Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art, Reality Hightlighted In Bold !!

In this March 21, 1990 file photo, a security guard stands outside the Dutch Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where robbers stole more than a dozen works of art by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas, Manet and others, in an early morning robbery. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham said Tuesday, March 27, 2012, in federal court in Hartford, Conn., that the FBI believes Connecticut inmate Robert Gentile â??had some involvement in connection with stolen propertyâ?? related to the art heist. Agents have had unproductive discussions about the theft with Gentile, a 75-year-old reputed mobster who is jailed in a drug case.

Feds: Conn. man knows something about stolen art

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/03/31/feds_conn_man_knows_something_about_stolen_art/

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—It remains the largest art heist in history, a brazen robbery in which two thieves disguised as police officers walked into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, disabled two guards and stole masterworks worth more than half a billion dollars.

The 1990 robbery and the recovery of the paintings have puzzled investigators for more than two decades.

Now federal authorities appear to be pinning some hope of solving the mystery on a 75-year-old reputed mobster from Connecticut, Robert Gentile, who is jailed in a drug case.

The FBI believes Robert Gentile "had some involvement in connection with stolen property" related to the art heist, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham said in federal court in Hartford this week. Durham said FBI agents have had unproductive discussions with Gentile about the theft, but didn't elaborate on his allegations.

Gentile's attorney, A. Ryan McGuigan, called the notion preposterous. He said Gentile has lived with his wife in the same small house in a Hartford suburb for 50 years and has no idea what prosecutors are talking about.

"He doesn't know anything about art, he's never been to an art gallery in his life, couldn't tell a Rembrandt from an Elvis painting," McGuigan said in an interview.

Durham spoke at a hearing over whether bail should be set for Gentile in the drug case. A judge ordered Gentile to remain held without bail, saying he's too dangerous.

Prosecutors declined to comment further.

Authorities first approached Gentile about the art heist about two years ago, McGuigan said.

"They're not interviewing him about him actually participating in the heist," McGuigan said. "They may or may have not interviewed him about any knowledge that he may have about the whereabouts of the paintings."

When Gentile offered no information, authorities dispatched an undercover witness to buy prescription drugs from him, McGuigan said.

"They set you up and entrap you and throw you in a federal prison at 75 years old until you'll be tortured enough to talk to them about information that you don't have," McGuigan said.

If Gentile were some type of arch-criminal, he would have figured a way to get the $5 million reward offered in the case, McGuigan said.

Gentile, of Manchester, Conn., and associate Anthony Parente, also 75, were charged last month with selling prescription painkillers that were obtained illegally. Federal agents say they found several guns, ammunition, homemade silencers, a blackjack, three sets of handcuffs, a bulletproof vest, a Taser, ammunition, police scanners and brass knuckles at Gentile's home as well as $22,000 at the bottom of a grandfather clock.

Gentile has not been charged in the art heist.

Prosecutors say Gentile is a member of a Philadelphia crime family. His lawyer denies the mob allegation.

The defense says Gentile, who owned an auto repair business, has a larceny conviction but no history of violent crime. His attorney said he is a devoted family man who left school in the ninth grade and now his health is in serious decline, with back and heart troubles and he can barely walk.

The Gardner museum recently marked the 22nd anniversary of the heist in which thieves struck as Boston finished celebrating St. Patrick's Day. They bound and gagged two guards using handcuffs and duct tape in the early hours of March 18. In a little over an hour, they removed masterworks including those by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas and Manet, cutting some of the largest pieces from their frames.

The museum continues to offer a $5 million, no-questions-asked reward. Federal prosecutors, who made a renewed push to recover the paintings in 2010, are offering immunity.

Special Agent Geoff Kelly, the FBI's lead investigator on the Gardner Museum heist, would not comment on Gentile, saying the FBI would refer all questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Connecticut.

"The FBI has been aggressively investigating the Gardner heist for 22 years," Kelly said. "The investigation is active and ongoing. The Boston office is currently working with our New Haven office and other offices to pursue all viable leads."

Investigators continue to get strong leads, Kelly said.

"Our tenacity in continuing to pursue this investigation is motivated by the cultural significance of the stolen pieces, and our investigation will not stop until the pieces are recovered."

Authorities have pursued numerous leads over the years that have taken them as far as France and Japan, said Ulrich Boser, author of "The Gardner Heist."

"It's really quite remarkable no one has come forward," Boser said, noting the $5 million reward. "This is just this incredible whodunit."

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Nemesis For Gentile

Feds Believe Mobster, 75, Involved In Gardner Art Heist

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-bail-0328-20120327,0,5558962.story

A federal prosecutor acknowledged in court Tuesday that the FBI believes that 75-year-old Hartford mobster Robert Gentile has information about the world's most sensational art heist, the theft of 13 masterworks from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

"The government has reason to believe that Mr. Gentile had some involvement with stolen property out of the District of Massachusetts," said Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham.

What Gentile, reputedly a sworn Mafia member, does or doesn't know about the March 1990 Gardner job surfaced during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Hartford where he tried, unsuccessfully, to bail himself out of jail while waiting for a trial on a drug arrest in February.

Gentile's lawyer, A. Ryan McGuigan, said Gentile knows nothing about the stolen art and that the government is denying "a sick, old man" bail because he can't give them information that could solve one of the world's most baffling crimes.

"What is happening, Your Honor, is that the government is asking you to set a punitive bond, to keep him uncomfortable, to torture him," McGuigan said. "He unfortunately doesn't have the information that the government is looking for. But the government believes he does."

Durham implied that Gentile knows something about the Gardner heist when U.S. District Judge Robert Chatigny pressed the prosecution on the charge that the government is holding Gentile in a Rhode Island prison to squeeze him into giving up information.

Durham added, without elaboration, that Gentile has had unproductive discussions with the FBI about the missing paintings and that the reason the government opposes his release on bond is because of his involvement in a long list of other crimes, among them an aborted conspiracy to hijack cash shipments leaving the Foxwoods casino in Ledyard.

Gentile, short, white-haired, overweight and leaning on a cane, confronted Durham as he limped out of the courtroom during a recess.

"Lies, lies," Gentile said. "It's all lies."

The Gardner job devastated the art world, and the inability of investigators around the world to find even a hint of the stolen paintings has become an enduring mystery.

Among the pieces stolen were three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas. Two of the paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert" — could be worth than more $50 million each in an open market. All the stolen pieces might be worth $50 million or more.

At least two thieves were involved in the theft. They dressed as police officers and used the uniforms to trick one of two museum guards into opening a door at about 1:30 a.m., the end of St. Patrick's Day celebrations in Boston.

The thieves bound the guards with duct tape and, less than 90 minutes later, drove away into the night in a red car. There has been one lead in 22 years, according to the museum. It went nowhere.

Gentile, who lives in Manchester, has been a player in the Connecticut rackets for years, according to police and other sources. He has an arrest record dating to the 1950s, mostly on minor state charges. He served a six-month sentence, once.

Associates believe that if Gentile had even the faintest idea of the location of the paintings, he would have tried to trade it for the $5 million reward years ago.

His most recent arrest, last month, was for selling illegally obtained prescription painkillers. He claims he was using the pills personally for his myriad medical conditions. He was charged with a partner, Anthony Parente, another 75-year-old local underworld figure.

The intensive law enforcement investigation following the Gardner job revealed, according to recently obtained FBI investigative reports, that Gentile was actively involved with a crew of Boston hoodlums in the years immediately after the art theft.

Durham said Gentile was associated with a crew active in Boston and led by Capo Robert Luisi, but associated with Philadelphia's mafia family. It was Luisi who "made" Gentile by inducting him into the Philadelphia family, Durham said in court Tuesday.

When Luisi was arrested and confronted with a long prison sentence for selling cocaine about a decade ago, he implicated Gentile and other alleged members of his crew in a long list of criminal activity, Durham said.

In 1998, Gentile established an elaborate surveillance of the armored cars that he believed were transporting cash from the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Gentile plotted the truck routes and the frequency of pickups, Durham said.

In Gentile's basement, Durham said, FBI agents found police identification materials, uniforms, Tasers and police scanners — devices that criminal gangs often use in armored-car robberies. There also were weapons and ammunition.

In about 2000, Durham said, Gentile approached Luisi about hitting an armored car in Ledyard. Luisi recruited a gang of Boston bank robbers to work with Gentile on surveillance. The Ledyard robbery fizzled when the Boston crew was nabbed in another robbery, Durham said.

Durham said Luisi said Gentile also claimed to have been involved in truck hijackings. For a while, Luisi said, Gentile carried a snub-nosed .38-caliber pistol and a .22-caliber derringer and acted as his bodyguard. Another time, Durham said, Gentile boasted that he would kill Hartford gangster Tony Volpe if Volpe threatened his loan-sharking business.

McGuigan called the allegations lies by gangsters trying to curry favor with the FBI and shorten their own prison sentences.

Chatigny said Gentile was too dangerous to be granted bail.

Stolen Art Watch, Have Information On Gardner Art Heist, 2012, This is What Awaits, Arrest & Indictment, Official

Mobster Suspected Of Knowing About Art Heist Indicted On Drug Charges

Federal Authorities Believe Robert Gentile, Of Manchester, Knows Whereabouts Of Paintings Taken In 1990 Museum Theft

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-mob-0228-20120227,0,1365801.story

Federal prosecutors signaled Monday that they may try to confiscate mobster Robert Gentile's Manchester home after indicting him and a partner for the illegal sale of prescription painkillers.

Outside of a forfeiture allegation directed at Gentile's suburban ranch and $22,000 in cash hidden in a grandfather clock, the indictment made public Monday by federal prosecutors appears to formalize the drug charges on which Gentile and partner Andrew Parente were arrested earlier in the month.

The Feb. 10 arrest of Gentile, 75, created a stir in legal circles because of the relatively small amount of illegal narcotics involved in the alleged sales and because law enforcement authorities suspect he may have information concerning the spectacular 1990 theft of hundreds of millions of dollars of paintings from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas were among the works that vanished in the Gardner heist — the biggest art theft ever and, nearly 22 years later, one of the most baffling. Investigators assigned to the unsolved heist have encountered nothing but dead ends.

Two of the stolen paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert" — could be worth than $50 million each in an open market. All the stolen artworks might be worth $300 million or more. But because of the notoriety of the missing pieces, any kind of sale would be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange.

Gentile, a made or sworn member of the Mafia, has repeatedly denied having knowledge of the theft or of the location of the paintings, according to sources. He is known to have associated with crime figures in Boston but was inducted into the Mafia through a faction of the Genovese crime family in Philadelphia, according to a variety of sources.

Documents detailing the drug charges against Gentile and Parente remained sealed to the public Monday. The six-count indictment made public by the U.S. Attorney's office accuses the two men of conspiring to possess and distribute prescription painkillers such as oxycodone. Parente, who lives in Hartford, has been a suspect in drug sales for decades, police sources said.

Parente is named in two counts of the indictment, charged with conspiracy to sell drugs and the sale of oxycodone in November. Gentile is named in all six counts related to drug sales.

All but one of the drug offenses allegedly took place in October and November.

Gentile was charged with a drug offense on Feb. 10, the date FBI agents discovered a relatively small amount of apparently illegally obtained pain medication during a search of his home. But the same search turned up what a federal judge called a "veritable arsenal" of weapons, including guns and silencers. The $22,000 in cash was found hidden with a set of brass knuckles.

A federal judge characterized Gentile as dangerous, based on an inventory of the search, and ordered him held without bail.

It is a crime for a convicted felon, such as Gentile, to possess weapons. He has not been charged with weapons offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The forfeiture count in the indictment applies only to Gentile. It seeks to allow the government to confiscate property or money attributed to criminal activity. The forfeiture specifically lists Gentile's home and cash discovered during the search of his home.

Art Hostage Comments:

Like most things surrounding the infamous Gardner Art Heist of 1990, this latest estimation of the value of two stolen Gardner artworks, Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea and Vermeer's The Concert is way off the true value.

Proof being the price of $250 million paid recently by the Qatar Royal family for a version of Paul Cezanne's "Card Players", meaning the Gardner Museum's Vermeer has to be worth much more, or at the very least on par, $250 million. Same with the Rembrandt Storm on the Sea, his only seascape, again $250 million would be a reasonable estimate.

Paul Cezanne Card Players Sold: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/02/qatar-buys-cezanne-card-players-201202

To further show just how undervalued the Gardner Museum's missing Rembrandt and Vermeer are we only need to look at the estimate for a version of the Edmund Munch "Scream" being offered for sale at Sotheby's later this year, which carries an estimate of $80 million.

Scream For Sale: http://www.antiquestradegazette.com/news/8154.aspx

As to Robert Gentile, well he has got what William Youngworth got back in the 1990's when he offered to recover the Gardner Art.

The FBI over-egging relatively minor charges to put pressure on.

William Youngworth served three years plus in jail without breaking.

Robert Gentile can expect the same treatment and because of his advancing years the likelihood is he will die in jail, not because of the possession of painkillers, but the allegations of him having knowledge about the Gardner Art Heist and the current whereabouts of the art.

So, for anyone who may have information about the Gardner art heist, this is what awaits, this is the reality, no if's, not buts, no deals.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, No Mercy, 22 Years On, The FBI Bulldozer Keeps Rolling

Bobby Gentile's self-built Manchester Home

Can A Mobster Solve Art Heist?

FBI Agents Think Robert Gentile May Have Information About 1990 Boston Theft

HARTFORD —— http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-gentile-0219-20120218,0,2885882,full.story

In court last week, his handcuffs off and his 250-plus pounds settled on a hard, wooden chair, wiseguy Robert Gentile turned to his wife and children in the gallery and complained.

"No razor," the 75-year old Gentile whispered, scraping at his jaw with an imaginary razor. "No shave. No shower. No nothing."

He had been locked up on drug and gun charges for four days, since Feb. 10, when FBI agents charged him and an associate with selling prescription painkillers.

When agents searched his house and a backyard shed, they found everything from pistols and silencers to two, 6-foot elephant tusks.

The weaponry alone constituted a "veritable arsenal," a federal judge said.

But, arsenal aside, law enforcement interest in Gentile appears to lie elsewhere: The FBI suspects the old-school Hartford hustler could have inside information about the world's biggest, most baffling art mystery — the theft on March 18, 1990, of 13 masterworks from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a Manet and five drawings by Degas vanished. Two of the paintings — "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," Rembrandt's only known seascape, and Vermeer's "The Concert," each could be worth than $50 million in an open market. All the stolen pieces might be worth $300 million or more.

The circumstances of the arrest have started speculation that the drug case is an effort to leverage Gentile to talk about the Gardner job, if he has anything to talk about.

"I can't say that's what the criminal case is about," Richard S. Cramer, Gentile's court-appointed lawyer, said last week. "But I think its going to be a factor in the mind of the government."

It is not likely that the paintings will have any firm value placed on them any time soon. Pressure by police agencies around the world to resolve the world's highest profile art case makes a public sale an impossibility. That has created one of the big mysteries associated with the Gardner theft: What happened to the art?

At least two thieves were involved in the theft. They dressed as police officers and used the uniforms to trick one of two museum guards into opening a door at about 1:30 a.m., the end of St. Patrick's Day, when celebrations around Boston were winding down.

The Gardner, a century-old, Italianate mansion, was protected by an outdated security system. The thieves bound the guards with duct tape and, fewer than 90 minutes later, drove away into the night in a red car. There has been one lead with any promise over 22 years, according to the museum. It went nowhere.

Police investigators say Gentile has been a player for decades in Hartford-area organized crime, a fraternity thinned to near oblivion over the past 20 years by the FBI, competition from legal gambling casinos, shifting demographics and old age.

Gentile, however, survived. A federal prosecutor described him in court last week as a sworn member of a Philadelphia-based organized crime group. Another source said Gentile was "made" by the Gambino crime family organization in Philadelphia in the late 1990s, through contacts Gentile made in Boston. It was in Boston that Gentile came to the attention of the Gardner investigators.

Gentile claims to have worked for years, with little success, in the used car business. But an investigator said that, whatever Gentile does, it pays enough to keep his family in a comfortable house in a comfortable suburb. He has largely avoided publicity, with a few exceptions. There was one incident, in 1994, when he was charged with larceny and accused of cheating his siblings out of their father's estate.

His latest arrest began as a minor matter. He and a partner, Andrew Parente, are accused of selling fraudulently obtained prescription pain pills. During the search of Gentile's home, the FBI found only about 80 pills.

It was the other stuff the FBI found — the guns, bullets, explosives, a bullet-proof vest, a sap, $20,000 stuffed in a grandfather clock with a set of brass knuckles — that raised the profile of the case and Gentile's criminal liability. It is a crime for a convicted felon, as Gentile is, to own many of the items found in his home. In some cases, convictions can carry a mandatory prison sentence.

Gentile's friends suggest that the FBI is using a "nickel and dime" drug case as leverage to make an overweight senior citizen with a bad heart and bad back give up, once and for all, whatever he might know about the Gardner job. And the claims he has nothing to give.

"They're putting the squeeze on him so he'll open up on other things," said Parente, arrested with Gentile recently. "They mentioned it, about the pictures, when they picked me up and took me down to the federal joint. I don't know nothing about no pictures."

Parente was released on bond after his arrest, unlike Gentile, who was held in jail when a judge said the search of his house revealed a "propensity toward violence."

Parente said that FBI agents have been trying to question Gentile about the Gardner for years and that Gentile has been denying knowledge of the theft for just as long. There is a $5 million reward and a promise of no prosecution for anyone who helps recover the paintings.

"He told me they offered him $5 million," Parente said. "I don't know if that's true. But that would be a hard thing to turn down, wouldn't it?"

"He don't know where they are," Parente said of the stolen artworks. "Bobby lives a quiet life. He doesn't drive a brand new car. He's got a home that's been paid for for years, that he built. They are really, really exaggerating this. And this bust is more exaggeration than anything. I'm 75 years old and I took a pinch because of it. It's ridiculous."

An FBI spokesman said the bureau "does not comment on pending investigative matters."

But retired investigators said last week that organized crime informants in Hartford were talking about the Gardner job soon after it took place and, on at least one occasion, they dropped Gentile's name. An informant reported in 1990 that someone from Hartford was connected to the art theft. By 1993, another informant had mentioned Gentile specifically.

In 2010, the FBI tried to question Gentile after learning he had become friendly, years earlier, with a Boston-area man named Robert Guarente. Guarente was associated with a crew of gangsters who met at an auto repair shop in Dorchester owned by Carmello Merlino. Merlino, who was seen frequently with a capo in the Patriarca crime family, is a suspect in the Gardner theft.

According to two sources, Gardner investigators became interested in events that occurred before Guarente's death in 2004, including that Guarente moved to Maine. The FBI got a tip that one or more of the paintings may have been hidden in Maine, perhaps by Guarente. Gentile visited Guarente in Maine. When the investigators later looked for paintings in Maine, they found none.

Gentile has admitted knowing Guarente, the two sources said. But they said he insists that, whatever he knows about stolen paintings, he learned from the newspaper.

"He's been going back and forth to a grand jury and stuff like that," Parente said. "But he doesn't know nothing about no paintings."

Cramer, Gentile's lawyer, said the "government is wasting its time going after a sick, debilitated old man on the mistaken belief that he has millions of dollars in paintings."

"They offered him $5 million" Cramer said. "He would love $5 million. He doesn't know. Can't help. But they are not going to give up."

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Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Held (Art) Hostage In Safe Deposit Box

Art Hostage has heard whisper's from several quarters that some Gardner art is being held in a Safety Deposit box, therefore protecting it from the elements.

Access to this box is the problem that remains to be overcome.

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

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Dam (Wall) Of Silence About to Burst Open, Exclusive !!

Gardner Art Heist Dam About To Break !!

Art Hostage has been informed by a source close to the Gardner Art Heist Investigation there has been a break in Gardner Heist investigation and this may see some art presented to the media to coincide with the 22nd anniversary on March 18th 2012.

However, the news may leak before then and also there might be some arrests, contrary to the deal negotiated.

The ongoing negotiations have been delicate, to say the least, so Art Hostage will leave it here for now to give every possible chance for some Gardner art to come home.

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

Stolen Art Watch, Charles Vincent Sabba Sheds New Light on Gardner Art Heist

Gardner Bullets IV: Simmons College Robbery

This is a small excerpt of a much longer Your Brush With The Law exclusive interview that will be posted here in March for the anniversary of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery. This interview with William Youngworth III is going to reveal never before discussed details of the robbery and shed light onto the case.

CVS: Please shed light on the Simmons College robbery that occurred right across the street from the Gardner Museum eight years prior (1982) to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum robbery.

WY: Well, that night was our first trip into the Gardner Museum, our second was in like 1986 or 87. My god, its all such ancient history now. First I would like to address this criminal attachment to my name. In 1977 I was given a 13 year prison sentence for something I was cold blooded innocent of. I was identified as a get away driver in an armed robbery that I did not do...........

CVS: You weren't doing anything illegal back then?

WY: I wouldn’t go that far, but in my world back then it was then as legal as I could make it. I was working with a close friend making fake I.D.’s. My friend was a genius at photography. We were making licenses for Joe McDonald’s crew who used them in a horse racing fixing racket around the country. It all came tumbling down right about then.

We got $500 a piece for our I.D. kit which were so good that they could take a call from a cop if someone got pulled over. We had made our equipment portable. We were using the same equipment Massachusetts DMV’s were using. We would rent hotel rooms never in the same place twice, call Joe’s guys and tell them where to come. We would make ten I.D. kits per session, collect our $5,000 and be gone. We did it a few times per week and making good money for back then....

CVS: So how did you end up in the Gardner Museum?

WY: We first were walked through and shown the Gardner and we cased the museum a second time in 1986. Some guy that wasn’t in our crew got our ID cameras busted in a drug raid. He had been dealing coke right under our noses, which put our operation in jeapordy. He met this girl in a bar and brings her back to our safe house. One thing led to another, she saw too much, went to the cops and we lose all our equipment. During this same week we had a major ID order to fill. My other friend is this super connected guy in Boston and he put the world out we need Polariod 707 ID cameras and will pay $10,000 each for them. In less then two days we had a lead on some. They were in Simmons College in Boston.

CVS: The Simmons College robbery isn’t that widely known is it?

WY: I did let it out when I was pleading with the Gardner to act fast because I was losing my toe hold on my ability to assist them without it becoming drastically more complicated. They didn’t listen. But your right it was basically brushed aside. Funny, I’ve never had to prove how guilty I was before! Each time we looked at the Gardner Museum, we were cautioned that some of the frames were very possibly wired into the alarms. There were a lot of unknowns we were waiting for answers on. Before those answers came I had gotten picked up on an old charge.

CVS: For our readers that don’t know Boston, or haven’t been to the Gardner Museum, Simmons College and the Gardner are directly across a small street from one another.

WY: Anyway, my friend’s contact was the night time guard of the Simmons. Since the plan would give us the control over the entire college we cleaned out their Audio Visual lab and got our hands on equipment we had been wanting to lay our hands on for years.

CVS: This gets a little hard to ignore. Please tell us how Simmons was robbed.

WY: Sure. The exact same way the Gardner Museum was in 1990. It was knock, knock, "open up it’s the police". "Were here over a distress call we received". It took four of us, including the guard about four hours to clean the place out. We had a connection that ran a large commercial division of a rental truck company and had to get the truck back by 6:30AM before the day shift showed up at 7:00AM. This was our first tour of the Gardner. Our guard and their’s were both musicans and social buddies. Truthfully I never knew about the place and it was the Simmons guard who turned us on to the score. We got in there that night after we got done at Simmons. We put a look out up the street and he gave us the all clear for us to take the truck from around back of Simmon’s loading dock, a few hundred feet down Palace Road and around the block re-connecting to Huntintgon Ave.

CVS: What was the guard’s story who was involved? And you know I need to ask about your first trip into the Gardner.

WY: Certainly we’ll get back to that but his statement was that uniformed Boston Police Officers had handcuffed him, took him down into a basement stairwell and re-handcuffed him to a railing.

CVS: I have done some checking into this. Simmons has no comment about this, the Boston Police have such a brief report that’s it ridiculous and two paintings in the Dean’s office were cut from their frames.

WY: I actually believe that the original report was much more detailed. Actually I am certain of it. Our guard brought us a copy. We were actually using it as an information on the items we ended up selling and didn’t need. And your information about two paintings being cut from their frames is 100% correct. When our guard saw my friends ’passion’ for art he told us all about what was right next door.

CVS: You cut paintings from the frames?

WY: Heavens no! When I saw what he did I was very upset. These really weren’t that big a deal paintings. They weren’t worth much. Just two nice late 19th Century portraits of old faculty members. They were portraits of men and this is a women’s college. I recoiled when I saw what he had done. He didn’t really care and simply rolled them up. You know what, in re-telling that story I recall I never knew what happened to those paintings.

CVS: So let me get this straight. Right across the street from the Gardner, where eight years later a $500 million robbery occurs 100 feet away where the guard says he was summoned to the door by persons claiming to be police, the police over power the guard, hand cuff him in a basement, take control of the place and cut paintings out of frames...and that wasn’t a clue to investigators?

WY: That is correct.

For the rest of this exert please visit: http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm Roll Call

Rembrandt; oil on canvas; 2010; detail of larger canvas by Charles Sabba

Van Rijn; oil on canvas; 2010; detail of larger canvas by Charles Sabba

Storm on Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt Van Rijn; Stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Gardner Bullets V: A Sealed Case

Lets talk seriously now, and after over twenty years I think serious discussion is overdue since many of the principles have passed away, and if the few who are left go as well, they may take the secrets the possess with them, such as where the stolen art is (and we do believe the authorities know everything except WHERE the thirteen stolen items ended up). Seriously, the Gardner Museum security at the time of the robbery was a joke, so the museum administration and board members need to be held accountable and owe something to the American art loving people. They can rectify their negligence in the protection of our national treasures by taking drastic actions to recover the stolen art works. The head of security at the time of the robbery was incompetent and the guards were broken down valises who knew nothing about museum security. Why did these guards get off the hook so easy? Burnout musicians who opened the door to the museum even though the museum's policy clearly stated that they should never open the door for anyone. The Gardner guards allowed the robbers in and, after being duct taped up and secured to pipes in the basement, slept comfortably. Does a reasonable citizen relax enough to fall asleep into sweet dream land in this kind of situation while going through this kind of horrible ordeal? Then, after being discovered and liberated, these guards gave ridiculous descriptions to the police which culminated in those terrible composite sketches.

Two composite sketches of suspects: After Neville BPD; fingerprint ink on fingerprint card; Charles Sabba

Please recall (and refer to Gardner Bullets IV) that the Simmon's College guard was completely in on the 1982 robbery. Supposedly, the people who planned the Gardner heist never knew about the place until the Simmons guard turned them on to the score back in 1982, when he was covering for his pal at the Gardner Museum (the guard at the Gardner, a musician, was at a gig and the Simmon's guard was making his rounds).

It appears that the authorities are protecting these guards. The Gardner guard has never caught any public heat. These kids were no criminal masterminds, they could have never withstood the heat that they should have had to endure. I am positive they were pissing their pants in fear, being stuck between very dangerous underworld figures and the authorities/possible legal troubles. Please note the one little blurb in Tom Mashberg's & Anthony Amore's book about stolen Rembrandts that in Museum robberies it is usually an employee that is involved with thefts. There is usually an inside connection (and most museum security experts agree).

Where are they now? The Simmons guard died in the motor cycle accident. One of the Gardner guards supposedly died in France. One of the Gardner guards lived right around the corner from one of your William Youngworth's Allston antique stores at the time of the robbery. He allegedly was assaulted (reported recently in the Boston media) in front of the Allston antiques store. I personally would like to find and question all of the guards.

CVS: Why did Mashberg write about the guard living around the corner from the store on the twentieth anniversary of the heist?

WY: Who knows. Maybe its true. I didn’t know the guy. I vividly recall the argument I got into with Mashberg that started his attacking me the very next day. He probably printed the story to bait me into saying something about it. That was not so much a robbery as a gimme (staged robbery). I never saw two security guards on duty at anytime. That’s not to say there wasn’t but the security was a joke. In 1986 my friend had his own relationship going with a Gardner night security guard. The Gardner was just another score in the 80’s. In 86 we were just waiting for some security information. ...

CVS: During the negotiations with the Gardner Admin and the authorities, negotiations that eventually failed, did the authorities ask you to describe any of the circumstances of the theft? How about the condition of of the paintings? Did they ask to describe the backs, edges or under where the frame would hide?

WY: In the initial part of the negotiations they wanted me to describe things about the backs of the paintings I just did not know. They asked me about identification aspects that at the time I really never had a reason to note. They expected me to leave and go find those answers under intense surveillance. They obviously wanted me to access the package and lead them right to it. Now, many years later, as I understood it there was a Bernard Berenson tag on the piece and there were seals, or labels, that went between the stretcher bars and the canvas. The paintings were broken out of their frames and the seals were broken in the process.

These seals are designed to be like a seal indicating the actual artworks were original to the frames of that institution. Many museum collections do this. Its sort of a security/integrity feature ensuring the art work hadn’t been moneyed around with.

Read the full exerts at http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Coming soon Gardner Bullets Six and Seven

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Stolen Art Watch,Gardner Extention , "It's a Kind of Vast Municipal Fire Station A Monstrous Carbuncle on the Face of a Much-Loved and Elegant Friend"

Museum renaissance

Gardner to unveil grand new wing at reopening

In her will Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) stipulated that her museum, which she founded in 1903 and where she idiosyncratically installed her collection of fine and decorative art, remain largely unaltered. A copper-clad, four-storey-high building where a coach house formerly stood was never part of her vision, but this 70,000 sq. ft extension has been added to the museum that bears her name. Due to open on 19 January, the wing has been designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano and has cost $118m.

Anne Hawley, the museum’s director, says that her trustees decided to expand six years ago mainly because attendance had reached 200,000 visitors a year. The pressure on the building and the collection was too great, Hawley says, and limited space curtailed events and activities. When Gardner was alive, only 2,000 people enjoyed her recreation of a 15th-century Venetian palazzo, filled with paintings, tapestries, furniture, manuscripts and textiles, complemented by concerts in its music room.

Piano’s solution is a modern building that is not as tall and stands 50ft from the original museum. He compares the relationship between the buildings to that of “the great nephew to the great grand aunt”, says Hawley. Old and new buildings are linked by a glazed passage. The extension houses a 300-seat auditorium, a 2,000 sq. ft exhibition space, a café, conservation labs and staff offices. It also provides a new, larger entrance.

Building the extension has been controversial, not least because Gardner designed the carriage house, which was demolished in July 2009. The Boston Globe revealed in May 2009 that concerned members of staff felt Hawley was suppressing debate over the building’s historical significance. The newspaper cited an essay by former curatorial fellow Robert Colby, in which he describes how the carriage house held symbolic value for Gardner. Hawley responded to objectors by saying the carriage house was “never part of the visitor experience” and was not protected by Gardner’s will.

The carriage house had been used to accommodate visiting artists, a function catered for in Piano’s extension, which includes two artists’ apartments. The museum’s board of trustees unanimously voted for the demolition and the city and the state’s preservation agencies, including the Boston Landmarks Commis­sion and the Massachusetts Historic Commission, did not object. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled the demolition “in the public interest” because the museum’s plans for an extension would “extend the life of the [original] building” and fulfil Gardner’s will to establish a museum “for the education and enjoyment of the public forever”.

“For the first time we will have a real exhibition space to focus on certain objects in our collection,” says Oliver Tostmann, the museum’s research fellow, who is due to become the collection’s curator in April. He plans to select one or two objects from the collection each year and show them alongside objects from other institutions in the new space. The opening exhibitions will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the museum’s artist-in-residence programme.

Gardner was able to build a museum for her growing art collection when she inherited $2.1m from her father in 1891. He made his wealth in the Irish linen trade and later in mining investments. Gardner’s peers—and rivals for work by Titian, Botticelli and Michelangelo—included the likes of JP Morgan, Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon, or the “squillionaires”, as she called them. “I’ve got the picture habit. It’s as bad as the whisky habit,” she confessed in 1896.

This isn’t your grandma’s Gardner.

Boston’s beloved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum reopens next week with a design update and double the size, thanks to a new 70,000-square-foot wing, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.

“You can keep the life and beauty there, but you can tell a new story,” said Piano, who sat for an -interview in the new wing’s Living Room.

The sleek addition, connected by what Piano calls an “umbilical cord,” is four stories of glass and copper, and even the fire escapes are aesthetically pleasing. The museum opens to the public Jan. 19, with three community days of free admission.

Restoration of the Palace
Since 1990, the Gardner Museum has completed significant restoration work on the historic palace building to stabilize its structure and help accommodate increased programming and attendance. Projects have included replacing the skylight over the courtyard with thermal pane glass and installing a climate-control system. Construction of the extension complements preservation work that is ongoing within the historic building, including a decade-long lighting project to protect sensitive artwork and improve the visitor experience.

A centerpiece of the Museum preservation project is the Tapestry Room, which has been restored to its original glory after being used for 85 years as a temporary concert hall. As the Museum’s world-class concerts will now take place in the new wing’s Calderwood Hall, the Tapestry Room has been returned to its former configuration to be experienced as a grand tapestry hall. Conservation treatment of the space included the cleaning of its Mercer-tiled floors, restoration of the French medieval stone fireplace, reinstallation of select art and furniture objects, replacement of historic textiles with reproductions, and new lighting.

Art Hostage Comments:

Restoration of the Palace started in 1990, h.mmm, same time as the Gardner Art Heist ???

Of course we have been told from the get go the stolen artworks were not insured, h,mmmm ????

Then of course twenty years after the Gardner Art Heist $180 million is raised for this new extension, h,mmmm.

Again, of course we have been told the stolen Gardner artworks were not insured, h.mmmm ??????

The cost of the new extension is reputed to be around $118 million, h,mmmm, $62 million left in the pot, h,mmm.

Could the existing reward offer of $5 million for the recovery of ALL the stolen Gardner art "in good condition" be diverted from the left over $62 million to an escrow account and that news made public to tempt those who may hold the stolen Gardner art to come forward to collect the $5 million ?????

In light of the fact the $5 million reward offer was made all the way back in 1997 and the value of the stolen Gardner artworks have increased two three fold, increase the reward offer to $10 million and put it in an escrow account to show a sign of good faith and the willingness of the Gardner Museum to appear sincere ??????????? Would still leave $52 million in the pot.

In support of the doubling of the reward to $10 million and putting that into an escrow account, Could the FBI and Assistant DA Brian Kelly issue a complete immunity for those who recover the stolen Gardner Art and just focus on recovering the iconic Vermeer The Concert, Rembrandt's Storm On The Sea etc ???????

This would lead to the certain recovery of the Stolen Gardner Art and confirm the art is all that matters, as the public has been told numerous times by both Law Enforcement and the Gardner Museum.

Upon another note the Tapestry Room looks wonderful and bears testament to the legacy of Isabella Stewart Gardner.

However, the New Wing looks like "a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend" to quote Prince Charles.

Stolen Art Watch, Dr No Hans Heinrich "Heini" Thyssen-Bornemisz’s Collection Returns Stolen Art, Sadly Not Gardner Art

Hans Heinrich "Heini" Thyssen-Bornemisz’s Stolen & Looted Art Collection

http://universe.byu.edu/index.php/2012/01/10/police-beat-9/

Jan. 5 – Somewhere between 1970-1985, a piece of art valued at $218,000 was stolen from BYU campus. After being stolen the “Silver Chalice” was sold between a number of different art dealers before finally landing in Switzerland with Count Thyssen-Bornemisz’s collection. BYU negotiated with Thyssen-Bornemisz’s estate and the piece of art was returned to BYU.

Art Hostage Comments:

Alex Boyle, in an exclusive Art Hostage interview last summer, makes the connection between the Gardner Art Heist and the end destination for some of the elusive Gardner art being the Hans Heinrich "Heini" Thyssen-Bornemisz’s Stolen & Looted Art Collection:

http://stolenvermeer.blogspot.com/2011/07/stolen-art-watch-gardner-art-heist-alex.html

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art, The Man Who Can, Patrick Nee

The Man Who Can Recover Some Gardner Art






Art Hostage Comments:

Give this man, Patrick Nee, blanket immunity from prosecution and a cast iron guarantee he will not have to testify against or reveal any sources, then the Gardner Art will surely be on its way home.

The small matter of the reward offer can be resolved by placing the $5 million in an Escrow account to show good faith and once the Gardner art is recovered then the payout is made.

Patrick Nee was not involved in the actual Gardner Art Heist or subsequent handling of the Gardner art, an honest broker who commands respect right across both the criminal and Law Enforcement Underworld.

Stolen Art Watch, FBI Agent Geoff Kelly Reveals, Gardner Case, Not An Inch, No Deals, No Reward,

Kelly's Heroes

DUXBURY —

The Duxbury Free Library begins the New Year with an old unsolved crime. At 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, the Sunday Salon Series will present FBI Special Agent Geoff Kelly, who will discuss the infamous art heist from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In March of 1990, 13 priceless works, including art by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Degas, were stolen from the museum. Twenty-two years later the art has not surfaced. Agent Kelly will share information about the heist and appeal to the public for information.

“The theft captured the public’s imagination because it was daring,” Kelly said. “But in the end, it’s still a theft, and the criminals need to be held accountable.”

To reserve your ticket, call the library now, at 781-934-2721, ext. 108.

Read more: Sunday Salon Series - Duxbury, MA - Wicked Local Duxbury http://www.wickedlocal.com/duxbury/fun/entertainment/arts/x1282423687/Sunday-Salon-Series#ixzz1hkTsOzP5

Art Hostage Comments:
Finally, Geoff Kelly reveals how the FBI want those who have information about the Gardner heist and subsequent handling of the art "held accountable"

Meaning, anyone who can provide information about the whereabouts of the Gardner art must be forthcoming and provide everything they know abut those who handle the Gardner art and also, vitally, must be prepared to testify to that extent to a Grand Jury and Trial jury.

Furthermore they will loose their fifth amendment rights and have the FBI comb all over their life so to check if there is any criminality lurking in the background that could be used against them at a further date.

Turning to the alleged reward offer of $5 million for the recovery of ALL the Gardner art IN GOOD CONDITION.

The offer speaks for itself, "all the Gardner art in good condition" subjective at best, dishonest at worse. We all know the Gardner art was ripped from their frames therefore some damage occurred at the time of the theft, let alone the intervening years being stored within the depths of the Underworld. A get-out clause for the Gardner Museum.

Notice anytime the reward offer is made in public the words "all of the Gardner art in good condition" are stated very clearly !!

Another consideration for anyone with information about the Gardner art whereabouts, there is no way on earth the Gardner Museum would pay one single dime without express approval of the FBI and the FBI will never approve any payment for the Gardner art without bodies, arrests and convictions.

Truth is the same as back in 1990, the Gardner art is stolen property and anyone with information is required to reveal all or face charges of withholding information and obstructing justice.

Any reward is subject to the discretion of the Gardner Museum and is non-negotiable.

Upon another note, it is alleged Whitey Bulger and Mark Rossetti have been offering their own insight into the Gardner case and this had led to the raiding of Anthony "Chucky" Carlo, plus ongoing inquiry's.

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Heist, Flip The Investigation To Recover The Art

"Frank and Jamie", installation/sculpture, 2002, by Maurizio Cattelan.

A new icon of subversion.
This sculpture is both an inverted image of power and a statement about the seduction of authority.

Over 20 years later, still pained by void where work of art should hang

http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/letters/2011/12/21/over-years-later-still-pained-void-where-work-art-should-hang/oxAmnZScTq5S3O795z90YP/story.html

TO THOSE who have the painting:

March 18, 1990, more than 20 years ago, my heart cried out: “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’’ had been stolen along with a number of other valuable pieces of art. Twenty years later, my heart still cries out.

I had been fortunate. I had gazed upon the painting and pondered its meaning. Rembrandt urges us to consider taking a stormy sail with the apostles and Christ upon the sea of life. Rembrandt himself, who is believed to have depicted his image gazing out to us from the ship, invites us on board. The artist represents us, humanity with Christ.

After the heist, when I visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, I saw the blank spot and cried. My son and daughter, having never seen the painting, will never be blessed with the experience that only the original can provide. Countless others are being deprived of Rembrandt’s wish to inspire us.

Twenty years. It has been long enough. To those who have the painting, I say: Be good and return the piece; the world needs it. You will be forgiven; it is Christmastime. No questions asked. You have had this artwork long enough. Just send it.

P. Nelson

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

The Honorable Charles Vincent Sabba Reflects On The Gardner Art Heist Recovery Process

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Gardner Bullets I: An Introduction

"Killer Bee"; 2006; 45 Cal target round, acrylic paint and fabric wings; by Charles Sabba.

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Gardner Bullets II: Concealing and Receiving

It is a ten-year felony to conceal or receive any of the stolen Gardner Museum artworks:

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum door that the thieves entered on Palace Road on 18 March 1990.

United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Carmen M. Ortiz.

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Gardner Bullets III: Is an offer of immunity on the table?

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Portrait of a stool Pigeon; oil on canvas; by Charles Sabba.

http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Check out "The Wire" over on "Your Brush With The Law" for the Charles Vincent Sabba Art Crime lectures, news, interviews and video's relating to art crime and the Gardner Art Heist:
http://www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com/intro.htm

Stolen Art Watch, Gardner Art Stranded In FBI/Underworld Struggle

From the mouths of criminals

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12/06/from-mouths-criminals/XXLZxi5mBwnS3G41LK4UCO/story.html

The FBI’s cynical embrace of Mark Rossetti, a reputed killer and Mafia leader used as an informant, is reminiscent of the Whitey Bulger scandal, in which the nation’s premier law enforcement agency let a gangster eliminate his competition while he whispered sweet nothings in its ear.

But if a former Wakefield man sitting in a prison in Florida is telling the truth, the Rossetti case could be history repeating itself in a different way when it comes to putting people on ice to keep a sordid FBI deal from becoming public. From his prison cell, Michael Romano says he is preparing to sue the FBI and the Justice Department for framing him in an elaborate scheme to protect informant Rossetti. Romano says the FBI’s determination to protect Rossetti not only landed him in prison, but it also got his son and namesake, Michael Romano Jr., killed in 1994. It is an outlandish tale. And maybe the most outlandish part is that some or all of it could be true.

Mike Romano is no choirboy. And he admits he was trying to find out who killed his son, Mikey. He says that just when he was getting close to figuring out who did it, the FBI and Justice Department swooped in to take him and a faction opposed to then-Mafia boss Frank Salemme off the street. Romano says, and many in law enforcement agree, that Mark Rossetti was aligned with the Salemme group, which Romano believes was responsible for his son’s death. The FBI let Rossetti and his associates shoot and kill with impunity, Romano contends. “All we did was try to protect ourselves,’’ Romano said.

But the government says Romano was part of a crew that went gunning for the Salemme crowd. That crowd would have included Rossetti, the FBI’s prized snitch. Facing charges that could have landed him in prison for the rest of his life, Romano pleaded guilty in 1999 to charges that included plotting to kill Salemme. He is scheduled to be released in 2016.

The FBI did not respond yesterday to Romano’s statements.

Romano says a key witness against him - now retired FBI agent Michael Buckley, who was Rossetti’s handler - was acting to protect Rossetti, not the public interest, when the government accused Romano of offering $15,000 to anyone who took out Salemme. “This is the Teddy Deegan case all over again,’’ said Romano. That case cost taxpayers more than $100 million, paid to four men, two of them senior members of the Mafia, who served more than 30 years in prison after the FBI framed them for the murder of smalltime hoodlum Teddy Deegan. Those men were framed to protect an FBI informant. Romano says he is going to ask for $50 million.

Now, some people will ask, why believe a convicted criminal sitting in prison who has an ax to grind against those who put him there? That’s a fair question. But the true extent of the Bulger scandal was not exposed until career criminals and killers started talking: Stevie Flemmi, Kevin Weeks, John Martorano. They literally knew where the bodies were buried.

The only way we figure out the truth is to bring Mike Romano’s charges into the light. So far, there has been nothing from the FBI or Justice Department explaining why Rossetti was maintained as an informant for decades until the Massachusetts State Police arrested him last year or why an FBI supervisor lied when asked by State Police if Rossetti was their informant.

US Representative Stephen Lynch recently met with the FBI along with staff from the offices of Representatives Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings, the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. The FBI said it was conducting an internal inquiry and promised a follow-up meeting. If prosecutors won’t hear Mike Romano out, there are congressional investigators who are willing to listen.

Stolen Art Watch, French Art Heist Trial

3:30 After a deliberate, the court went below the requisitions of the Advocate General (3 to 15 years in prison)

The five men who recognized the flight in August 2007 four old master paintings
the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice were sentenced by the Assize Court
Bouches-du-Rhône to terms ranging from two to nine years in prison.

Video

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  Aix: Trial tables: 3 to 15 years required

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  Aix: 2nd day trial stolen paintings

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  Aix: first day Trial stolen paintings

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  Aix: Trial of master paintings stolen from Nice

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Fifth and final day of trial verdict: Two to nine years in prison:

The five men who recognized the flight in August 2007 four old master paintings
the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice were sentenced by the Assize Court
Bouches-du-Rhône to terms ranging from two to nine years in prison.
3:30 After a deliberate, the court, presided by Jean-Luc Tournier, went below the requisitions of the General Counsel, Marc taste, which had required three to fifteen years in prison.

Pierre-Noël Dumarais, 64, described as the organizer of the operation, was sentenced to the maximum sentence.
His "co-pilot", 59, Patrick Chelelekian, was given a sentence of eight years imprisonment. He is alleged to have triggered the case by order status of tables by U.S. buyers, which he had heard from an acquaintance, Bernard Ternus, currently detained in Miami.
Their accomplices, who appeared free, were sentenced to four years in prison for Lionel Ritter, described as "the perfect henchman" to three years to Patrice Lhomme, "at the forefront of the negotiations," according to the General Counsel , and two years for Moullec Gregory, the only one not to return to detention.

Monday to trial for armed robbery by organized gangs and criminal conspiracy, the defendants acknowledged at the hearing, having stolen Sunday, Aug. 5, 2007 1:02 p.m. to Bruegel, a Monet and a Sisley Jules Cheret museum, while denying being armed, unlike the testimony of employees.

Fourth day of the trial: 3 to 15 years in prison required:

Sentences ranging from three to fifteen years in prison were required.

Against Pierre-Noël Dumarais, 64, the man who organized the operation, the General Counsel Marc Gouton demanded the maximum sentence.
Against his "co-pilot", 59, Patrick Chelelekian he asked twelve years in prison, accusing him of having caused the case reports of unecommande of paintings by American buyers, which he had heard from an acquaintance, Bernard Ternus, currently detained in Miami.

Three to eight years in prison were required against their accomplices: Patrice Lhomme, "at the forefront of the negotiations," Ritter Lionel, described as "the perfect henchman", and Gregory Moullec, "the last wheel of the coach ".

Third day of the trial: a hunt worthy of Hollywood:
Undercover agents, FBI, fake drug traffickers, go on a yacht in Miami with girls in bikinis ... Investigators have released all the stops to track down and bring down the perpetrators of the theft of paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice August 5, 2007, according to their story sitting at Aix.
If the French police had been on the trail of a conspiracy is an FBI intelligence that has truly advance the investigations beginning in January 2008.
"A thief offered them four tables that could correspond to the tables Chéret Museum" at the bar tells Lt. Catherine yellowish at the time the group leader at the Central Office for fight against trafficking in cultural property (OCBC) who coordinated the investigation.
The contact was established by the American agent Robert Wittman ("Bob") as part of an operation to recover stolen works of Gardner Museum in Boston in March 1990, including a Vermeer and Rembrandt.
To set the terms of the transaction, appointment is made ​​in Barcelona in January 2008 between the robbers and false buyers, namely "Bob" and agents of Miami playing the role of Colombian narco-traffickers.
"We go to a luxury hotel, we rented a suite, I met Bob, who was accompanied by the Colombians, two in the face sinister, like Scarface," he told one of the accused, Patrick Chelelekian.
"They put me in front of the air, I later learned that a camera was hidden there," he said, before launching: "Every day, I'm working, it is indigestible, j can 't understand how I could be led by the nose from beginning to end. "
From this date, "all picked up," says Ms. Yellowish. One of the accomplices Chelelekian, Patrice Lhomme, hand in Miami in April of that year to meet again the false buyers.

An interview on a yacht with girls in bikinis, "which raises many fantasies," joked the president of the court, Jean-Luc Tournier, in reference to the Hollywood version of the case book that Robert Wittman in "Priceless" ( published in April 2011 Sonatine Editions).
Faced with criminals "extremely cautious" - "they made ​​several rounds of the roundabout to be sure of not being followed, stopped at an intersection unexpectedly, gave themselves go to the parking" - the OCBC is "a French request for infiltration."
This engages the agent "Bernie" who, posing as the Swiss financial Colombians, sets the decisive meeting of 4 June 2008 on the Corniche in Marseille
where the protagonists will be stopped and retrieved the file Bruegel, Monet and Sisley stolen in Nice.
Marc Ferrarone, Deputy Service interdepartmental technical assistance (SIAT) authorized to make such missions, took up the side "extremely professional" of the accused, far from the image of non-violent fans they are trying to return from the start of the trial.
Asked about the presence on it of a grenade and a gun the day of his arrest, Pierre-Noël Dumarais, presented as the gang leader, was justified: "I 'd go with narco- Colombian traffickers, they do not have a reputation for being soft! The pomegranate is a deterrent, little atomic bomb to me. "

Second day of the trial: Safety of the Museum of Fine Arts in question:
An investigator has expressed his surprise to the faults of the security of the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice. "It was fairly surprised by the lack of supervision", or alarm or camera inside, "and the limited number of staff" for a museum of this size, said at the helm Daniel Schuler, Police Commander the CSI of Nice, in charge of the spot investigation.
"The paintings were hung on the wall in a rudimentary way," he added, noting "a mismatch between the means employed and the value of the tables".

In this museum located in the hills above Nice, it took less than five minutes to robbers to steal, August 5, 2007, two oil on canvas signed Jan Bruegel, "Allegory of Water" and "Allegory of Earth" properties in the city of Nice, and two works from the Musée d'Orsay, "Cliffs near Dieppe" by Claude Monet and "Alley of Poplars at Moret" by Alfred Sisley.
"Surprisingly," the policeman, the last two paintings were not subject to any scrutiny, as they had been stolen in September 1998, in the same premises. To these facts, the then Conservative had been sentenced.
That having heard of this case that Pierre-Noël Dumarais, the organizer of the operation, had set his sights on the tables in particular.

For employees, the investigations revealed a dilettante atmosphere: one of the guards "smoked the carpet" in the words of an accused knowledgeable, and "was accustomed to be delivered personal consumption at the Museum" another had called in sick for "spending the day at pool."
"The staff was not very successful," summarized the President of the Assize Court, Jean-Luc Tournier.

For Me Adrien Verrier, lawyer for the city of Nice has a civil party, "the museum met the safety standards in force", even if the device "has been considerably improved since."
Trial for armed robbery by organized gangs and criminal conspiracy, the five defendants are liable to 30 years in prison to life imprisonment.

First day of the trial: Defendants say they have been manipulated by the FBI:

The authors of the theft of four paintings by the master at the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice in August 2007, held the first day of their trial in Aix-en-Provence, to return the image of non-violent criminals, fallen into a trap the FBI.

Behind the glass of the dock, Pierre-Noël Dumarais, 64, organizer of the operation, immediately sought to minimize his criminal record, heavy eight convictions between 1971 and 1994. "He has 20 years, the criminal, it is almost obsolete,"
smiled the sixties, called "The Nice", groomed and graying hair.
"Opportunistic, but quite right, respectful of human life," he says of himself, when the President of the Assize Court of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Jean-Luc Tournier, asks him to describe.
"That's why I wanted to prepare myself theft of Nice, to avoid collateral damage," said he. Like his accomplices, he denies being armed, despite statements by Jules Cheret museum staff.
"The Nice", holds a degree in law obtained in custody, has not worked in his life (just over one year), preferring to "pick up the tickets in the trees," but "without violence and without a weapon" , he insists, seemingly forgotten in passing the robbery of a bank.
"I was so little armed the bank was not a civil party," he replies to the president, "have a weapon, it is not necessarily use it."
And conclude with aplomb: "I would not be here if I had not been spurred on by the FBI to steal the paintings" in the Sunday, August 5: Two Bruegel, a Monet and Sisley, estimated at 20 million euros.
A view shared by his partner, Patrick Chelelekian, also called "The Armenian" met "on golf ball and Sanary Bandol" (Var).
Time hairdresser for women, then manager of a hotel near Paris, this 59 year old man, imprisoned in Toulon, had been involved before the fact in cases involving narcotics. Former "cocaine addict", he describes himself as "non violent" with "horror of blood and brutality," and said "sorry for being caught up" in this venture, says investigator personality.

To his lawyer, Lionel Moroni, "the flight was caused inadvertently by the FBI" which launched the bids to try to recover stolen works of Gardner Museum in Boston in March 1990, including a Vermeer and Rembrandt.
At the heart of the matter, the famous American agent Robert Wittman, specializing in the trafficking of art, which delivers a fictionalized account of the case in "Priceless" (published in April 2011 Sonatine Editions), a pad of 400 pages who exposed himself Monday on tables in the courtroom. He was summoned by Mr. Moroni, but is unlikely to be heard.
Another notable absentee, the man who put him in touch with the French criminals FBI undercover agent to monetize the tables: Bernard Ternus, from Bandol and based in Miami since 2007.
It was during the final transaction, the five thieves will be arrested and works recovered, 4 June 2008 in Marseille and its region, shortly before the arrest of Ternus Florida.
Sentenced in September 2008 in the United States five years and two months in prison for his participation in the negotiation, it is held in Miami. Prosecuted for complicity in the theft and criminal conspiracy, it is not present at trial, his case is the subject of an order of severance.

The three other defendants, Patrice Lhomme, 46, Moullec Gregory, 41, and Lionel Ritter, 39, who appear free, are presented as "simple handlers."

Background:

Behind the glass of the dock, Pierre-Noël Dumarais, 64, and Patrick Chelelekian, 59, presented as the organizers of the operation. Their accomplices, Patrice Lhomme, 46, Moullec Gregory, 41, and Lionel Ritter, 39, appear free.

On Sunday, August 5, to 13 hours, the five men come to the museum entrance Jules Cheret, neutralize the guards and go with four priceless paintings: two oil on wood signed Jan Bruegel, Bruegel says "Velvet "(1568-1625)," Allegory of Water "and" Allegory of Earth ", property of the city of Nice, and two paintings from the Musée d'Orsay," Cliffs near Dieppe "by Claude Monet ( 1840-1926), and "Avenue of Poplars at Moret" by Alfred Sisley (1839-1899).
In all, the operation of the robbers, carried with ease, is complete in five minutes.

At the beginning of the case, sixth man, Bernard Ternus, from Bandol (Var) and moved to Miami since 2007. It was he who reported that U.S. buyers were interested in old master paintings.
In fact, it was the FBI - including the famous agent Robert Wittman to book an account of the affair in "Priceless" (published in April 2011 Sonatine Editions) - and trying to recover stolen works to the museum Gardner Boston in March 1990, including a Vermeer and Rembrandt.

Once the paintings stolen from Nice, Ternus intervenes to sell at a price of three million euros. It was during the final transaction that his accomplices were arrested and recovered the paintings, 4 June 2008 in Marseille and its region. Ternus was arrested in the wake of Florida.
Sentenced in September 2008 in the United States five years and two months in prison for his participation in the negotiation, he is currently detained at the prison in Miami and is not present in Aix-en-Provence.

Prosecuted for complicity in the theft and criminal conspiracy, his case is subject to an order of severance.
Verdict expected Friday.