Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Painting/Drawing Surfaces, Perhaps !!!

Hotter Than July !!!!

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Art Hostage has had some mixed messages from the Underworld regarding the Gardner art recently.

First of all there are reports coming out of Costa Mesa California that a Gardner painting has been found.

Add to that a report from Boston ""La Sortie Du Pelage" by Degas has been found and Art Hostage wonders if the first tentative hand back has occurred ???

Art Hostage thinks the most likely stolen Gardner artwork to be recovered first will be Degas, "Cortege Aux Environs De Florence" which has been floating around for quite a while.

What did Whitey Bulger write on the back of a picture is another question worth knowing the answer.

Rumour has it Whitey Bulger wrote a letter on the back of a stolen Gardner painting to taunt authorities if and when they ever recover the stolen Gardner art.

A Whitey Bulger Gardner Art cocktail is the worst nightmare for authorities and is why any connection is dismissed out of hand, as if to be in a state of "hopeful denial"

However, the Gardner drawings could surface as they are reputed to still be around the Boston area.

The main stolen Gardner artworks are being held Art Hostage until a deal is offered that will tempt those in control to deal.

All previous attempts to make a deal have fallen on deaf ears, despite the public protestation's of some who claim no deal has been put forward.

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Incredible news about who has offered their services in the pursuit of Whitey Bulger.

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I am sorry but I cannot bring myself to reveal who has offered to help locate Whitey Bulger as I am so shocked and amazed.

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Talk about a "Poacher Turned Game-keeper" Wow, is all I can say at this stage !!!

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art, Vermeer, Dominic McGlinchey the Younger, Catholic Church Confession Box, Silver Bird, Boston !!!!!

Memo to Dominic McGlinchey.

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Mr Dominic McGlinchey Junior, please do not, I repeat do not allow yourself to be in the same Town, let alone the same post-code as the Vermeer/Gardner art when any or all are recovered.

Trust me when I tell you the Vermeer and Gardner art are Radio-active and they must, I repeat must be left in a Catholic Church confession box so either the Priest or authorities can recover the Vermeer and Gardner art from the confession box, therefore no-one, I repeat no-one will arrested during the recovery process.

I am sure you will make sure the person claiming the reward can stand up to public and law enforcement scrutiny.

If you trust the Priest to claim the reward then he can use the power of the confessional to keep the identity of the person handing back the Vermeer secret.

The Priest can do this in all sincerity if that person really has had nothing to do with the original Gardner heist and the subsequent handling of the Gardner art.

Mr Dominic McGlinchey Junior, if you allow yourself to be suckered into so much as a peek-a-boo of the Vermeer Gardner art, if they see the light of day for just a moment, all hell will break loose, Police, Garda, and FBI will swoop and everyone within a 10 mile radius will be arrested.

Once again, please, please make sure the Vermeer/Gardner art is discovered in a Catholic Church Confession box.

The symbolism of absolution will cleanse the Vermeer/Gardner art and will also prevent anyone being arrested during the recovery process.

God speed !!

Here endeth the lesson by Art Hostage.

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Update:

Back-story: Why Dominic McGlinchey Junior is in the Frame for the Vermeer and Gardner art

Man shot by RIRA reveals Donaldson killers

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6544003.ece

Liam McGinley has agreed to testify against dissidents who abducted and shot him, and named the killers of spy

A Donegal man who was abducted and shot by dissident republicans has offered to testify in court against members of the Real IRA (RIRA) in the northwest.

In what security sources regard as an intelligence coup against dissident republicans, Liam McGinley, a father of six from Letterkenny, has also revealed the identities of the RIRA gunmen who murdered Denis Donaldson, the former Sinn Fein strategist who was shot dead at a remote cottage in Donegal in April 2006 after admitting he was a British spy.

McGinley is under garda protection, although it is not clear whether he has been formally admitted to the force’s witness-protection programme. A file that includes statements he made to gardai outlining his knowledge of the RIRA, and naming the paramilitaries who shot him, is being studied by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

McGinley agreed to co-operate after he was abducted, shot in the abdomen and dumped on a dirt track in the Derryveagh mountains in Donegal in November 2007.

He survived the attack and made his way to a nearby house whose occupants rushed him to Letterkenny general hospital. He was transferred to the Mater in Dublin where he agreed to co-operate with gardai in return for protection.

Security sources claim his decision to turn state’s evidence marks a breakthrough in the fight against republican terrorism in the northwest, a stronghold of the RIRA.

Although McGinley was never a member of the organisation, he had extensive contacts with the group’s membership in Donegal and Londonderry. Among them were senior terrorists suspected by gardai of organising attacks on the British security forces.

Garda sources emphasised last week that McGinley’s evidence was unlikely to lead to Donaldson’s killers being charged soon, but the force is confident of pressing some charges against three suspects involved in his shooting.

“He wasn’t present when Donaldson was murdered but has identified the killers and disclosed certain information on what happened to the weapon used in the killing,” said a source close to the inquiry.

Donaldson was murdered at a remote holiday home in Glenties. He was shot four times by an assailant armed with a shotgun. The first two shots were fired through the front door of his cottage as he attempted to bolt it or barricade himself inside. Once inside, his killers fired two more cartridges, killing him.

Members of the Provisional IRA were initially blamed for the murder but McGinley claims it was carried out by members of the RIRA from Londonderry. The organisation recently admitted it.

Originally from Scotland, McGinley grew up in Falcarragh but was not known to gardai as a serious criminal or a republican sympathiser. He was known in Letterkenny as a troublemaker who often appeared in court charged with public-order offences. In one incident, he was accused of threatening an undercover member of the garda drugs squad after being stopped and searched in Letterkenny.

RIRA, which murdered 29 people and unborn twins when it bombed Omagh in August 1998, has been repeatedly infiltrated by spies and informants since its formation in 1997. Paddy Dixon, a Dublin car thief who supplied stolen cars to RIRA in the months before Omagh, helped the gardai to intercept a series of bombs. He joined the state’s witness-protection scheme after his identity was accidentally revealed.

MI5 and the FBI also ran Dave Rupert, an agent recruited in America to infiltrate the RIRA. He appeared as a witness against Michael McKevitt, the founder of the terrorist group, helping to convict him on charges of directing terrorism.

General John de Chastelain, the head of the decommissioning body, will announce this week that Northern Ireland’s main loyalist paramilitaries have begun to decommission their weapons.

The groups involved are aiming to complete the process later this year. When they do, de Chastelain will give the British and Irish governments a full inventory of all decommissioned weapons, both loyalist and republican.

Loyalists’ plans to announce the move at a joint press conference were upset last week when reports leaked out that decommissioning had begun. The Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando decommissioned the bulk of their joint arsenal two weeks ago.

Art Hostage Comments:

Charlie Hill, the art loss investigator recruited Liam McGinley and a man called Sheridan to try to smoke out the Vermeer and Gardner art back in 2007.

Liam McGinley reported back to Charlie Hill that Dominic McGlinchey Junior was holding the Vermeer/Gardner art having been given it by Whitey Bulger as a thank you for giving Whitey Bulger shelter whilst he was on the Lam.

Liam McGinley was exposed in 2007 and shot.

Now Liam McGinley has implicated Dominic McGlinchey junior again, amongst other people and pressure is being applied for Dominic McGlinchey to produce the Vermeer/Gardner art.

Art Hostage to the rescue, please just leave the Vermeer/Gardner art in a Catholic Church Confession box to be recovered by either a priest or authorities.

Now you can see why Art Hostage has been focusing on the Catholic Church confession box route, a neutral place because it's the art that matters.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art, Vermeer, Return to Bare Island Bantry Bay

Amazing, after all these years it seems the Vermeer and some Gardner art held in Ireland have returned to Bare Island Bantry Bay.

It was in 2002 Art Hostage first tracked the Vermeer and some Gardner art to Bare Island Bantry Bay, scene of an IRA arms dump. This was the resting place for the Vermeer before it travelled to Dublin.

Now it seems the Vermeer has come full circle and is now back on Bare Island Bantry Bay awaiting collection.

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Stashed close to Bantry Bay House, in a cottage on the estate to be specific.

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Mind you, Bantry Bay House, home to another Whitey, Shelswell that is, is a prime target !!!

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Do I have to be more specific than that guys !!!

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No more running, Whitey Bulger is waiting with the Gardner art, Vermeer in his hidaway cottage on the estate of Bantry Bay House.

more to follow............................

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Caught Between Irish Politics and Irish Gangsters !!!

Accused was not in INLA, says former paramilitary

http://www.examiner.ie/breakingnews/ireland/accused-was-not-in-inla-says-former-paramilitary-415554.html

A brother of former INLA leader Dominic McGlinchey told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today that he had no reason to believe that a Strabane man was an INLA member.

Mr Sean Mc Glinchey, who himself served 18 years in prison for IRA activities, and who is now a senior Sinn Féin member, said that he did not believe Eddie Mc Garrigle was an INLA member.

Mr Mc Glinchey said that he would not have come to court to give evidence on Mc Garrigle’s behalf if he believed he was in the INLA.

He told the court that he had held senior positions in the IRA and Sinn Féin and his brother Dominic had been involved for years in the INLA who held him in high esteem.

"At no time did I see Eddie McGarrigle in any discussions with them," he added.

Dominic McGlinchey, who at one stage was the most wanted man in Ireland, was murdered in Drogheda in 1994. His wife Mary was shot dead in Dundalk in 1987 as she bathed the couple’s young sons, Declan and Dominic.

Mr Sean McGlinchey told the court today that he accepted that the INLA is an illegal organisation.

He said that he had met Mc Garrigle in 1995 as part of his work in the peace process.

Mr Mc Glinchey was giving defence evidence in the trial of three men who were arrested in February last year by gardaí investigating a plot to kidnap a Cork businessman.

Edward McGarrigle (aged 43), Melmont Gardens, Strabane, Co Tyrone, Neil Myles (aged 54), of no fixed abode, and John McCrossan (aged 47), Ballycoleman Estate, Strabane, Co Tyrone have pleaded not guilty to membership the INLA on February 22 last year.

It is the prosecution's case that the four men were involved in a plot to commit a crime at the home of a Cork businessman.

The trial continues next Tuesday.

Limerick crime boss John Dundon believed to be in hospital

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Limerick-crime-boss-John-Dundon.5382489.jp

A LIMERICK criminal is reported to be in hospital in England – less than a week after he and members of his gang posted a video on YouTube threatening the leader of a rival gang.
John Dundon, 29, who is wanted in Limerick to face alleged public order offences, is believed to have suffered back injuries in a car accident in the Greater London area.

It is understood that his injuries are not life threatening, while an associate of the gang, who also fled the country following a number of high profile murders in Limerick, suffered minor whiplash when the car went off the road.

It has not yet been established whether the vehicle in which they were travelling was the dark coloured Mercedes that features in the YouTube video.

In the video, John Dundon boasts about his new high-powered Mercedes, a top of the range c-class that is estimated to worth up to €100,000.
A bench warrant was issued for his arrest last November when he failed to appear at Limerick Court for the alleged offences.

At the time, he fled the country after the murder of rugby player Shane Geoghegan, 28, in Dooradoyle, and the warrant for his arrest is still outstanding.

The four minutes and 19seconds video on YouTube - titled Limerick Boys in da Hood, has now attracted over 13,000 views.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg9-wUrj9WQ

It was taken down from the site last week, but reposted within a matter of hours by a different user.

In the video, John Dundon warns Christy Keane of a rival gang: "Christy, if you're looking for me, I'm somewhere in, eh, Europe, but I know where you are."

References to gunshots are also made in the video.

"I think he's going to hear a small bit of it. He's going to hear something and he won't hear the rest of it," said John Dundon.
Another member of the gang added: "Pop!"

The front registration plate of the car was covered with a plastic bag to prevent identification.

Two other Limerick men appear in the video and John Dundon boasts that one of them may be his getaway driver.

Ger Dundon, 22, who has over 70 previous convictions, also calls out in the video: "See you soon, motherf***er."

Ger Dundon was recently released from prison following a 10-month sentence for motoring and public order offences. He also was fined by Limerick Court last November for urinating on a Garda patrol car.

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He has returned to Limerick and was seen in Ballinacurra Weston, the gang's stronghold, last week.
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Christy Keane was released from Portlaoise Prison last February. He completed almost seven-and-a-half years of a 10-year sentence after he was caught with €240,000 worth of cannabis in St Mary's Park in 2001.
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Local gardai who watched the video believe it may have been taken in Amsterdam and said the gang was being watched closely by gardai in Limerick, as well those from Dublin.

However, they said it was not clear if the video material could be used as evidence in future criminal trials against McCarthy-Dundon gang members, stating it was a matter for Director of Public Prosecutions.

Meanwhile, Roy Collins' family are still under Garda protection after threats were allegedly made against the family following his murder.
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The family was reported to have been "horrified" when they saw the video clip and said it was further evidence that the gang "have no intention of giving up their terror tactics".

Stolen Art Watch, Van Mieris Cavalier on Radar, Update !!!!

Theft from Art Gallery of New South Wales

Van Mieris, A Cavalier

DESCRIPTION
On June 10, 2007, "A Cavalier," a self portrait in oil on wood panel by Dutch Master Frans Van Mieris, was stolen from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The piece was stolen while the gallery was open for public viewing. The relatively small portrait measures 20 x 16 cm. Its value is estimated at over $1 million.
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Art Hostage comments:

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Interesting tale.

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Back story:

http://stolenvermeer.blogspot.com/2009/01/stolen-art-watch-homesick-cavalier.html

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Art Hostage was contacted by a man and woman who offered to give information on the whereabouts of this stolen painting back in June 2008.

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Art Hostage contacted Michael Maher, who was working for the New South Wales Govt, to see what, if any reward was on offer.

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Art Hostage also enquired to see what expense money was available.

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Michael Maher, in no uncertain terms, told Art Hostage there was no expense money and any reward would be a small nominal token gesture.

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Art Hostage walked away and that was that.

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It now seems the FBI have put this art theft in their top ten and perhaps there has been a change of heart.

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Update;

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For some time Art Hostage has known about indications the Van Mieris Cavalier painting is currently in the U.S. or has been offered to someone in the U.S.

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This is the reason why the FBI Art Crime Team have added this painting to their Top Ten list.

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Art Hostage has been told by several sources, the FBI Art Crime Team tried to smoke out the stolen Cavalier painting by having an agent pose as a potential buyer.

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This failed because those with the Cavalier saw through the ruse and the Cavalier remains wanted. A case of the Cavalier that's not bloody laughing.

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How can the Van Mieris Cavalier painting be recovered ?

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Contact Art Hostage who offers Global solutions to Global Art Theft.

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arthostage@hotmail.co.uk

Stolen Art Watch, Whitey Bulger, Gardner Art, For Sale !!!!

Art Hostage has learnt the FBI led multi-agency Fugitive Squad/DOJ are currently negotiating the arrest of Whitey Bulger for the $2 million reward.

The discussions are at an advanced stage and if they prove fruitful then expect an Irish theme.

The continued pressure being applied to the INLA in relation to the Gardner art is ongoing but the breakthrough could come from an alternative Irish Republican source to settle a multi-million Euro debt owed to the govt.

More to follow..............................................................

Stolen Art Watch, Declan Duffy, Forget the Murder Where is the Gardner Art ?????

I'll say sorry for INLA murder

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/asking-forgiveness-say-likes/article-1057215-detail/article.html

Seventeen years ago, Derby soldier Michael Newman was gunned down. The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the murder. A former leader of the group, named as a suspect, says he is ready to cooperate with police. Claire Duffin reports.

IN April 1992, Elizabeth Robinson was looking forward to spending the rest of life with her soldier fiance Michael Newman.

But her dreams were cruelly shattered when Sgt Newman was shot in the head at point blank range in Derby city centre – an innocent victim of the troubles in Northern Ireland.

He had never served in Ulster and was not wearing uniform when he was chosen as a target by the Irish National Liberation Army and killed.

The IRA splinter group claimed responsibility for the murder – writing to Sgt Newman's devastated parents telling them their son was simply another cog in the wheel in their fight to bring down the British army.


Seventeen years on, Declan Duffy, one of three men named at the time by police as a suspect, says he will write to the family again –this time apologising on behalf of the group.

He has also pledged to cooperate fully with the police and tell them what he knows about the murder.

But the move has angered Elizabeth. She said: "Writing a letter would devastate his mum and dad."

"What could he say to his parents. How could he apologise for taking their only son?

"They (the INLA) wrote to them at the time explaining that he was just another cog in the wheel.

"I don't know what he is hoping to achieve by writing to me or his parents, is he wanting forgiveness for murder?

"He can say what he likes but he will never get that from me.

"I became a completely different person after the man I loved was taken away."

Elizabeth was 28 when Sgt Newman, a Royal Signal Corps recruitment officer, was gunned down.

The 34-year-old was taken to intensive care at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary but his life support machine was switched off the following morning.

Elizabeth said: "This is a political war but we are not part of it.

"I was only 28 when he died and I did not know much about the situation. I am more worldly now and understand they have a political war.

"I understand they think they have their reasons but what reason is there for killing anybody?"

Derbyshire police want to speak to Duffy in connection with the murder.

The 35-year-old, along with Anthony Gorman, is facing extradition from Ireland following a request by Derbyshire police in May this year.

Duffy is serving a four-year term for membership of the Irish National Liberation Army, despite his decision to renounce links with the group, leading to death threats.

He said he expects to be flown to England next month and has vowed to help police.

"The police have wanted to speak to me about this killing for a very long time and I'm ready to meet them," he said.

"I won't gain anything by remaining silent during the interview so I'm going to tell them everything that I know.

"I would never have spoken to the police in the past but my war is over and there are things I have to get off my chest."

Duffy said if he was charged and found guilty he would accept his punishment.

He said: "I just want to put my past behind me."

Duffy also apologised on behalf of the terror group to Sgt Newman's family.

He said: "This man was a family man and it is regrettable that he was killed.

"I would be happy to meet with any member of his family to explain to them the circumstances of why soldiers at that time were being targeted.

"The war is now over and I acknowledge the hurt caused to Irish and English people."

In May, Anthony Gorman, was arrested on suspicion of murder by members of the Garda Extradition Unit.

He appeared at the High Court in Dublin and released on bail after the case was adjourned to give his lawyers more time to prepare a case against his extradition.

Previous attempts to have Gorman extradited in 1994 failed after legal arguments, but this time, with a new European law in place, it is hoped to be successful.

Days after Gorman's arrest, Duffy was held, also on suspicion of murder. He was remanded in custody to appear at an extradition hearing this month.

Joseph Magee, was jailed for 25 years in 2004, after pleading guilty to Sgt Newman's murder on the understanding he would be released two years later under the Good Friday Agreement.