Stolen Art Watch, Da Vinci Madonna Trial, Day 2

Gardener pursued Leonardo da Vinci raiders

A court has heard how a gardener ran to challenge raiders making off with a masterpiece from a Scottish castle.

John Chrystie, 50, was weeding in the grounds of the Drumlanrig estate when he saw three men with Leonardo da Vinci's the Madonna of the Yarnwinder.

He set off after them until one of them produced a small axe to scare him off.

Five men are on trial in Edinburgh accused of trying to extort £4.25m for the painting's return. They are not charged with the 2003 robbery.

Mr Chrystie, who had worked for the Duke of Buccleuch in south west Scotland for 20 years, said he heard "banging and then alarm bells" on the day of the raid.

He told the High Court in Edinburgh he then saw a man wearing a white sombrero-type hat carrying something square.

The gardener said that from the colours he recognised it as the Leonardo da Vinci painting.

"When I realised what was happening I was going to have a go at one of them and he pulled an axe from his jacket, a small hand axe," he said.

"I veered off and just ran up the banking."

Taped recording

The jury at the trial has also been hearing a taped recording of a meeting involving the defendants in the extortion case.

It took place at Glasgow law offices where two of them were solicitors.

Prosecutors are presenting it as evidence of a conspiracy to extort £4.25m for the safe return of the stolen painting.

Marshall Ronald, 53, Robert Graham, 57, and John Doyle, 61, all from Lancashire, Calum Jones, 45, from Renfrewshire, and David Boyce, 63, from Lanarkshire, deny the charges against them.

They pled not guilty to conspiring to extort £4.25m and an alternative charge of attempted extortion.

The offence is alleged to have taken place between July and October 2007.

The trial, before Lady Dorrian, continues.
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Art Hostage Comments:

This is what will happen to anyone, I repeat anyone, who tries to either pass information, or hand back any stolen art, unless of course you are ex-police officers like Mick Lawrence and Jurek Rokoszynski (Rocky) who recovered the stolen Turners and were paid £500,000 of the £3.5 million paid to Edgar Liebrucks the German Lawyer, who in turn paid Stevo V the original organiser of the Turner theft.
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Turner article here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1502283/How-Tate-laid-money-trail-to-recover-Turners.html

Another high profile stolen art recovery was the Titian stolen from Longleat House, home of the Marquis of Bath.
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Charlie Hill, yes you've guessed it, another ex-police officer, paid David Dudden £15,000 deposit, which Charlie Hill obtained from the Marquis of Bath, then the Titian was recovered at a bus stop in London, followed by another payment made by Charlie Hill to David Dudden of £85,000 to finalise the transaction.
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Titian article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/aug/23/arttheft.arts
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Being an ex-policeman allows all sorts of things to happen !!!!!!

Those who may have information about the Gardner art stolen from the Gardner Museum Boston, 1990, take note, this is your fate, the same as the Da Vinci Madonna defendants facing criminal trial, if you so much as offer any slight indication you have credible information.

Anthony Amore has the FBI, Geoff Kelly in particular, on speed dial ready for the time when Anthony Amore receives credible information.

Interesting to note, a Lawyer in the Boston area was approached in the not too distant past and asked for their opinion about handing back the stolen Gardner art.

This lawyer, unlike the Da Vinci Madonna lawyers, said, and I quote:

"Until the Gardner Museum firm up their reward offer, the FBI agree to step aside and Immunity agreements are issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office, do nothing, say nothing and realise the Gardner art is radioactive"

Smart lawyer !!!!!!!!!

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Truth Hurts !!!!

Free The Gardner Art

Freedom of Expression provokes debate that leads to the recovery of
stolen art.

Suppression of opinions only serves to prevent stolen art being recovered.

Police don't investigate art crime at all so the private sector is left to try and fill in.

However, Police stiffle any recoveries of stolen art leaving all art lovers feeling short changed.

Anthony Amore is a good guy and desperately wants the Gardner Art back.

However, Anthony must take his directions from above and is prevented from acting in a transparent manner that would see the Gardner art recovered.

The reward was last reviewed in 1997 when it was increased from $1million to $5 million, so why not inject some incentive and double it to $10 million, especially as the odds of collecting the reward are remote to say the least because of all the traps laid.

Also, we hear the Gardner Museum has raised over $100 million for the new "car buncle on a much loved institution" addition and has over $200 million in the bank.

Why not make a splash, create headlines by offering public immunity and $10 million for the return of the Gardner ????

Why not publically declare a price list of reward for each individual stolen Gardner artwork ???

The Vermeer $5 million, Rembrandt big canvases $1 million each, etc, etc to a total of $10 million.

Then of course if any of these things were to be done it would really make sure the Gardner art comes home, but not on the terms of the FBI and Gardner Museum, which is why we have been waiting for 20 years.

First, the reward is offered by the Gardner Museum for all, i repeat all the stolen Gardner artworks being returned in good condition.

So, if one or two Gardner works were recovered would any reward not be paid, delayed, until all the Gardner art was recovered ??????

How can the Gardner art be in good condition, some were cut from the frames !!!!

These are just two little hooks laid to thwart any reward being collected and until these and other conditions are spelt out publically, no-one, with any sense is going to attempt to hand back
any Gardner art.

The time for acting like sycophants must be declared over and people must be free to say what they have been thinking all these years.

For 20 years it has been expected people suck up to the Gardner Museum without questioning the motives and reward offers made.

For the last few years the Gardner Museum has been paying Rocky over $50,000 a year for his efforts in recovering the Gardner art, without success I might add.

Many people have said the Gardner Museum would do better reading the Stolen Vermeer blog free of charge as they would learn more about the case than paying Rocky $50,000+ a year for junkets.

I want everybody to stand back and look at all those involved in trying to recover the stolen Gardner art, I defy anyone to distiguish between the supposed good guys and the supposed bad guys.

Truth is, the only way to recover the Gardner art is to give in and buy the bloody Gardner art back once and for all.

Until then we must endure the usual bullshit and vague immunity and reward offers that are not worth any paper they may be written on, can't even get it written down on paper for a start !!!!!!

Don't believe me, then hand back just one Gardner artwork and see yourself get arrested, indicted and convicted without any possibility of one dime, never mind $5 million, or $10 million as the reward should be.

One bright shining light in all of this mayhem is the fact Rebecca Dreyfus is going to be involved with the talk on the 15th March.

Hey Becca, don't be lured into being just another sycophant, ask the awkward questions, demand answers, get busy and throw down the gauntlet.

Harold Smith will be there in spirit.

Anthony, a quiet marking of 20 years you said, three radio shows later, bull shit number one.

The reward, total bullshit in its current form, a real number two.

Blimey, I feel so much better now, free to say bull shit when it appears, as it does frequently in the Gardner case.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Anthony Amore Unplugged !!!!

The Gardner Theft: Twenty Years Later


Thursday, March 4, 2010
6:30 PM
Tapestry Room

SOLD OUT

Anthony Amore, Director of Security, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, in conversation with Tom Ashbrook, host of National Public Radio's On Point

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, thieves dressed as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and stole thirteen works of art. Twenty years later, the investigation to recover the missing paintings continues.

In a rare public program, Gardner Museum Director of Security Anthony Amore dispels some of the myths and misinformation by telling the real account of what happened on the night of the theft. New information on the museum’s progress to recover the works of art add to this dramatic ever-evolving story of loss and hopeful recovery.

Anthony Amore is the security director for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Prior to joining the museum in 2005, he spent 14 years with the federal government as a special agent with the Federal Aviation Administration and later joined the Department of Homeland Security. He spearheaded the efforts to federalize security at Logan International Airport after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and was the agency's lead responding agent to the attempted terrorist attack by the so-called "Shoe Bomber" that same year. He is currently investigating the theft of 13 priceless works of art stolen from the Gardner Museum in 1990.

Tom Ashbrook, host of National Public Radio’s On Point, is an award-winning journalist whose career spans twenty years as a foreign correspondent, newspaper editor, and author. He spent ten years in Asia starting at the South China Morning Post and later as a correspondent for The Boston Globe. He began his reporting career covering the refugee exodus from Vietnam and the post-Mao opening of China, and has covered turmoil and shifting cultural and economic trends in the United States and around the world. At the Globe, where he served as deputy managing editor until 1996, he directed coverage of the first Gulf War and the end of the Cold War. Ashbrook received the Livingston Prize for National Reporting and was a 1996 fellow at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation.

This event is sold out. Please contact the Gardner Box Office at 617 278 5156 or online to purchase tickets for other concerts and events.

Related programming:
Join us on Thursday, March 11 for The Dutch Room: Absence and Desire, a Room Views conversation with Curator of Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini and Artist-in-Residence Elaine Reichek.

Anyone with information about the theft, the location of the stolen artworks, or the investigation should contact Gardner Museum Director of Security Anthony Amore directly at 617 278 5114 or theft@gardnermuseum.org.
The Museum is offering a reward of $5 million for information leading to the return of the stolen artworks in good condition. The Museum can ensure complete confidentiality.

Art Hostage Comments:

Anthony Amore, Man of Virtue, Morality and Honour, will be ready to answer all the awkward questions avoided over the years about the Gardner Art Heist.

Whilst this trip down memory, or should I say Nightmare lane is a useful educational exercise, it does not offer solutions to recovering the actual stolen art.

Unless of course Carmen Ortiz has told the FBI to step aside and allow a private recovery of the Gardner art without prosecutions.

The much maligned FBI in Boston have to be seen to be doing their job and they would like nothing better than to have the Gardner case taken from their jurisdiction and dealt with exclusively by Carmen Ortiz and Anthony Amore.

If Carmen Ortiz stands down the FBI and allows Anthony Amore to be very specific about the reward and issues an immunity agreement for giving Proof of Life, then the first hurdle will have been overcome.

Followed up by another immunity agreement for the actual recovery of the Gardner art. Once these things are in place then the recovery will happen.

Over to the Catholic Church Confession Box for the symbolic recovery of the Gardner art.

Followed by the Gardner Museum putting the Vermeer and co back on display.

However, when the Stolen Gardner Art, especially the Vermeer, goes back on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , the crowds will stretch to the Canadian border and beyond.

Art Hostage predicts over 10 million people will jam the switchboard trying to book to see the Vermeer and co.

Come to think about it, how about Anthony Amore announces during the radio interview the reward is to double to $10 million to allow for inflation since 1997 when the reward was last increased from $1 million to the current $5 million. That would make certain people sit up and take notice and would send a clear message the time has come to bring home the Gardner art.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Kurkjian Knows !!!!

Steve Kurkjian Is Still Asking Tough Questions

By Tom Nash
Special to the Mirror-Spectator

BOSTON — In a Boston Globe piece reminiscing on his experience covering the Woodstock music festival, Steve Kurkjian recalled himself as a law student “with no clear direction for my future.”
The chaos surrounding the generation-defining event helped inspire Kurkjian to decide on journalism as a career. Three years later, he had his first of three Pulitzers, awarded for exposing corruption in Somerville.

Sitting with Kurkjian over lunch, we spent hours talking about how much had changed, and hadn’t changed, in 40 years.

In 2009, the corruption in Somerville is still there. The story of hundreds of thousands of dirty people listening to rock music as the world seemed on the brink of destruction has found its way into American history textbooks.

In 2009, journalism, a field in which Kurkjian is one of its most lauded practitioners, is nearly dead.

After nearly four decades at the Boston Globe, Kurkjian took a buyout from the paper in 2007. He’s reluctant to go into details, but it is widely known that after massive consolidation moves by papers across the country earlier in the decade, executives soon targeted their newsrooms.

But Kurkjian seems impervious to the idea that the skill-set he has spent a lifetime building would ever go out of fashion. Retirement for him has meant, in some ways, that he is busier than ever.

In the two years since taking a buyout from the Globe, Kurkjian lists a few of the projects he’s working on: authenticating an Armenian Genocide photo (“I’ve been working on it too long. Five years.”), exposing conflict-of-interest issues with Partners Health and helping take down House Speaker Sal DiMasi.

The investigative unit of the paper, known as the Spotlight Team, still relies heavily on both his ability to fit puzzle pieces of documents into a narrative and a reputation built on a fearsome ability of getting the story.

“People need this stuff, and I know how to do it,” Kurkjian explains. “People out there return my phone calls when I say ‘I’m Steve Kurkjian from the Globe.’ In both cases, the source said ‘I will only deal with you. I’m not going to give it to anybody else.’”

Around this time, Kurkjian also began teaching a class at Suffolk University on the decline of newspapers. In December 2008, when he agreed to teach the course, the thought of the Globe going under seemed impossible.

In April, the New York Times, the Globe’s owners, threatened to shut the paper down if it didn’t squeeze millions of dollars in concessions from its unions. The paper was on track to lose $85 million in 2009.

The class Kurkjian was teaching about papers everywhere else suddenly became about the paper no one thought could suffer the same fate as papers in Ann Arbor or Seattle.
“I’m telling (my students) why it won’t happen here, why the Globe is protected by its legacy within the community,” Kurkjian recalled. “I had no idea that the Globe was on the schedule of losing $85 million for the New York Times Company. Nothing is sacred in this business. It made it real to me as well as illuminating it to my class.”

The Globe emerged from the crisis, with the paper’s unions eventually giving way to the pressure from the Times. What followed was months of speculation about a probable sale, with the end of 2009 coming and the Times announcing it would hold on to the paper.

Most read that as the company being unwilling to part with a $1 billion investment for with what it’s now worth — almost nothing.

I ask Kurkjian where the sources he has cultivated are supposed to go if there’s no newspaper.

He sighs.

“My son became a sports reporter,” Kurkjian says, “There wasn’t enough money. Now he works for a website, and he’s doing better. I said, ‘Just keep in it, we’re gonna figure it out — a business model that makes it work. People are still going to aspire to get factual information told concisely.”

So Kurkjian will keep teaching the art of investigation. After all, he says, it holds practical value beyond exposing cover-ups. Everyone needs to know how to go to look up property records or find out what laws are on the books.

“It’s a very practical class. You can really use things that you know. The skill set we learn as reporters is immense in dealing with the outside world. Preparation is everything.”

Retirement

On top of the busy reporting and teaching schedule Kurkjian keeps, he is now also a full-time grandfather. His grandson is perhaps the only thing he’s more excited to talk about than the investigative reporting class he hopes to teach again.

“What I hope to be able to do is get back to my retirement,” Kurkjian admits.

What Kurkjian means by retirement at this point is analyzing an Armenian Genocide photograph. He’s been working on it for five years, with historians ranging from Hilmar Kaiser to Vahakn Dadrian.

Also on the list is finishing a book about the Isabella Gardner Museum heist — a project that has been years in the making. He hints that he knows who did it, but is not willing yet to give away with any information.

He pauses for a second, as if realizing he doesn’t know what retirement really means, that most people don’t expose health insurance companies and politicians in their free time.

“It’s been a very busy one,” he concludes.

Art Hostage Comments:

If there is one person who has had access to all the FBI files about the Gardner Art Heist it is Steve Kurkjian. This means he has the ear of the FBI and has followed every move made by the FBI over the years.

Whilst knowing who robbed the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum may be good for the ego, it does not help recover the actual stolen art as Steve is all too well aware.

Steve Kurkjian is one of the most hard edged, raw, street savvy reporters in America today.

Even those who may not like Steve admire his ability.

Art Hostage admires the honesty of Geoff Kelly the FBI Agent in Boston who, amongst his many other duties, tracks leads on the Gardner Art Heist.

This quote from a recent interview sums up the current attitude towards recovering the stolen Gardner art from the FBI perspective:

• For the past eight years, Special Agent Geoff Kelly in our Boston office has been the lead investigator on the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, the largest property crime in U.S. history. The two men who robbed the museum gained access to the building dressed as police officers. Once inside, they overpowered security guards, tied them up with duct tape, and proceeded to steal 13 objects valued at $500 million. In addition to Degas sketches and Rembrandt works, they took a Vermeer painting that was one of only 35 in existence.
• Leads come in on a weekly basis, and Kelly is confident that one day the case will be solved. “The theft captured the public’s imagination because it was daring,” he said. “But in the end, it’s still a theft, and the criminals need to be held accountable.”

Twenty years on and the FBI are sticking to their guns and demanding anyone associated with the stolen Gardner art be held accountable.

The full story can be seen here: http://www.euroweeklynews.com/2010020572515/news/international/art-crime-a-team-approach.html

Stolen Art Watch, Whitey Bulger and MI5, Gardner Art Anyone ????

Whitey Bulger, MI5, Billy Bulger, Patrick Nee,the FBI, Choose the Bad Guy !!!!!

So, there was Art Hostage having a nice lunch with a good old retired Brit Security Services Chief when the subject of Whitey Bulger came up.

Much of what was said was already known to Art Hostage, double cross, triple cross and back again, but the news it was going to be officially leaked in Boston came as a bit of a surprise.

Perhaps the timing of the 20 year commemoration of the Gardner Heist has something to do with it ????

Art Hostage has been briefed on the latest Gardner Heist state of play and has been asked to keep quiet and allow this latest attempt to play out.

Now guys, play nice and perhaps we can have at least some stolen Gardner artworks returned before March 18th 2010, or even on the day, or day before for maximum impact.

Catholic Church Confession Box is still the favourite recovery location for the stolen Gardner art, and now its official !!!!!

Art Hostage has faith in Anthony Amore and Carman Ortiz to pull this thing off, the Lawyer on the other side is playing hardball, and for good reason, not just the language barrier !!!!!!!!

So, remember when you hear or read about Whitey Bulger and MI5 act like you are surprised and not like you have seen it all before on Stolen Vermeer provided by Art Hostage.
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Furthermore, more and more people are accepting Whitey Bulger has died, maybe Ireland, Art Hostage won't reveal where at this stage, but remember it was Art Hostage who first called this.
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It is not so much Whitey Bulger who authorities want, it is the James "Whitey" Bulger diaries that authorities are afraid of.
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They are still outstanding and the race is on to locate them. This is the real reason why authorities won't go public yet.

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

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, $100 Million Piano Addition Not Black and White !!!!

Gardner unveils $100M addition by Renzo Piano
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20100121gardner_unveils_100m_addition_by_renzo_piano/

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum kicks off construction of a new $100 million-plus wing this morning.

The final design of the 70,000-square-foot addition by Italian architect Renzo Piano will be unveiled at an event with museum officials and Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

The expansion plan came under fire last year from critics who wanted a carriage house behind the museum to be preserved. But the structure was demolished in July.

The museum will move certain programs to the new wing to free up space in its cramped Venetian palazzo-style building in the Fenway neighborhood.

The addition has been in the works since 2004 and is scheduled to open in early 2012, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

The museum opened in 1903 and houses more than 5,000 pieces of art including works by Botticelli, Raphael, Rembrandt and Sargent. In March 1990, a pair of thieves made off with $500 million in treasures, in the biggest art heist in history.

Graphics of new addition: http://www.boston.com/ae/graphics/01_21_10_gardner/

New look rewrites museum founder’s vision for her guests

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/01/21/new_look_rewrites_museum_founders_vision_for_her_guests/

She was strong-willed, independent, and forward-thinking. We all know that. But it’s easy to forget that, by and large, Isabella Stewart Gardner had a hostile relationship with modernity.

Her extraordinary, inimitable museum was conceived in the midst of great debate about the moral and aesthetic effects of industrialization in Boston. And in this debate, Gardner and her intellectual circle were committed to preserving the past in the face of great social and political upheaval. Inspired by 19th-century Romanticism, they endowed this legacy with heightened powers - the promise of order and beauty, even healing potential.

Just as it did in her day, Gardner’s palace museum still invites us to turn our back on the driving rationalism of modern life: on standardization, on uniform lighting, on the rush to embrace the new. We are invited to enter through an exterior that is deliberately reserved and opaque, whereupon we find ourselves in the most extraordinary sanctuary - a place of mystery and medievalism, of marvels and eccentricities: a jumble of anachronisms that bizarrely combines aspects of a Venetian palazzo, an enclosed medieval garden, and a monastic cloister.

That is about to change.

Feeling the need to take pressure off Gardner’s original museum, the current caretakers of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have opted for an extension designed by the renowned Renzo Piano Building Workshop of Genoa.

The new building’s modernist idiom of transparency and efficiency is the antithesis of Gardner’s palace museum. The disparity, said director Anne Hawley, is intentional. Paraphrasing Piano, she described the contrast between the “sacred’’ of the old building and the “profane’’ of the new one as “like yin and yang.’’

Unfortunately, I don’t buy it. Opposites are not always complementary. Often, they clash. Here the clash is as much about philosophy and principles as the buildings’ form (although the two things are finally inseparable).

Since the only public access point to the museum will be through the new building, it is bound to color the visitor’s experience in ways I don’t believe Gardner would have condoned. Instead of walking from an opaque exterior straight into an enchanted realm (prompting that sudden “Ah!’’ we all experience now), we will be forced to negotiate an open, glass-walled, sociable, and relentlessly modern space.

We will be encouraged, according to the museum’s press release, to get a “sense of a museum-at-work,’’ with “opportunities to walk through the Museum’s greenhouses, to interact with Artists-in-Residence living on site, and to observe educational classes and workshops from the lobby. The openness of the space has been conceived to encourage lounging, gathering with others, meetings, and conversation.’’

To my mind, this vision sounds like an awkward hybrid of a classroom, a café, and a club lounge at an airport. It is, at any rate, a radical rewrite of Gardner’s own very deliberate and theatrical vision for encountering her creation.

Architecture reflects the ideals (and inevitably the confusions) of its time. Today, the dominant ideals are transparency, efficiency, clarity, and maximum illumination - buzzwords that are so prevalent throughout our society (especially in the corporate and political realms) that we assume they are eternal values. They were not, however, the values to which Gardner subscribed, and the strongest evidence for this is her museum itself.

The nostalgic, anti-modern convictions of Gardner and her intellectual circle - among them Henry James, Bernard Berenson, and Charles Eliot Norton - may be antiquated, but they are surely, in this case if nowhere else, worth respecting. There is, after all, nothing else like the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, or anywhere in the world.

The current administration has quoted Gardner’s friend James, praising the museum on a placard at the front of the museum. But in the very same essay from which the quote is pulled, James laments the swift destruction of Boston’s past in the name of progress. He deplores the speed with which history “could be unmade’’ in the name of “parochial schemes of improvement’’ (he could not have foreseen the current administration’s demolition of Gardner’s Carriage House to make way for the new wing) and recoils from “the horrific glazed perpendiculars of the future.’’

Personally, I do not associate glass buildings with a dystopian future. I am a great admirer of Renzo Piano - he is one of my favorite architects - and I hope the new building proves itself less out of tune with the ideas of Mrs. Gardner than it looks in the design provided by the museum. I can see that shifting some of the functions, especially the shop and café, out of the current building is a great idea. And although I think many will miss attending musical performances in the tapestry room, I am particularly interested in the new concert hall, with its tiered, four-sided seating. I suspect it will prove to be the most celebrated feature of the new extension.

But if a new building on this scale really is required, why not at the very least keep the current entrance open, giving visitors a chance to bypass all that “museum-at-work’’ nonsense if they want to? Why not, in other words, allow for the experience Mrs. Gardner intended?

Sebastian Smee can be reached at ssmee@globe.com

Art Hostage Comments:

As you can guess Art Hostage has much to say about this, shortly.............

Stolen Art Watch Whitey Bulger Dead, U.S. Navy Thinks So !!!

"Death of Whitey Bulger" is how the U.S. Navy Information in Virginia Beach is treating the Whitey Bulger case at this time.

Expected further news.....................................

Lawyer Ralph Hussey is on the Art Heist case !!

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Warning From Ireland to Boston, "Ra" Are Watching !!!

Whitey Bulger Associate Victim Of Hit-Run

Paul Moore Found Dead In Quincy Snowbank

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/22058374/detail.html

The man found dead in a Quincy snowbank on Thursday morning is a former mob lieutenant and associate of James “Whitey” Bulger, the Boston Herald reported.

Paul “Polecat” Moore, 63, of Milton, was a one-time member of Bulger's South Boston gang. His body was discovered on Robertson Road at 7 a.m. by a passer-by.

It appeared he had been hit by a vehicle, police said.

"Quincy police does have evidence on hand from the scene, and they are progressing with that investigation. We have had motor vehicle homicide prosecutors on the scene and assisting Quincy police," Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said.

Moore turned a government witness against Bulger after Moore's arrest in 1990 on drug charges. He asked Bulger to take care of his wife and children. Bulger did not, so Moore testified against him, the newspaper reported.

“Paul Moore was one of the toughest guys that ever came out of South Boston,” former state Sen. Joseph Timilty told the newspaper.

Timilty, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in 1993, became friends with Moore in prison.

Timilty said Moore had been working as a longshoreman on the docks in South Boston.

Bulger, who is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, has been a fugitive for more than a decade.

Correction: Wrong man ID’d as hit-and-run victim
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091226correction_wrong_man_idd_as_hit-and-run_victim/

An article that appeared online and on page 8 of the print edition yesterday about a hit-and-run death in Quincy misidentified the man who was killed. He is Paul F. Moore, 63, of Milton.

Mr. Moore’s family has asked for privacy at this difficult time.

The Herald deeply regrets the error and pain caused to the Moore family.

In the same article, the Herald incorrectly reported that Paul E. “Polecat” Moore, 60, a former associate of James J. “Whitey” Bulger, was the man killed in the hit-and-run.

According to Paul E. “Polecat” Moore’s brother, who asked that his name be withheld, Paul “Polecat” Moore is living in Dorchester.


Art Hostage Comments:

Paul "Bobcat" Moore who is alive and living in Dorchester was about to break rank and give the vital information that would have led to the stolen Gardner art still in the Boston area being recovered.

The Irish Republicans who control the stolen Gardner art responded in time honoured fashion and sent a warning to anyone trying to offer back the Gardner art without the authority of Irish Republicans.

This is taking on a chilling similarity to the events in the new David Hosp book Among Thieves, due out in January 2010.
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see link: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446580151.htm

They boys from the "Ra" are back in Boston and they want to secure the stolen Gardner art, who ????

Representatives of the Irish Republican movement have sent operatives to Boston to secure the stolen Gardner art.

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Behind the public face is the man who controls the stolen Gardner art.

I am confident that some stolen Gardner art will be recovered before March 2010, I just hope it can be done without any collateral damage.

Whitey Bulger, expect breaking news very soon.

More to Follow.....................................

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Update:

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Bobcat lives, "Ra" warning acknowledged.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist Solved, "Among Thieves" by David Hosp !!!!

Among Thieves by David Hosp

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It is with great pleasure Art Hostage can report the new novel by David Hosp, "Among Thieves" is going to be one of the most riveting reads for 2010.

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446580151.htm

The Gardner Heist has provoked all kinds of artistic mediums and this latest offering "Among Thieves" By David Hosp comes dangerously close to the current intelligence reports coming out of both Ireland and Boston, not forgetting the German connection.

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446580151.htm

The entire plot is not only plausable but elements will be included in the final analysis of the Gardner Art Heist.

A truly stunning read

http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446580151.htm
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446580151.htm

"Among Thieves" by David Hosp video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kDjuc34OxQ

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Recovery, The Wait Continues !!!

Terror groups unite in 'new IRA'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6954582.ece

Republican terrorists are thought to have created a new IRA organisation, drawing membership from the Continuity IRA (CIRA) and two factions of the Real IRA.

The security services believe the group, which is not aligned to any political party, is led by hardline dissidents and Provisional IRA members who oppose Sinn Fein’s decision to join the Policing Board in Northern Ireland. Among those suspected of involvement in the new alliance is a former member of the IRA army council.

The group has yet to declare its existence, but may announce its intentions in the new year. “In terms of its capability to mount attacks, it represents the most potent threat in terms of launching a new campaign,” said one republican hardliner.

The group has chosen not to give itself a name, with the idea of making it more difficult for supporters to be charged with IRA membership and in a bid to confuse the security services.

To avoid infiltration by the security services, the new group is understood to be “hand-picking” terrorists who have already carried out attacks or proven their credentials as members of paramilitary groups.

“It is choosing people from CIRA, RIRA and the other groups and leaving those they consider to be compromised on the outside,” said the republican source. “They don’t want republicans who are involved in smuggling and other activities that could compromise them. They might use them to generate finance or even mount an operation, but they won’t be allowed to join.

“This group is highly secretive and paranoid about informants and their identities being revealed. They are serious operators who know what’s involved in running a [terrorist] campaign. They’ve done it before.”

The new group’s ranks have been bolstered by defections from the various splinter groups of the RIRA, the terrorist group which murdered 29 people when it bombed Omagh in August 1998. It has also drawn support from members of the CIRA who have defected in Tyrone, Fermanagh and Armagh.

Some hardliners believe the CIRA army council, which is dominated by members of Republican Sinn Fein, no longer considers the use of violence justified but is refusing to state this.

There has been a upsurge in republican terrorism this year. In March, the Real IRA shot two soldiers outside Massereene Barracks in Antrim. Stephen Carroll, a member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), was shot by the CIRA in Craigavon, Co Armagh, 48 hours later. Last month a 400lb car bomb — almost as big as the one in Omagh — was used to attack the Policing Board headquarters in Belfast.

Alleged republican terrorists tried under the Offences against the State act in the republic are usually classified as members of Oglaigh na hEireann — the Irish term for the IRA. When suspects are charged, this all-encompassing term is usually followed by a reference to a faction.

Kevin McQuillan, a spokesman for the Republican Network for Unity, a forum for dissidents, said there had been a “re-alignment” within dissident republican groups.

“I think the turning point amongst the armed groups, ironically enough, happened in March when Martin McGuinness called the republicans who attacked Massereene ‘traitors’. The use of that terminology by an iconic republican figure shocked us,” said McQuillan.

He believes attacks by IRA factions have become more strategic and frequent. “I think there is a meeting of minds among dissident republicans. There has been an increase in attacks and those operations are more organised and strategic,” he said. “There is no appetite whatsoever on the ground for military engagement with the British security forces, but these groups are growing.”

The threat posed by republican dissidents has never been greater, according to both gardai and MI5.

However, some security sources say there is an “intelligence deficit” on dissidents.

“The main players are under surveillance but there is so much activity it’s almost impossible to decipher what is happening. They are meeting and planning the whole time. Dissidents from different factions are meeting each other and hardliners from the IRA, who have drifted away from them and Sinn Fein,” said one source. “The dissidents have the capacity to kill and bomb, but not in a sustainable way.”

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, "Creative" Carmen Milagros Ortiz Tackles Financial Fraud, Whitey Bulger and Financial Reward !!!

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091203new_us_attorney_has_her_eye_on_whitey_bulger/

Art Hostage Comments:

“I’m very down to earth, I’m very genuine, I’m very sincere, and I’m very direct,”

(New U.S. Attorney Massachusetts, Carmen Milagros Ortiz 3rd December 2009)

Art Hostage has some down to earth, genuine, sincere and direct things to offer that will see Whitey Bulger in custody (Dead or Alive !!) and the return of the Stolen Gardner art.

A big welcome to Carmen Ortiz and Art Hostage commends the new U.S. Attorney for the forthright manner in which she has set out her stall.

"Financial Fraud, Financial Reward" should be be the new mantra and in that spirit the current reward for the capture of Whitey Bulger should be increased to $10 million along with the current reward offer for the recovery of the Gardner art, $5 million, should also be increased to $10 million in a down to earth, genuine, sincere, and direct manner, to coincide with the 20 years commemoration of the tragic theft next March 18th 2010.

What would this achieve, well, $10 million for the return of the stolen Gardner art and immunity from prosecution in a down to earth, genuine, sincere and direct manner would certainly bring those who control the Gardner art to the table.

Sadly, until now, those who really control the Gardner art have not believed for one minute the current reward offer of $5 million for the return of all Gardner paintings in Good Condition, or the alleged offer of immunity.
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Remember two paintings were cut from their frames so the condition they were in straight after the Gardner Heist in 1990 was less than Good Condition.

Art Hostage has tried to convince certain parties and has been met with scepticism, and on certain occasions ridicule.

Below is the latest statement to come out of the Underworld, or from the guys controlling the Gardner art.

"Until the reward offer is specific, no conditions, and demonstrated to exist in an escrow account, along with an immunity agreement from any prosecution in regards returning the stolen Gardner art, no-one is going to put their head up above the parapet"

We must not forget those who control the some of the Gardner art may not be conventional criminals, they could have been students at the time of the Gardner Heist March 1990 and the fear-factor has prevented them stepping forward to return the Gardner art ever since.

If they knew of a previous approach to the Gardner museum was followed by that approach being passed straight to the FBI then that fact may have spooked them ever since and it is only when the conditions are presented publicly of no arrests, no prosecutions, and the reward sitting in an Escrow account, to be paid in full once the Gardner art has been recovered, will they make contact again.

Also, an important point made by the Underworld is how much would be paid if only one or two stolen Gardner artworks were to be returned ???

The answer to this problem is a tariff of exactly how much each stolen Gardner artwork would command in reward money, for example:

Vermeer The Concert 50% of the reward,

Rembrandt Storm on the Sea 20% of the reward

Rembrandt Lady and Gentleman in Black, 10%
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Rembrandt Self Portrait 7.5%

Manet Chez Tortini 7.5%
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Flink, 5 Degas drawings, Eagle and Ku vase 5%

Doubling the Gardner art reward to $10 million would mean each Gardner artwork is worth as follows:

Vermeer The Concert $5 million reward

Rembrandt Storm on the Sea $2 million reward

Rembrandt Lady and Gentleman in Black $1 million

Rembrandt Self Portrait $750,000

Manet Chez Tortini $750,000

Flink, 5 drawings Eagel and Ku vase $500,000

This is an example of a "creative" approach that will smoke out the elusive Gardner art.

Now moving onto Whitey Bulger.

Carmen Ortiz has said she is looking for "Creative" ways to capture Whitey Bulger.

Well, for Art Hostage to be down to earth, genuine, sincere and direct, raise the reward to $10 million and Whitey Bulger will appear just like that.

That is the word from the Underworld.
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The past is just that, the past !!
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Art Hostage would like to say these comments are not intended as a slur on anyone or any disrespect to anyone, Art Hostage is just trying to reach out and solve both the Gardner case and the Whitey Bulger surrender.

Stolen Art Watch, Whitey Bulger Located on French Territory, Death Penalty Extradition Dilema Faces Carmen Ortiz !!!

Whitey Bulger Located,

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Pieces of Eight, Pieces of Eight !!!!!

Art Hostage can now reveal Whitey Bulger has been located to France or French Territory and because of this fact U.S. Authorities are facing a dilemma.

If they make a move and have Whitey Bulger arrested, then extradition will be impossible, not least because of the death penalty Whitey Bulger faces in Boston.

However, if Whitey Bulger has the death penalty lifted then that in itself could cause political embarrassment to Authorities in Boston.

Carmen Ortiz has been briefed on this dilemma and the "Creative" remark she made today at her first press conference refers to the secret plan to tempt Whitey Bulger off French Territory so any arrest can be quickly resolved, especially if Whitey Bulger is arrested in the UK, then Whitey Bulger would be swiftly taken back to the U.S. secretly.

It has been discussed at very high levels about the possibility of secretly kidnapping Whitey Bulger and flying him straight to the U.S. without informing the local authorities.

Discussions have also taken place about Whitey Bulger surrendering and the reward money being paid, the figure of $10 million has been mentioned and the Bulger family back in Boston are holding out their shovel size hands for their pay off.

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

Stolen Art Watch, Carmen Ortiz "Creative" Mission statement, "Financial Fraud, Financial Reward" !!!!

New Mass. US Attorney focuses on financial fraud
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http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20091202new_mass_us_attorney_focuses_on_financial_fraud/srvc=home&position=recent

The new U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts says she wants to beef up prosecution of financial fraud cases to prevent the kind of disaster caused by disgraced financier Bernard Madoff.

Carmen Ortiz said today she plans to reach out to other government agencies and private businesses to aggressively root out financial fraud.

She said she wants victims of financial crimes to know her office is "open for business."

Ortiz is the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the top federal prosecutor’s job in Massachusetts.

In her first meeting with reporters since taking office last month, Ortiz said she also plans to look for "creative" ways to aid in the hunt for fugitive gangster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Bulger is on the FBI’s "Ten Most Wanted" list.

Art Hostage Comments:

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A big welcome to Carmen Ortiz and Art Hostage commends the new U.S. Attorney for the forthright manner in which she has set out her stall.

"Financial Fraud, Financial Reward" should be be the new mantra and in that spirit the current reward for the capture of Whitey Bulger should be increased to $10 million along with the current reward offer for the recovery of the Gardner art should be increased also to $10 million to coincide with the 20 years commemoration of the tragic theft next March 18th 2010.

What would this achieve, well, $10 million for the Gardner art and immunity from prosecution would certainly bring those who control the Gardner art to the table.

Sadly, until now, those who really control the Gardner art have not believed for one minute the current reward offer of $5 million for the return of all Gardner paintings in Good Condition, or the alleged offer of immunity.

-

Remember two paintings were cut from their frames so the condition they were in straight after the Gardner Heist in 1990 was less than Good Condition.

Art Hostage has tried to convince certain parties and has been met with scepticism, and on certain occasions ridicule.

Below is the latest statement to come out of the Underworld, or from the guys controlling the Gardner art.

"Until the reward offer is specific, no conditions, and demonstrated to exist in an escrow account, along with an immunity agreement from any prosecution in regards returning the stolen Gardner art, no-one is going to put their head up above the parapet"

We must not forget those who control the some of the Gardner art may not be conventional criminals, they could have been students at the time of the Gardner Heist March 1990 and the fear-factor has prevented them stepping forward to return the Gardner art ever since.

If they knew of a previous approach to the Gardner museum was followed by that approach being passed straight to the FBI then that fact may have spooked them ever since and it is only when the conditions are presented publicly of no arrests, no prosecutions, and the reward sitting in an Escrow account, to be paid in full once the Gardner art has been recovered, will they make contact again.

Also, an important point made by the Underworld is how much would be paid if only one or two stolen Gardner artworks were to be returned ???

The answer to this problem is a tariff of exactly how much each stolen Gardner artwork would command in reward money, for example:

Vermeer The Concert 50% of the reward,

Rembrandt Storm on the Sea 20% of the reward

Rembrandt Lady and Gentleman in Black, 10%

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Rembrandt Self Portrait 7.5%

Manet Chez Tortini 7.5%

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Flink, 5 Degas drawings, Eagle and Ku vase 5%

Doubling the Gardner art reward to $10 million would mean each Gardner artwork is worth as follows:

Vermeer The Concert $5 million reward

Rembrandt Storm on the Sea $2 million reward

Rembrandt Lady and Gentleman in Black $1 million

Rembrandt Self Portrait $750,000

Manet Chez Tortini $750,000

Flink, 5 drawings Eagel and Ku vase $500,000

This an example of a "creative" approach that will smoke out the elusive Gardner art.

Who would Art Hostage go to in Boston to recover the Gardner art if armed with the new $10 million reward offer and a definite immunity agreement ???

Simple, one man, no other, Mr Patrick Nee because he still has enough respect across ethnic lines in the Underworld to be trusted to pull this thing off, that is if the deal was proved to be airtight and legitimate.

Who would be the man to negotiate with Patrick Nee, again, one man, no other, Anthony Amore.

Even if the former students wanted to deal back some of the the Gardner art Patrick Nee is man to broker the deal via Anthony Amore.

Now moving onto Whitey Bulger.

Carmen Ortiz has said she is looking for "Creative" ways to capture Whitey Bulger.

Well, raise the reward to $10 million and Whitey Bulger will appear just like that.

That is the word from the Underworld.

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The past is just that, the past !!

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Art Hostage would like to say these comments are not intended as a slur on anyone or any disrespect to anyone, Art Hostage is just trying to reach out and solve both the Gardner case and the Whitey Bulger surrender.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Children Chasing Vermeer !!!

Students at Watertown’s St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School learn about Gardner art heist
http://www.wickedlocal.com/watertown/news/x1682938725/Students-at-Watertown-s-St-Stephen-s-Armenian-Elementary-School-learn-about-Gardner-art-heist

WATERTOWN — .There’s been a great deal of excitement in fifth-grade teacher Julia Kramer’s classroom at St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School in Watertown. It started with fifth-grade parent Rosalyn Minassian volunteering to do the weekly current events discussion with the class. Following her art passion, she decided to teach about the unsolved heist at the Gardner Museum in 1990.

To cater to different intelligences and interests, the students used their computer class to listen to the news report while seeing the various artwork stolen from the museum. They wrote down their observations and questions in their detective book. After a lively discussion about the stolen artwork with Minassian, the students then had an opportunity to speak to two investigators of the case, retired Boston Globe journalist Stephen Kurkjian and FBI Special Agent Geoffrey Kelly.

The students’ excitement and quest for knowledge was evident through the hands waiving eagerly in the air. The Gardner Museum’s director of security, Anthony Amore, has even invited the fifth-grade class for a VIP tour of the museum.

“It’s wonderful to see the children so eagerly go in depth on a topic as we provide them with a breadth of opportunities to learn — from computers to art to forensic science to newspaper reporting,” said Houry Boyamian, principal of the school.

— St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School

Art Hostage Comments:

What a wonderful story for this Thanksgiving Day 2009.

All too often we can get cynical about the failure to recover the iconic masterpieces cruelly ripped from the walls of the Gardner Museum.

A wonderful gesture by Anthony Amore to offer these brilliant young minds the chance to visit the world famous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Thanks must go to FBI Agent Geoff Kelly for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to offer the next generation an insight into the tragedy of the Gardner Art Heist.

Interesting to note Steve Kurkjian, the award winning journalist in attendance, which leads me to wonder about the book he is bringing out in 2010 regarding the Gardner Art Heist.

Steve Kurkjian has been reporting on the Gardner Art Heist from day one, which should mean his book analysing the Gardner Art Heist will be a must read for all of us obsessed with seeing the Gardner artwork recovered.

Thing is, I cannot find any reference to where the Gardner Art Heist Book by Steve Kurkjian is going to be offered.

Memo to Steve Kurkjian:

"When is your book coming out and where can I buy a copy ??"

Art Hostage would like to extend Thanksgiving greetings to the American people and hope for the recovery of the Gardner art swiftly.

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Update:

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The man from Worcester says the man from Revere can recover the Gardner art !!!!!

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Reward and Immunity, Carmen Get it, Been A Long Hawley, That's Amore !!!

It is with great anticipation and hope Art Hostage can announce Carmen Ortiz has been confirmed by the Senate as the next U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. (Alright, a little early)

Art Hostage prays Carmen Ortiz, together with Anne Hawley and Anthony Amore, will be the ones who announce to the world they have recovered the stolen Gardner art, with a little help from their friends.

Carmen Milagros Ortiz
District of Massachusetts
Nominated: September 17, 2009
Committee Questionnaire
Reported By Committee: Oct. 29, 2009
Confirmed By Senate: Nov. 5th 2009

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For those not familiar with Carmen Ortiz see her "Questionnaire for Non-Judicial Nominees", below:

http://judiciary.senate.gov/nominations/111thCongressExecutiveNominations/USAttorneys/upload/USA-Ortiz.pdf

Carmen Ortiz will have the crucial say in whether Immunity is granted in the Gardner Art Heist case.

Anthony Amore, Head of Security at the Gardner Museum will have the crucial say in how any reward is paid and what amount of reward is paid, depending on what stolen Gardner Art is recovered.

Above all else, it is these people who hold the keys to the $5 million reward offer and the immunity from prosecution in relation to recovering the Gardner art.

The Ortiz, Hawley and Amore Team Ready for action !!!

Photo Op Number One, Gardner Museum, Ortiz, Hawley and Amore.

The 20th year Commemoration is fast approaching and the prospect of making a recovery has increased to a state of "High Alert"

Art Hostage recommends Carmen Ortiz visit the Gardner Museum and speaks to Anthony Amore and Anne Hawley in a "Getting to know you" manner so a combined message can be released jointly, publicising the renewed vigor and desire to recover the stolen Gardner art in a pragmatic way, that does not involve arrests and sees the reward paid in full to whomever provides the location of the Stolen Gardner art.

In short, which Catholic Church Confession box contains the stolen Gardner art, and once recovered, the reward will be paid in full without any repercussions.

Ted Kennedy and Harold Smith look down from on high and approve of the Ortiz/Hawley and Amore partnership.

If goodwill is the necessary ingredient for recovering the Stolen Gardner art, then Ortiz, Hawley and Amore have the best chance in 20 years, go for it !!!

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P.S. Art Hostage is aware of the latest Gardner Heist and Whitey Bulger briefings !!!

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Watch this space for significant developments, timing is being worked out as I write.

Stolen Art Watch, Noortman Revisited ??????

Creditors Seize Dutch Museum’s Art Collection

SPANBROEK, Netherlands—Officials at the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art say that ABN Amro Bank has seized 130 paintings from its collection, reportedly to cover a $48 million loan that the museum’s namesake owner — Dirk Scheringa, president of the DSB Bank — has failed to repay.

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The paintings were owned by DSB Beheer, which owns DSB Bank and was declared bankrupt this week. It now appears that Dirk Scheringa pledged the paintings at the museum as collateral for the loan.

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Officials at the museum estimated the total value of the works at $60 million.

May 2009:

Armed robbers steal paintings from Dutch museum

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Masked gunmen stole two paintings from a Dutch museum Friday, including a work by surrealist Salvador Dali, officials said.

Police said several robbers threatened a guard at the Scheringa Museum for Realism in Spanbroek with a gun before making off with two paintings. Nobody was injured.

The robbers took “Adolescence,” a 1941 gouache by Dali and “La Musicienne,” an oil painting from 1929 by Polish-born art deco painter Tamara de Lempicka, the museum said in a statement.

The paintings’ value was not released, but the museum says they are among the top works in its collection.

The Dali painting was 18 x 12 inches (45 by 30 centimeters) and the De Lempicka’s was 46 x 29 inches (116 by 73 centimeters).

“We deeply regret the theft and hope the works are traced soon,” according to a statement from the museum, which is 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Amsterdam.

The Dali painting shows a landscape in which a woman’s face can be seen — her lips and nose are formed by the back of a seated woman and her eyes are part of two hills in the background.

The Lempicka shows a woman in a vivid blue dress playing a mandolin-like instrument.

The museum houses the art collection of wealthy Dutch banker Dirk Scheringa and his wife.

Art Hostage Comments;

Timing is everything !!

Noortman anybody ??????

Stolen Art Watch, Weisman Warhols Ready To Come Home !!!

Man who reported stolen Warhols waives insurance
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gKPXp2k1wWVDhAUFa-u3iy-0xZeQD9BBVMF81

LOS ANGELES — A prominent art collector who reported stolen 11 original silk screen paintings by Andy Warhol has waived the insurance policy he owns to protect the art, authorities said Thursday.

Collector Richard L. Weisman said he couldn't take the thought of insurance investigators poring through his records and questioning family and friends.

"They turn you into a suspect," Weisman told the Seattle Times. "I just finally told them, 'I'm not going to go through it for three to five years. Forget it. ... That's the only reason, and it's a good enough reason."

Police Detective Mark Sommer confirmed Weisman's move to the Los Angeles Times and said Weisman has been difficult to track down.

"It is curious," Sommer said. "We'd like to talk to him about it."

The missing paintings were discovered by the family's longtime nanny at Weisman's Los Angeles home Sept. 3. Weisman was in Seattle at the time.

Police said there was no forced entry, a home alarm system was not on, and other valuable works of art were left untouched. There are no suspects in the case.

"Everything in the house was untouched, there wasn't even an ashtray overturned," Weisman told the Seattle Times.

Ten of the 40-inch-square portraits — believed to be worth at least $1 million apiece — feature famous athletes of the 1970s, including Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Pele and Dorothy Hamill. The other is of Weisman himself, likely a commissioned portrait.

Weisman said he got to know Warhol when he was working as an investment banker in New York in the early 1970s.

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Art Hostage Comments;

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Now the hard part, how to quietly allow these Warhol's to surface !!!

Stolen Art Watch, Pebble Beach Art Heist, Polygraph Solves the Case !!!

Pebble Beach Art Heist, Crunch Time !!!

To solve the Pebble Beach stolen art case once and for all, a simple polygraph test taken by both the victims will conclude proceedings.
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Failure to do so will result in three and a half words from Police:
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"You're Under Arrest"

Stolen Art Watch, Pebble Beach Stolen Art, Vertigo !!

Multimillion-Dollar Art Heist May Be Hoax

Art Collection Owners Not Being Ruled Out As Suspects

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/21219526/detail.html

BOSTON -- A former Harvard doctor and his business partner are not being ruled out as a suspects in an alleged art heist at their California home in which millions of dollars of artwork was stolen, officials said Tuesday.

The Monterey County Sheriff's Department said they are not ruling out that the heist, which could be worth as much as $80 million, is a hoax.

During the news conference, Cmdr. Mike Richards repeatedly said that his department has asked the collection's owners, A. Benjamin Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, who worked at Harvard, to come forward and cooperate.

"It's hard to conduct an investigation when the victims aren't being cooperative," Richards said.

Richards also said they arrested Danny Griffith, who Amadio and Kennaugh said was a suspect, and he was released after giving an "airtight alibi," and that both Amadio and Kennaugh are suspects.

"Our office has been taking this case seriously since it came to us. We are doing the best we can with what we have," Richards said.

Amadio and Kennaugh unveiled the identity of a local insurance broker who they said was one of two agents working to make sure the art was insured prior to the theft.

In the release issued by lawyers for Amadio and Kennaugh, they said David R. St. John, an insurance broker with Insurance Consultants, had visited the Pebble Beach home several times prior to the theft, and personally saw the art collection, which was stolen on Sept. 25.

Richards said that Amadio and Kennaugh haven't told the sheriff's office anything about an insurance broker.

Last week, Monterey County called in crime experts from southern California to help out with the case. The owners of the collection, meanwhile, have called in their own private investigator and have contacted the FBI.

Adding another twist to the case was a ransom note that was found in the home several days after the heist. Amadio and Kennaugh said the note read, "Pay up or die."

The owners have said from the beginning that they think the heist was an inside job and that the chances of getting their art back are slim.

Art Hostage Comments:

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Please, no self harm, drug overdoses or other symantics.

Stolen Art Watch, Pebble Beach Art Heist, You're No Gardner Art Heist !!

Pebble Beach theft could rank 2nd in U.S. art heists

By JULIA REYNOLDS and LARRY PARSONS
Herald Staff Writers
Updated: 10/04/2009 01:29:41 AM PDT

If the owners' estimates are anywhere near correct, the value of the art reported stolen from a Pebble Beach home nine days ago makes it one of the biggest art heists in U.S. history.

Collector Angelo Benjamin Amadio says art experts have told him the take may be second in the country to the world's biggest unsolved art theft: the 1990 haul from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum that included works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Degas and has been valued at $300 million.

The estimated value of the Pebble Beach theft has increased by millions since it was announced in a press release a week ago. The first estimates, which Amadio says were made before an inventory of the loss was completed, placed the value of the missing art at $27 million — a total based on a 2002 inventory of the collection.

By Friday, the Boston Globe reported that Vicki St. John, an attorney representing Amadio and his friend and business partner Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, said that about 30 pieces had been stolen — and the total value could now be as much as $100 million.

But Amadio said experts have told him the pieces' current value would more likely range from $60 million to $80 million.

"Put it this way: If someone had given us $80 million, we would have taken it."

Among the works listed as stolen were paintings and drawings by Rembrandt, Matisse, Miro, Renoir and Van Gogh. There might also be a Degas in the lot, he said.

The purported crown jewel of the heist is a 7-foot-long painting by Jackson Pollock that Amadio said has never been publicly displayed and may not have been included in any "catalogue raisonne," the art world's term for a listing of an artist's body of work. But private collectors "know about the piece," Amadio said.

Nancy Netzer, director of the McMullen Museum at Boston College and a professor of art history, said, "I do think it's possible that there are Pollack paintings not in the catalogue raisonne. How likely in any specific case would depend on what is known of the picture's provenance."

Amadio showed reporters several pages of paperwork that he said described the provenance and authenticity of the missing painting. The Pollock piece alone may be worth anywhere from $20 million to $60 million, he said.7

As with any large-scale art theft, there has been speculation as to how insurance figures into the loss.

One the men's two insurance agents, Jerry Seagraves of Capitola, said Thursday the men had policies covering a fair amount of art and personal articles, but he didn't know yet if the missing art was among them.

"It's a terrible catastrophe to have to go through," Seagraves said.

Arthur Dion, who for 20 years was president of the Boston Art Dealers' Association, said that while not insuring valuable works of art isn't recommended, it's not unheard of.

"It's crazy," he said, "but plausible.

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_13483334?source=most_viewed

Art Hostage Comments:

News is breaking about a possible big break in the Pebble Beach art heist case and it could all be over by the end of the week.

Upon a more sobering note, anyone remember Lloyd Bentsen when he said to Dan Quayle in the 1984 Vice-presidential debate:

"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" ???

Well, Art Hostage says about the Pebble Beach art heist:

"You're no Gardner Art Heist"

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

Stolen Art Watch, Pebble Beach Stolen Art Mystery, Time For the Big Guns, Robert Wittman and the L.A. FBI Art Crime Team !!!

Website for Retired FBI Icon Robert Wittman:

http://www.robertwittmaninc.com/

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Owners of Stolen Art Question Law Enforcements Actions
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http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_13468211

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PEBBLE BEACH -- The victims in last week's big Pebble Beach art heist and the Monterey County Sheriff's Office both said Thursday they were done talking about the case -- for the time being.

But they didn't fall silent before taking pokes at each other.

In a statement, Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, who claim they lost up to $80 million worth of artwork in a Sept. 25 burglary at their rented Sunridge Road home, said they wouldn't do further press interviews or make statements about the case because of "concern that the investigation process could be adversely affected."

The Sheriff's Office said in a press release that it would not comment on the reported art theft until a press conference early next week.

Amadio and Kennaugh, business partners in a number of ventures, put out the first press release outlining the alleged burglary Sunday. They said they had lost 13 valuable pieces of art, including works by Rembrandt, Renoir, Van Gogh and Jackson Pollock, in an afternoon burglary at the Pebble Beach residence.

They initially put the value of the missing artwork at $27 million. By mid-week, after they said they were able to inventory their collection, the number of missing pieces grew to about 30, with a total value of $60 million to $80 million.

In their statement Thursday, the men said questions had arisen about "the delayed response of local law enforcement in Monterey County." They said the Sheriff's Office took the burglary report about 7 p.m. the day it happened, but did not send fingerprint technicians and detectives to the home until Tuesday.

Their statement said an extortion note that contained a demand for money and threats to kill them was found at the scene "by the officers present."

That contradicts information previously released by the Sheriff's Office, which said the purported extortion note was turned over to investigators after Amadio told the press about it.

"The Sheriff's Office is concerned about statements and information released by others compromising the integrity of the investigation," its press release said.

Sheriff's spokesman Cmdr. Mike Richards said he couldn't comment on the investigation.

In their statement, Amadio and Kennaugh said they appreciated media coverage of the burglary and said "some valuable tips have been provided to law enforcement officials."

The men said their collection of some 300 pieces of art had been shipped to the Pebble Beach home from Boston where they had operated a wholesale art business for about 10 years. They said most of the pieces were uninsured.

They said the most valuable piece, a Jackson Pollock painting they obtained in 2001, had never been publicly shown and could be worth more than $20 million.
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Art theft victims aim to set record straight

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Extortion note discovered by associate, not police, collector says
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http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_13477939?nclick_check=1

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The men who say they lost tens of millions of dollars worth of fine art in a Pebble Beach home burglary sought Friday to patch a rift with the county Sheriff's Office.
Meanwhile, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said the investigation into the large-scale art heist could lead to unrelated criminal charges.

An attorney for Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh clarified a dispute over who discovered a purported extortion note that was found at the Sunridge Road house earlier this week.

On Thursday, the men claimed that deputies "at the scene" found the note, which reportedly included a demand for money and death threats, while they were processing the scene Tuesday.

In a "correction" released Friday, they say the note "was discovered by one of Mr. Amadio's associates who was present."

The Sheriff's Office maintains the note was turned over to investigators after it was found in the house.

Amadio and Kennaugh say their rented house was burglarized Sept. 25 and that up to $80million worth of artwork from an extensive collection was taken, including works by Jackson Pollock, Rembrandt, Miro and Renoir.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Cmdr. Mike Richards said, "Basically my only comment is that we're glad Mr. Amadio has corrected one of the errors."

The two men, who say their art collection was shipped to the Pebble Beach home over the past two months, earlier criticized the Sheriff's Office for not sending investigators and evidence technicians to the home until four days after the reported break-in.

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Richards said deputies continue to investigate the reported burglary, in which the men say they not only lost up to $100million worth of art, but a computer and $3,100 in cash.

"We are also exploring other possibilities and motivations which may or may not culminate in unrelated or related criminal charges," he said.

Richards declined to elaborate, citing the Sheriff's Office's decision to "maintain silence" about the ongoing investigation.

He said a news conference about the case will be held early next week.
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Art Hostage Comments:

Those who read this blog and the Art Hostage blog will know Art Hostage has some informed opinions on global art theft, based upon a unblemished 15 year career in trafficking stolen art around the world and eight years M.A. and B.A. (Hons) University education.

So, the advice to the victims and local Law Enforcement from Art Hostage is take a deep breath and a step back.

Art Hostage does not apportion blame to either local Law Enforcement or to the victims.

Neither side were prepared for this huge art heist and neither side should be expected to take the heavy burden of investigating this tragic, specialised crime.

The investigation should now be co-ordinated between the L.A. FBI Art Crime Team and from the private sector Robert Wittman, who has retired from being the FBI Art Crime Team Guru.

Robert Wittman can be contacted here: http://www.robertwittmaninc.com/

Robert Wittman brings to the table 30 years experience as an FBI Agent of distinction and was the Founding Father of the FBI Art Crime Team.

Robert Wittman also has the distinction of being a genuine art lover and his first concern, especially as he is now in the private sector, is the recovery of the stolen art.

However, since retiring FBI Icon Robert Wittman now brings to the table a pragmatism that means he is fully able to negotiate as well as investigate art crimes.

The whole process of recovering stolen art is a minefield littered with those who think they can act alone, be that from Law Enforcement or the private sector.

There are mechanisms which can see stolen art recovered and payments made without breaking the law and to the satisfaction of the victims, insurers and Law Enforcement.

The problem has always been to get agreement and getting all sides on board.

Until Robert Wittman retired most attempts to broker an acceptable deal had been a "Bridge to Nowhere" in recent times.

The Pebble Beach art theft is a Golden opportunity to demonstrate this new found pragmatism and show that with a little ingenuity the retention of Robert Wittman can be the key to a quick resolution to this and many other historic art theft cases.

All the while local Law Enforcement and the victims are competing for the headlines and playing a game of one-upmanship,*** ******* will not release findings that will speed up the investigation.

Art Hostage, whilst his attention is firmly fixed on California, he also has an eye cast on the past and East from Pebble Beach towards the East Coast.

Revelations could give juicy headlines, but do not serve to recover the art.

When the L.A. FBI Art Crime Team take over the criminal investigation and Robert Wittman takes over the private investigation, that is the time when the art will be recovered, unless someone breaks cover beforehand.

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Cracks are starting to appear, how long can the Dam hold ???