:00.000-07:002011-09-28T08:45:52.363-07:00Montreal Gazette Has Photos of New Wing of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">The glass is Tiffany, the building of the new wing of the <a href="http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/index.html">Montreal Museum of Fine Arts</a> is gorgeous and will hold musical events. Montreal Gazette published photos <a href="http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/money/Smuggling+plot+small/2582350/Gallery+wing+Montreal+Museum+Fine+Arts/4651100/story.html?id=4651100">online</a> in April. The official opening is scheduled for October 15.</div></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-17128356739429552202011-09-23T08:31:00.000-07:002011-09-23T08:31:09.187-07:00The Blue Bird Cafe fire 39 years later<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">Blogger, journalist and Montreal historian Kristian Gravenor has written an excellent <a href="http://coolopolis.blogspot.com/2011/09/how-bluebird-cafe-fire-changed-montreal.html">post</a> on "Coolopolis" about the fire at the nightclub two days before the theft of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. When I was doing research on Canada's largest art theft, I had the impression that news of the 37 deaths from the arson fire had eclipsed the museum theft. When I was visiting friends in NDG, they remembered the nightclub fire but not the museum theft. Then of course a few days later 11 Israeli athletes were murdered in Munich at the Olympics which dominated the headlines internationally and was memorialized in subsequent books and movies.</div></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-81003890075976539652011-09-20T21:43:00.000-07:002011-09-20T21:43:44.200-07:00Alain Lacoursière Featured in Joshua Knelman's article in Globe & Mail: Art Theft Linked to Organized Crime<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">In Joshua Knelman's article in the <i>Globe and Mail</i>, <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/police-cracking-down-on-a-hotbed-of-hot-art-in-quebec/article2173803/singlepage/#articlecontent">Police cracking down on a hotbead of hot art in Quebec</a>, Alain Lacoursière cites a link between stolen art and organized crime. Hell's Angels held "caches" of stolen art and a forged Cézanne that was headed for an auction house for a money laundering scheme.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Joshua Knelman is author of the book <i>Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives through the Secret World of Stolen Art</i>, published this month by Douglas & McIntyre. I have ordered it through Amazon.ca and look forward to reading it.</div></div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-57170213112447942682011-09-01T11:03:00.000-07:002011-09-01T11:03:37.857-07:00The Associated Press: "Greek police recover stolen Rubens painting"<div style="text-align: justify;">The <i>Associated Press</i> has <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyj8jP5E9bF2QFLyMGrA2Ue-WOCg?docId=99d471f878d045d08bae22fa785cb5df">reported</a> the slimmest of details that police in Athens have recovered a Rubens painting likely taken by three masked robbers from the Fine Arts Museum in Ghent in 2001. The painting may be "The Hunt for the Caledonian Wild Boar". Two people were arrested in association with this painting, but in a second raid six more were arrested and a mix of antiquities recovered. Officially, the police are not being specific. It appears to be some kind of 'organized' crime network.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The painting was allegedly worth less than the second painting grabbed and lost during the heist, according to a 2001 <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bungling-art-thieves-let-masterpiece-slip-674102.html">article</a> in the<i> Independent</i> ("Bungling art thieves let masterpiece slip").</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-57803426328559453232011-08-28T07:31:00.000-07:002011-08-28T07:31:56.663-07:00Journal of Art Crime publishes "The Skylight Caper", the story of Canada's largest art theft, in the Spring 2011 issueThe Journal of Art Crime, ARCA's peer-reviewed academic journal on the interdisciplinary study of art crime, has published "The Skylight Caper", the story of Canada's largest art theft. You may read more about it <a href="http://art-crime.blogspot.com/2011/08/journal-of-art-crime-spring-2011.html">here</a> on the ARCA blog.Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-66800980025908631992011-06-10T10:12:00.000-07:002011-06-10T10:13:34.899-07:00CBC Reports Lost Statue of General Wolfe Turns Up At Ottawa Hotel<div style="text-align: justify;">According to this CBC story, thieves get old, or people who know an object has been stolen, get old and return the stolen object due to a conscious. You may read the story <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/06/07/ottawa-wolfe-statue-mystery.html">here</a>. Three men entered the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1972, stole 18 paintings, returned one, and disappeared. Three men kept a secret? As the old joke goes, are two of them dead? </div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-38155951176757939252011-06-08T20:40:00.000-07:002011-06-08T20:40:35.981-07:00Chris 'Zeke' Hand of Montreal Interviewed Alain Lacoursière Last FallChris 'Zeke' Hand's interview last fall with Alain Lacoursière can be found <a href="http://zekesgallery.blogspot.com/2007/01/alain-lacousiere-is-kick-ass-andor.html">here</a>. He titles it "Alain Lacoursière is kick-ass and/or wicked cool I have quite decided yet". I can attest having interviewed the former art cop that he is both!Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6153445184510732882.post-38990267684620756502011-05-30T11:02:00.000-07:002011-05-30T11:02:45.534-07:00The Gardner Heist Inspired Renewed Coverage of the MMFA Theft<div style="text-align: justify;">In 2009, journalist <a href="http://ulrichboser.com/">Ulrich Boser</a> published <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Heist-Worlds-Largest-Unsolved/dp/0061451835">The Gardner Heist</a>, The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft</i>, of the 1990 theft of a dozen paintings in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. In his 11th chapter titled "Program for An Artistic Soiree II", Boser writes about the MMFA theft:</div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">After a Rembrandt, a Delacroix, and a Gainsborough were stolen from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, a group of criminals tried to ransom the paintings back. The gang wanted $250,000 and returned one of the works, a Brueghel, to prove that they had access to the loot. But when the day of the buyback arrived, one of the thieves saw a police car and called off the deal. The paintings have never been seen by the public again.</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">I emailed Ulrich Boser and asked him if he had any more information but he did not, although he was interested in the subject. After poking around the subject for a few months, I emailed him again because I couldn't find anything substantive on the theft. He emailed me a link to an article written by Bill Bantey on the 35th anniversary of the MMFA theft. Mr. Bantey had been a journalist on politics and crime for decades in Montreal and he had also, coincidentally, been the director of public relations for the MMFA at the time of the theft. Mr. Bantey later told me that he was also the highest ranking museum official that Labor Day weekend and the first museum administrator to be called by the security guard after the robbery.</div>Catherine Schofieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16009217670435494476noreply@blogger.com0