Stolen Art Watch, FBI Sting Recovers Stolen Paintings Taken, France, August 2007 !!

French police recover four priceless works nabbed in 2007
3 days ago

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) — Two Bruegels, a Sisley and a Monet snatched from a French Riviera museum last year have been recovered and several people detained, French judicial sources said Wednesday.

The sources said the paintings had been found in Marseille and around 10 people detained.

The four priceless works were robbed in a brazen afternoon heist in Nice last August by a group of men who entered the Beaux-Arts Jules Cheret museum on a Sunday afternoon, when entry was free for the public.

The oil paintings include "Falaises pres de Dieppe," (Cliffs near Dieppe) painted by Monet in 1897 and Sisley's "Allee de peupliers de Moret" (The lane of poplars at Moret) dating back to 1980.

The two stolen works of Jan Breugel, a Flemish Baroque era painter who lived between 1568 and 1625, were "Allegorie de l'eau" (Allegory of Water) and "Allegorie de la terre" (Allegory of Earth).

Art Hostage comments:

So, anyway, a few months ago the FBI got a call about an American making a play for the stolen four priceless paintings taken in an armed raid in the South of France last August.

Not ones to allow the grass to grow beneath them, the FBI Art Crime Team pass this information to Paris and the sting commences. True value is many millions, not the low estimate advertised. $10-$20 million.

Now, the American buyer is waiting in Florida, his representative has arranged for a viewing of the painting's and wham, bam, thank-you Mam, the French police move in and recover the paintings, whilst at the same time arrests are made elsewhere and another notch is carved on the FBI Art Crime Team bedpost. Which part did Bob Wittman play, tell you later...

Now, those who try and sell stolen artworks via the underworld are fair game, those who desire the return of stolen art should be allowed to do so in a "Fetch and collect" manner.

I mean, the stolen artworks that are going to be returned should be placed in a safe location, untraceable, and the authorities should be informed of the location, then fetch and collect.

Any agreement made before the recovery should be addressed post-fetch and collect.

Art Hostage will say again, "A Catholic Church Confession box is just the place, untraceable, for the stolen Gardner Art to be placed for a "Fetch and Collect"

The olive branch was chosen by God to give Noah the news of the end of the flood. Since then it has been considered a symbol of absolution, therefore the placing of the stolen Gardner art in a Catholic Church Confession box will signal the end of the nightmare for the Gardner Museum and art lovers around the world.

The Symbolism of Absolution will be an attractive proposition for some !!

To be continued............................