Vermeer Given Back Behind the Scenes !!

President Bush gives Bertie Ahern the Shamrock and asks, "Where's the Vermeer, already"

US cash could underpin devolution

It is hoped American money will underpin any new NI power-sharing administration, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has told the BBC.
His comments came as Northern Ireland's politicians met George Bush at the official St Patrick's Day celebrations at the White House.

Irish PM Bertie Ahern presented a bowl of shamrock to the US President.

The president paid tribute to the leadership of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and said he stood ready to help.


Mr Ahern said the Northern Ireland political process was now at the point of completion.


"Mr President, I believe we are closer, than at any time in our past in Ireland, to a resolution to one of the oldest conflicts in history," said Mr Ahern.

"I hope that our journey can give inspiration and hope to other parts of the world that are in conflict and where people are suffering and in despair."

Mr Ahern briefed President Bush about the prospects for devolution.

Most party leaders have opted to stay at home to concentrate on negotiations around power-sharing.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain warned Democratic Unionists who thought they could "sneak by" the 26 March deadline for establishing power-sharing would find they had made the "biggest political mistake of their lives" if it is not met,

"My concern, having listened to some of the chatter and speculation is that some of those people who are saying they can't make March 26 - but they might be able to make May or October, or next year or the following year - are going to wake up on March 27 and find they have made the most catastrophic mistake of their political lives."




'Mood of optimisim'



The plight of victims and concerns about collusion have taken centre stage in Washington.

Raymond McCord, whose son's murder was the subject of a Police Ombudsman's report into collusion, was present.

He is asking the American administration to press the British government over his son's murder and the protection afforded by some special branch officers to loyalist informants involved in murder and other serious crime.

Mr McCord was part of a cross-community delegation led by Relatives for Justice.

Meanwhile, John Finucane, the son of the murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, has told the BBC that he and his mother were introduced to the US President at the White House.

Mr Finucane, along with his mother Geraldine, was introduced to George Bush by Bertie Ahern.

It is understood the meeting followed diplomatic lobbying behind the scenes.

Mr Finucane said the meeting was brief, but beneficial as it followed Thursday night's Senate resolution demanding an independent inquiry into the Finucane murder.

The McCartney sisters, Pauline and Catherine, were also at the White House seeking justice for their brother Robert.



Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's only Green Party assembly member, Brian Wilson, turned down an invite to the event.

In a statement the party said a two-way trip across the Atlantic to for the event was "not a compelling reason, morally or practically, for emitting half a tonne of CO2".

Business leaders in Northern Ireland have said they believe an economic package of more than £5bn is needed to kick-start and transform the local economy.

The Northern Ireland Business Alliance said the money must be part of any political settlement because a peace process which does not improve the economic lot of people may not be sustainable.

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Art Hostage comments:

Every single piece of the jigsaw has been put in place by Art Hostage over the last year.

General Thomas Slab Murphy has gained control of the Vermeer and has been willing to exchange it for the Sectarian Tax demand of the Murphy family to be withdrawn.

Sinn Fein have fulfilled all their political obligations and now stand ready to assume power alongside the DUP/UDA.

Such is the need for U.S. money as investment in the new peaceful Northern part of Ireland, any request from FBI Agent Robert Wittman for the return of the Vermeer will be met forthwith by the Republican movement.

Publicly the deal can be spun as "Pork on US. investment" in Northern Ireland, giving cover to the withdrawal of the Sectarian Tax demand of the Murphy family.

Never has the window of opportunity for recovering the Vermeer been open as wide.

Anything less than the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum issuing a press release stating the Vermeer has been recovered is a travesty, and the missing of a political opportunity and must be viewed as negligence by all concerned in authority.

Art Hostage has learnt that it has been Irish Authorities who have been stalling the Vermeer deal but inclusion of Irish illegals in America into a guest worker program has smoothed the way.

If the Vermeer has not already been recovered then it is imminent.

With regards other artworks stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, they will surface in the coming months on American soil where they sit in the Hollywood museum of the missing.

World Breaking, Earth Shattering News, Hollywood Mogul Named as Real Life Dr No !!

2007 A Long Hot Sumner (Redstone) in L.A.

Art Hostage has been told, from an inside source, who works in a middle executive position in Hollywood, and who's boss has seen the Redstone stolen art collection,on condition of anonymity, that the real life Dr No in Hollywood is none other than the incorrigible Hollywood media mogul Sumner Redstone.

Sumner Redstone has a secret room/bunker at his mansion that is crammed full of high value stolen art, including some of the art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston March 18Th 1990.

At private dinners Sumner Redstone takes his privileged AAA list guests on a tour of some of the worlds most wanted stolen art.

This private tour of the Museum of the Missing is a recognition of being on the AAA list of Hollywood Power Players and has been kept a secret for many years.

Recently a sinister turn of events has befallen Sumner Redstone regarding his dispute with Tom Cruise.

The Tom Cruise people have threatened to expose Sumner Redstone as the real Dr No and drop a dime to the Feds in the process.

How Sumner Redstone will react is open to question, will he make peace with Tom Cruise and take Tom Cruise back under his wing and steer Tom Cruise on the path towards being another Steven Spielberg type Hollywood AAA list Power Player?

Why make this public, well perhaps Sumner Redstone may decide to unload the Gardner art he has and allow these artworks to surface anonymously.

Are the FBI aware of these allegations, yes sir,they do now care of Art Hostage, so, Sumner do the right thing and give back the Gardner art, anonymously will do.

An interesting explanation for why Sumner Redstone has this passion for collecting high value stolen artworks is the fact he is suffering from Stendhal Syndrome, making the stolen art his drug of choice.

Seems this has spread to Steven Spielberg, although I am sure Mr Speiberg Will want to swap the Russian Schoolroom for another Rockwell with his dealer, who will be only to willing, if she wants to keep business contacts with Hollywood.

Once the inevitable lawsuits are sorted out I am sure then Mr Spielberg will step in an re-buy Russian Schoolroom, this time with legal title.

It is not about money it is about possessing unique artworks and obtaining legal title later.

Jean Marie Messier,left, former head at Vivendi, has possession of the stolen Flinck painting, below, from the Gardner Museum, one Sumner Redstone could do without.
Will Art Hostage be vilified or vindicated?

Sometimes real life is stranger then fiction.

Vermeer's "The Concert" still remains under the control of General Thomas Slab Murphy South Armagh Ireland until his tax bill is withdrawn.

See no Evil, Speak no Evil, and Hear no Evil, Money does'nt Talk, it Sings for these Raiders of the Lost, Stolen Art !!

Russian Schoolroom by Norman Rockwell, a quick google shows this to be stolen !!

Lucas, Spielberg, set fourth 'Indy' film, a case of a few Home Truths !!

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1 Producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg have confirmed they will start filming in 2007 on a fourth Indiana Jones movie for release in May 2008. Lucas and Spielberg Monday confirmed details of the production after Lucas mentioned it to reporters as he prepared to serve as grand marshal at the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., The Hollywood Reporter said.


The release date follows by 19 years the release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the third movie starring Harrison Ford as the academic-action hero. The new movie has been in development for at least four years, as Lucas, Spielberg and Ford have tried on several screenplays for size. They finally have one -- by Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds screenwriter David Koepp -- and Spielberg told The Reporter he thinks it ' s a good one. George, Harrison and I are all very excited, Spielberg said. We feel that the script was well worth the wait. We hope it delivers everything you'd expect from our history with Indiana Jones.Spielberg, who has been developing other projects, said the new Indiana Jones picture will be his next directing gig.


Art Hostage comments:

Both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are avid collectors of Norman Rockwell paintings, Mr Spielberg helping to set up the Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

So, we can deduce that these two guys are world class authorities on Norman Rockwell.

Taking this into account, Art Hostage firmly believes the title of the latest Indiana Jones movie should be:

"Indiana Jones and the Stolen Spielberg Rockwell"

Has a truthful ring to it, perhaps to close to reality?

Mr Spielberg checking his inventry for purloined works of art


FBI Agent reviewing the pursuit of "Russian Schoolroom" by Norman Rockwell

If George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are the elusive stolen art collectors called Dr No and Dr Yes, which is which??????

Steven Spielberg stung by Stolen Rockwell in his Art Collection !!

ET informs Steven Spielberg that he has a a stolen artwork in his collection, shame its not the Vermeer !!

Stolen painting found in Spielberg's collection

The director, a major collector of works by Rockwell, contacts the FBI. An agent calls the movie mogul an 'unknowing victim.'

By Greg Krikorian and Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writers
March 3, 2007


A Norman Rockwell painting stolen from a Missouri gallery 34 years ago was recovered and authenticated Friday in the collection of movie mogul Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg's spokesman, Marvin Levy, said the director's staff contacted the FBI several weeks ago after seeing a bulletin from the agency's Art Crime Team seeking clues about the theft of the "Russian Schoolroom" oil painting.

"The second anybody said, 'I think we have that painting,' [our] office got a hold of the FBI," Levy said.

Special Agent Chris Calarco of the FBI's Art Crime Team and Jessica Todd Smith, curator of American art for the Huntington Library, inspected the painting Friday afternoon at Spielberg's offices on the Universal Studios lot. The filmmaker was not present.

"He's an absolutely unknowing victim in this," Calarco said of Spielberg.

Calarco declined to speculate on the painting's value, but two sources close to the investigation said it is worth between $700,000 and $1 million.

The painting, depicting schoolchildren in a classroom looking at a bust of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, was stolen during an exhibit at a small art gallery in Clayton, Mo., in June 1973.

According to the FBI, its whereabouts were unknown until 1988, when it was sold at an auction in New Orleans for about $70,000.

Spielberg bought the painting from an art dealer in 1989 for an undisclosed sum, Calarco said.

The director is a high-profile Rockwell collector who helped found the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.

As of last fall, he was listed as the museum's third vice president and a member of its board of trustees.

"He's certainly one of the collectors of Rockwell," said Levy, who wasn't sure how many Rockwell paintings Spielberg owns or where he kept "Russian Schoolroom." "We have a few in our office on the Universal lot."

The probe into the original theft lay dormant until 2004, when art crime investigators determined that the painting had been advertised for sale at a Norman Rockwell exhibit in New York in 1989.

Agents in the New York and Los Angeles field offices began putting out bulletins in art circles and tracking down known Rockwell collectors.

"We were basically just about to figure it out when the Spielberg people made the connection," Calarco said.

Linda Pero, curator of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., said: "I think it's really wonderful."

The FBI made the Spielberg link public late Friday, after an earlier notice — published in today's Calendar section — that the painting may have been found.

For now, the painting will remain in Spielberg's possession.

"I just advised them to hold on to it. It's safe there," Calarco said.

Stolen in St. Louis in ‘73. Found today — on Steven Spielberg’s wall

By Kristen Hinman Published: February 28, 2007

Academy Award-winning director and producer Steven Spielberg has turned over to federal authorities Russian Schoolroom, a 1967 oil on canvas by Norman Rockwell that was filched from a Clayton art gallery in 1973, according to the FBI.

No charges have been filed in the case, and federal officials say they have no evidence that Spielberg knew the painting had been stolen when he purchased it in 1989.

“It appears that he is an innocent buyer,” says St. Louis-based FBI agent Frank Brostrom, a member of the agency’s Art Crime Team, who initiated the investigation. Spielberg is an avid Rockwell collector who helped fund the construction in 1993 of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and who joined its board of directors this past September.

According to a December 3 article in the Washington Post, Rockwells from Spielberg’s collection adorn numerous rooms in his office compound at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

The director of Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, among other celebrated films, did not return a phone call from Riverfront Times requesting comment.

Despite its recovery, many details of Russian Schoolroom’s journey from a St. Louis suburb to Spielberg’s collection remain a mystery.

The painting was stolen on the night of June 25, 1973, from a Rockwell exhibit at the Circle Art Galleries in Clayton, by a thief or thieves who smashed through the gallery window and left every other work untouched.

For the next fifteen years, the artwork went underground. According to the FBI, the painting resurfaced in New Orleans in October 1988 at the Louisiana Purchase Auction at Morton Goldberg Auction and Gallery, which has since closed.

The FBI says the painting appeared on the market again in the summer of 1989, when Judy Goffman Cutler, an art dealer on New York’s Upper East Side, put the piece up for sale. Cutler is also the founder of the National Museum of American Illustration, located in Newport, Rhode Island, which owns many of Rockwell’s works.

At least two people, including Mary Ellen Shortland, the manager of the Circle Art Galleries at the time of the theft, saw Cutler’s advertisements for the painting and attempted to get police to relaunch an investigation, but to no avail.

“For whatever reason,” FBI agent Brostrom says, “authorities at that time were unable to locate the original police report or confirm the painting had ever been stolen.”

What led Brostrom to reopen the cold case fifteen years later, in 2004, the agent says, was a message from “a friendly source in the community” who tipped him off to a 1989 Riverfront Times story about Shortland’s efforts.

That story, by longtime contributor Wm. Stage, recounts a conversation with Goffman Cutler, noting that the art dealer “doubted whether the Rockwell in her possession had likely been stolen.” Stage wrote that Goffman Cutler “had gotten it from someone who’d purchased it at auction,” and that “the stolen Rockwell was a different version of the one she had just sold — to an undisclosed person for an undisclosed sum.”

The FBI art crime team believes that “undisclosed person” to whom Goffman Cutler refers was Spielberg.

Brostrom says his “friendly source” indicated the “undisclosed sum” was $200,000.
Goffman Cutler did not return a phone call requesting comment for this story.
Jack Solomon, the former owner of Circle Art Galleries, was Rockwell’s dealer up until several years before the painter’s death in 1978, and was the owner of Russian Schoolroom when it was stolen. “She should have known better,” says Solomon, who now owns S2 Art Center, a Las Vegas gallery, in reference to Goffman Cutler. “She could have checked that — there’s been a record of this ever since the day it was stolen.”

The case broke open suddenly late last week, when the FBI received a call from a Spielberg representative. Someone in the director’s entourage had recently noticed a year-old alert on the FBI’s Web site describing the stolen painting.

The call from Spielberg’s representative came at about the same time that a New York-based member of the FBI Art Crime Team began querying dealers and galleries there in order to determine the most prominent collectors of Rockwells.

That group, according to Rockwell Museum curator Linda Pero, includes former presidential candidate Ross Perot and film director George Lucas, in addition to Spielberg.

An FBI agent in Los Angeles spent the past week negotiating the painting’s return.
“It’s not a typical Rockwell,” notes Solomon, the artwork’s former owner. “He did it when he traveled to Russia at the end of the Cold War. It’s beautiful. It has a lot of reds in it.”
Authorities expect a legal skirmish to ensue over title to the work. The FBI says Spielberg will retain possession until the matter is resolved.

Solomon hopes he’ll be declared the rightful owner. “I’m sure in two calls I could turn it over for X million dollars before the sun goes down,” he says.

Yes, Mr. Spielberg is a Rockwell collector who never bothered to Google the name of this painting, which would have told him within seconds it was stolen

Art Hostage comments:

OK, lets give Mr Spielberg the benefit of the doubt and regard this as a genuine mistake.

Perhaps then Mr Spielberg may consider joining the search for the stolen Vermeer from Boston, and then perhaps a screenplay and film about stolen art to follow?

All we ask is for a "Hand up, not handout"

Furthermore, I wonder if it may be a good idea for all art collectors in Hollywood to check their art collections in case they too have bought a stolen artwork by mistake.

It is an easy exercise, all one has to do is Google the title of the artwork and, hey presto, it will give an answer in seconds.

The fact this could have been done with the Norman Rockwell painting "Russian Schoolroom"anytime over the last few years should not be taken as complicit behaviour by Mr Spielberg, even though he is a prominent Norman Rockwell collector and connoisseur.

He is a very busy man you know and every second is precious.

Finally, the fact the the FBI were asking questions and in the process of obtaining a list of names of prominent Norman Rockwell collectors has nothing to do with the fact that a Spielberg employee spotted the "Russian Schoolroom" painting was publicly listed as stolen.

I am sure Mr Spielberg, who paid $200,000 for the painting in 1989 was not aware of it being stolen.

Pray God it's the Original !

Russian Schoolroom by Normon Rockwell

Painting Appears to Be Stolen Rockwell
By BETSY TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer

Friday, March 2, 2007

The FBI has recovered a painting that appears to be a Norman Rockwell work stolen from suburban St. Louis more than three decades ago.


Law enforcement officials believe the painting could be the original of Rockwell's "Russian Schoolroom," snatched during a late-night burglary at a gallery in Clayton, Mo., on June 25, 1973.


"We think we have located it. It has not been authenticated," said FBI spokesman Pete Krusing. He would not say how or where the painting was discovered, only that it was not in the St. Louis area. No one has been charged in the case, he said.


The oil-on-canvas painting shows children in a classroom with a bust of communist leader Vladimir Lenin.


The painting the FBI was after measured 16 inches-by-37 inches and was presented in a 2-foot by-4 foot frame of dull gold-white molding, according to the FBI's description of the missing work.


The curator of the Rockwell collections at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., Linda Pero, said, "I think it's really wonderful, if it's been found." She did have slightly different dimensions in a catalog of Rockwell's work, 15 1/4 inches-by 37 inches for the missing painting.


The painting was nabbed in a gallery heist and then resurfaced briefly in legitimate art forums before disappearing again.


Mary Ellen Shortland worked at the long-closed Clayton Art Gallery when the painting was stolen 34 years ago. She recalled Friday that the gallery was holding a Rockwell exhibit, mainly of lithographs, at the time. The gallery's parent company, Circle Fine Art in Chicago, arranged for the Rockwell original to be on hand to draw visitors to the show, she said.


Shortland said a Missouri client bought the painting for $25,000, but agreed to let it remain on display, as it had been advertised as part of the show. Just a few nights later, someone smashed the gallery's glass door and escaped with the painting.


"That was all they took. That's what they wanted, that painting," Shortland recalled.


The gallery refunded the client's money, and there was no sign of the work for years. Then in 1988, it was auctioned in New Orleans. "It sold for $70,400 and a 10 percent buyer's premium," Pero said.


Shortland recalled that she saw the painting again in an advertisement for a small New York gallery, since closed, about 15 years ago. She said she contacted Circle, but "Russian Schoolroom" was not recovered. Shortland, now the owner of Creative Art Gallery and Picture Framing, estimated that the painting could be worth "hundreds of thousands of dollars" today, if it is in excellent condition.


In 2004, the FBI's newly formed Art Crime Team initiated an investigation to recover the work.


Rockwell's work often resonates with people because much of it captures moments from everyday life, such as a boy watching his father shave, family members saying grace over a Thanksgiving turkey or a young girl having a dress fitting.


The artist died at age 84 in 1978. While "Russian Schoolroom" appeared in Look magazine, the artist is best known for the covers he did for The Saturday Evening Post. More than 300 Rockwell creations appeared on the cover of the publication.

Art Hostage comments:

Hope springs eternal, Vermeer by the 17th, when can we go public?

If this turns out to be the original Rockwell then praise must be heaped upon the Noble FBI Agent Robert "Billboard Bob"Wittman, Straight as a gun barrel, and the finest FBI Agent Harold Smith ever met.

If this painting is a copy, then Robert Wittman was certainly not involved at all.

And that's a memo !

I Don't Own This Painting. I Didn't Paint This Painting. I Am Just Sleeping With Another Picasso.

Gilles Bensimon

I Don't Own This Painting. I Didn't Paint This Painting. I Am Just Sleeping With Another Picasso.

By PIA CATTON
Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 2, 2007

The two stolen Picassos are practically stealing the Paris fashion week shows. The international creative director of Elle magazine, Gilles Bensimon, was sleeping at the home of his girlfriend, Diana Widmaier-Picasso, who is the artist's granddaughter, when the theft occurred Monday night.
Mr. Bensimon is in town to see the ready-to-wear collections and was staying at the Picasso residence in the 7th arrondissement, according to Women's Wear Daily.
As he entered the Celine show, Mr. Bensimon had to field more than one question about the theft. "Is it true?" a breathless show-goer asked him as he was about to take his front-row seat.
A tan, smiling Frenchman with white curly locks, Mr. Bensimon wasn't shy about answering more questions. "I don't own this painting. I didn't paint this painting. I am just sleeping with another Picasso," he told The New York Sun.
He did not hear anything during the break-in. "Diana woke me up," he said. Mr. Bensimon confirmed Ms. Widmaier-Picasso's lack of physical harm from the incident to WWD, but said he found the episode "frightening." "I'm just glad I was there," he told WWD while attending the Givenchy show.
Mr. Bensimon was previously married to Kelly Bensimon, a former model and a sometime editor at Elle Accessories. Their marriage ended in January 2006, after Mr. Bensimon was reportedly seen with Ms. Widmaier-Picasso, and Ms. Bensimon with various acquaintances. A previous marriage, to the model Elle Macpherson, ended in divorce in 1989.
Ms. Widmaier-Picasso is an art historian and the daughter of Maya Widmaier- Picasso — the daughter of Picasso and his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter — and Pierre Widmaier. The elder Ms. Widmaier-Picasso was also asleep in the apartment during the theft.
WWD also reported that the couple has relocated to a hotel.
The stolen paintings — "Maya With Doll" and "Portrait of the Woman Jacqueline" — were worth an estimated $66 million.

Paintings Worth $70m Stolen From Picasso's Granddaughter

The Master, Picasso ?

Pablo Picasso's "Maya with Doll," one of two paintings stolen from the Paris home of the artist's granddaughter.

Paintings Worth $70m+ Stolen From Picasso's Granddaughter

At least two paintings by Pablo Picasso have been stolen in Paris. Thieves broke into the home of his granddaughter on Monday night and made off with priceless works of art.

At least two paintings by Pablo Picasso have been stolen in Paris. French police announced Wednesday that the paintings were snatched from the home of the artist's granddaughter late on Monday night.

According to the authorities, thieves entered Diana Widmaier-Picasso's home in the smart seventh arrondissement of the French capital at some time between Monday night and Tuesday morning and made off with some very precious booty. Police say there was no obvious sign of a break-in.

The director of the Picasso Museum in Paris, Anne Baldassari, said that several paintings and drawings were stolen. "It was a very large theft," she told Associated Press.

However, the police have only confirmed the theft of two paintings: the small "Maya and the Doll" which depicts Picasso's daughter Maya -- Widmaier-Picasso's mother -- and a 170-by-150-centimeter portrait of Picasso's second wife Jacqueline.

The paintings are thought to be worth up to €50 million but the very fact that they are so well known would make it impossible to sell them on the international art market. Experts are now speculating that this could be a case of "theft to order." The case is being investigated by the police's organized crime division.

Paintings by Picasso, one of the most important artists of the twentieth century, normally fetch huge prices at auctions, and works by the Spanish artist appear three times on the list of the top ten most expensive paintings of all time. His most expensive painting to date has been "Boy With a Pipe," which was sold for $104 million in 2004.

Picasso was an incredibly prolific artist. When he died at the age of 91 in 1973, he left behind 1,900 paintings, 3,200 ceramic works, 7,000 drawings, 1,200 sculptures and 30,000 sketches.

smd/spiegel/ap/reuters

Art Hostage comments:

High value stolen art is a merry go round.

Greedy Lawyer Collared For Cezanne Ransom Demand

Lawyer arrested in sale of works from 1978 art heist
CBC Canada
A retired lawyer was arrested Tuesday at Logan Airport in Boston in connection with a 29-year-old art heist that included a $29.3-million US Cézanne still life.

Robert Mardirosian, 72, has been charged with possessing, concealing, storing and attempting to sell stolen goods, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said.

Authorities alleged in a federal court Tuesday that Mardirosian moved the paintings from his Watertown, Mass., law office into Swiss banks and London auction houses under the cover of a Panamanian shell company he created to sell the works.

'People seem to get away with all kinds of stuff when it comes to art robbery.'
—Michael Bakwin, victim of art heist

He is not suspected in the original theft of the seven paintings, which went missing from a home in the Berkshire mountains in 1978.

"People seem to get away with all kinds of stuff when it comes to art robbery," said Michael Bakwin, the paintings' owner, now living in Suffolk, Va.

Mardirosian told the Boston Globe last year the paintings' alleged thief, David Colvin, left the pieces at his law office in Watertown, N.Y. He was representing Colvin in an unrelated case.

"He was going to bring them to Florida to fence them, but I told him that if he ever got caught with them with the other case hanging over his head, he'd be in real trouble," he told the Globe.

Colvin was killed in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1979 over a gambling debt.

Deal brokered
In an affidavit unsealed Tuesday, the FBI alleges Mardirosian moved the paintings to Monaco in 1988, thinking he might have a legal claim to ownership or to a "finder's fee."

Lloyd's of London was contacted in 1999 by an unknown person about insuring the paintings and discovered they were listed with the database Art Loss Register as having been stolen, the affidavit says.

A Panamanian corporation, Erie International Trading Co., was selling the paintings. Julian Radcliffe of the Art Loss Register brokered a deal with Erie, which agreed to return the Cézanne in exchange for the other six paintings. Julian Radcliffe went on to collect $2.9 million commission when the Cezanne was sold, in fact Bakwin was forced to sell the Cezanne to meet the demands of the Julian Radcliffe.

Bakwin agreed to the deal and auctioned the Cézanne through Sotheby's in London for $29.3 million US.

As part of the contract, the owner of Erie agreed to disclose his identity in a sealed envelope.

A British judge ordered the envelope to be unsealed because Bakwin agreed to the deal "under duress." Erie's owner was revealed as Mardirosian, and the judge ordered him to pay Bakwin $3 million US.

Four paintings, which authorities say Mardirosian tried to sell through Sotheby's in 2004, will be returned to Bakwin in Virginia. He said he plans to display them in his home.

Investigators believe the two remaining paintings, both by Geert Jan Jansen, are being held by a Swiss friend of Mardirosian.

Boston Globe

Boston Herald

ABC News

Art Hostage comments:

It is interesting to note that Julian Radcliffe, founder of the Art Loss Register, was paid 10% of the sale proceeds of the Cezanne, $2.9 million on the auction sale price of $29 million.

Sotheby's got their 10% cut, $2.9 million as well, leaving the loser with $23.2 million.

The greedy Boston Lawyer wanted the same thing, 10%, but seems to have ended up as a defendant, rather than a saviour.

This case proves that someone is going to get paid for recovering stolen art the trick is not be the patsy who is left without reward or possibly Liberty.

The Art Loss Register requires losers to pay 10/15% of the market value of recovered stolen artworks, therefore, meaning in most cases, the stolen art is sold to pay the Art Loss Register.

Is this moral, any more moral than the greedy Boston Lawyer seeking his 10%???????

The reason why the Gardner art, and Vermeer in particular, are not registered with the Art Loss Register is because if they are recovered the Gardner Museum would have to pay the Art Loss Register 10/15% of the market value, as demanded in the Art Loss Register's terms and conditions.

Greed gets them in the end, lawyers that is !!

Claims against six ex-FBI agents dropped

Fisherman John McIntyre of Quincy was slain in 1984.


Case was tied to Bulger handling

By Shelley Murphy, Boston Globe Staff | January 25, 2007

It took 22 years for the family of slain Quincy fisherman John McIntyre to prove that the FBI's mishandling of longtime informants James "Whitey" Bulger and Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi caused his brutal killing in 1984.

But after winning a landmark $3.2 million wrongful death suit against the government in September, lawyers for McIntyre's mother and brother notified a judge yesterday that they are dropping additional claims they had made against six retired FBI agents.

"We proved what we wanted to prove," said McIntyre's brother, Christopher, adding that he and his mother want to get on with their lives and weren't up for another drawn-out legal battle that would once again rehash his brother's murder. "This is starting to take a toll on everyone."

McIntyre and his mother, Emily, 77, of Quincy, had been seeking a jury trial on civil rights claims against the six retired agents, including Bulger's and Flemmi's former handler John J. Connolly Jr., as well as John Morris, Robert Fitzpatrick, James Ring, James Greenleaf, and James Ahearn. Another former agent, Roderick Kennedy, had previously been dismissed from the suit by a judge.

US District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay, who had ordered the government to pay the McIntyre's $3.2 million after an 18-day bench trial, had yet to rule on the agents' assertions that federal law barred the McIntyres from seeking damages from them, since they had already won a damages claim against the government.

In his ruling last September, Lindsay found that Connolly warned Bulger and Flemmi that McIntyre was cooperating against them, knowing that the tip would probably lead to McIntyre's slaying. He also found that the FBI failed to properly supervise Connolly and failed to investigate numerous allegations that Bulger and Flemmi had been involved in drug trafficking, homicide, and other crimes.

Connolly was convicted on federal racketeering charges in 2002 for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning Bulger to flee just before the gangster's 1995 indictment. Connolly is serving a 10-year sentence and is awaiting trial in Miami in a 1982 gangland slaying.

Attorney E. Peter Mullane, who represents Connolly in the civil case, said Connolly didn't warn Bulger and Flemmi that McIntyre was cooperating and that Connolly continues to assert his innocence.

The McIntyres' lawyers, William Christie and Steven M. Gordon , said they believed they could have proven their claims against the agents if the case had gone to trial, but were concerned that the case would take too long to resolve in view of Emily McIntyre's age and poor health.

"We decided it was just best to pursue our judgment against the United States," Christie said.

Fitzpatrick, former special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, testified during the McIntyre trial that he had urged his superiors to drop Bulger as an informant in the early 1980s amid allegations that the gangster was involved in drug dealing and homicide. Yesterday, Fitzpatrick said he was angry that he had been named in the suit because "I obviously was one of the only people who tried to do anything" about Bulger.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice declined to comment yesterday on the dismissal of the claims against the agents or on whether the government will appeal Lindsay's $3.2 million verdict.

The McIntyres' suit was the first of 17 filed against the government by families of victims of Bulger and Flemmi to go to trial. Ten were dismissed, mostly on grounds they were filed too late, and six are poised to go to trial.

Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, testified that he and Bulger killed McIntyre, 32, on Nov. 30, 1984, after Connolly warned them that McIntyre had implicated them in an unsuccessful plot to ship weapons to the Irish Republican Army aboard a Gloucester trawler.

Art Hostage comments:
So, the deal is done, the FBI/Govt don't appeal the $3.2 million, family drop the lawsuit. The Lawyer has done the deal, official.

Seems fair enough, hope this new FBI deal making extends towards the recovery of the Vermeer, which, by the way, does not require payment to the handler.

"Bloody Sunday" into "Super Sunday" 07 !!

Dr Paula J Dobriansky

Super Sunday Jan 28th 2007, See's Sinn Fein sign up to Policing and the Recovery of the Stolen Vermeer from Boston !!

It was announced on Friday that Mitchell Reiss, left, is standing down as US special envoy to the North, a position he has held since early 2004. He has continued in his role for the past two years despite leaving his post at the State Department to return to his position as Dean of International Affairs at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. Speaking to the Irish Times Dr Reiss referred to the political progress made in the past few years, adding, "The great joy of this job has been meeting the magnificent people in Ireland, both North and South and in Irish-America. It has been a remarkable personal and professional experience and one that I will always cherish".

Dr Reiss' successor will be Paula J. Dobriansky (51), left, who was appointed to the Department of State in March 2001 and named Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs in July 2005. She is described as a neo-conservative intellectual who was a founder member of a group which advocated intervention in Iraq back in 1998. Dr Dobriansky graduated in International Politics from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and went on to gain an MA and PhD in Soviet political/military affairs from Harvard University. Prior to her appointment by President Bush she worked as Senior International Affairs and Trade Advisor at a major law firm.

Dr Dobriansky will accompany Dr Reiss when he visits the North on a previously planned visit later this month.

She will probably be in Ireland next Sunday, 28th Jan, when Sinn Féin holds its ardfheis to review its policy on policing.

In an effort to convince republicans that it is time to support the PSNI, Gerry Adams along with MEP Bairbre de Brún is hosting a number of public meetings, the first of which was held in Toome, Co. Antrim, on Saturday. The Sinn Féin president told an audience of some 450, "We do not want to leave policing to the unionists. We do not want to leave policing to the securocrats". It was the party's duty, he argued, to ensure that none of the abuses perpetrated by the RUC in the past could happen again; he referred to a report, to be published today by the Police Ombudsman's office, which is expected to accuse Special Branch of turning a blind eye to murders committed by loyalist paramilitaries.

Early in the week DUP leader Rev. Ian Paisley welcomed Sinn Féin's decision to go ahead with the ardfheis, calling it a step forward. He said, however, the DUP would only share power if there is full delivery on the ground. Northern Secretary Peter Hain has repeated his assertion that there can be no change to the planned date of March 26 for the reinstatement of power sharing. If it doesn't happen by then, Stormont will be dissolved indefinitely.

Later Mr Adams offered to meet dissident republican leaders to explain the proposed change in Sinn Féin policing policy. He appealed to the Real IRA, Continuity IRA and INLA to end violence in order to peacefully achieve a united Ireland. Whatever about convincing those outside the party, it is clear that some veteran Sinn Féin members, who until now have backed the Good Friday Agreement, think supporting the PSNI is a step too far.

Art Hostage comments:

Memo to the Honourable FBI Agent Robert Wittman:

Unlike the Palestinians, who never miss and opportunity to miss an opportunity, I never want to miss an opportunity to recover the Vermeer.


Bob, as you well know politicians like to "hit the ground running" and relish a big headline to open their tenure.

Well, how about getting the Vermeer situation sorted this week and then allow Paula to bask in the media spotlight upon her triumphant return to the United States of America?

Sinn Fein supporting the police and the Vermeer to hand back to the people of Boston is something that would help the healing process of Bloody Sunday, collusion etc.

I am sure you will get some kind of credit for giving the politicians their media fix and it will put us on the road to recovering the rest of the Gardner art.

Sorry for being too eager, it is just that I cannot wait until St Patrick's Day.

Lets make this a "Super Sunday" to remember for all the right reasons.

Stolen Vermeer off to Moscow if FBI fail to act !!

Bad Guy of the Week: Semion Mogilevich

In a landmark story back in 1998, my late colleague Robert I. Friedman, a great crime reporter, wrote of a new godfather on the scene–an overweight, Jewish-Ukrainian mob boss with an economics degree, dubbed "the brainy don." So over the top was Semion Mogilevich's record that Friedman's editors at the Village Voice titled his story "The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World."

Mogilevich became a poster boy for the organized crime gangs oozing from the ruins of the former Soviet Union. Based in Budapest during the late '90s, Mogilevech allegedly ran one of Europe's top crime syndicates, trafficking in drugs, prostitutes, and stolen art; running hit jobs and massive fraud scams; and smuggling arms and even radioactive materials. He still ranks high on the FBI's wanted list

for his role in a $150 million stock scam involving the YBM company in Philadelphia.

With al Qaeda so much in the news today, it's easy to forget that until 9/11, the Russian mob was a hot topic. The gangs had succeeded in looting much of the former Soviet Union and setting up rackets around the world–including in a dozen U.S. cities. Books like Friedman's Red Mafia and Stephen Handelman's Comrade Criminal told of a fearless new breed of international mobster schooled by the KGB and Soviet-era black markets. The Russian mob didn't simply disappear because al Qaeda began targeting U.S. cities. Indeed, the latest on Mogilevich suggests he and his pals may be bigger than ever.

Now 60, Mogilevich is under scrutiny (free preview available) by the U.S. Justice Department for his role in billion-dollar natural gas deals involving Russia and Ukraine, law enforcement officials confirm. His involvement is raising alarm among Russia watchers here in Washington, already worried over Moscow's growing use of energy as a political weapon against gas-hungry Europe and former Soviet states. Even putting the political stakes aside, the prospect of "the world's most dangerous mobster" reaping windfalls in the energy biz is worrisome at best.

Mogilevich has proclaimed his innocence in the past, but he's staying clear of the American justice system. After being targeted by an FBI task force, the reputed mob boss fled Budapest for Moscow, where he's lived comfortably for years–and where Russian officials show no interest in handing him over.

Art Hostage comments:

Now this article has appeared in the press I can reveal that if the FBI prevaricate over the recovery of the Vermeer, it will be heading to Moscow as a tribute to Semion Mogilevich.

There have been meetings over the last year between representatives of the Irish Republican movement and Mr Mogilevich regarding business co-operation. Some of the meetings have taken place in Spain as well as in Ireland. Links bewteen the IRA and Russian mafia go back to 1996 when several senior IRA figures visited Russia and began a long secret relationship that spreads accross the whole criminal panarama. Within the underworld the IRA command a respect that still see's them regarded as the doyens of criminal enterprise.

If Whitey Bulger was photographed in the recent past he would be wearing a fur hat?????????

How many of the worlds most wanted stolen artworks come under Semion Mogilevich's control, how many does he have displayed in his "Museum of the missing"??






To see FBI Agent Robert "Billboard Bob" Wittman dressed in Cossack Sable fur hat and coat, heading a raid at "Semion Mogilevich Museum's of Stolen Art" outside Moscow, on a Spanish Island, etc, is an honourable aspiration, if not a reality because of the political fallout of such an event.

More Chins than the Chinese telephone book !!
The Window of opportunity for the recovery of the Vermeer is fast closing, so, don't drop the ball, just do it !!!

Stolen Vermeer is "Pork of the Peace Process" !!

Poll: we don't believe Bertie on Sinn Fein


DANIEL McCONNELL

MOST people believe Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will do a deal with Sinn Fein to remain in power rather than go into opposition, a nationwide Sunday Independent telephone poll reveals.

The poll, conducted this weekend, found 62 per cent did not believe Mr Ahern when he said he would not form a Government that was dependent on Sinn Fein support, with just 38 per cent believing him.

Last week, Mr Ahern appeared to make a u-turn on his previous position by indicating he would deal with Gerry Adams's party. He said: "I don't think it would be reasonable for somebody to go in and say that you wouldn't take support from a party."

Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, reacted by saying that the Taoiseach's history of doing side deals with Sinn Fein showed that "he cannot be trusted on the issue".

On Friday, Mr Ahern insisted that he would not "form a Government that is dependent on Sinn Fein votes". Previously, Mr Ahern had said that under no circumstances would he deal with Sinn Fein.

Meanwhile, there is now a growing belief that the finances of senior IRA figures such as Thomas 'Slab' Murphy will not now be investigated.

This follows the surprise announcement last week that the North's Assets Recovery Agency is to be abolished, suspected to be part of an arrangement to secure Sinn Fein/IRA support for policing in the North.

Art Hostage comments:

It is all coming together nicely, now for the Pork, the Vermeer to surface via a confession box, symbolism of absolution.

Stolen Vermeer, Whitey Bulger, If not Both, Vermeer Please !! Updated below !!

Provo gangs off the hook as elite unit is shut down

JIM CUSACK

IRA criminals in south Armagh knew that the North's Assets Recovery Agency was to be abolished, days before it was officially announced, the Sunday Independent can reveal.

The agency had been set up - after the success of CAB in the south - to trace the millions laundered by crime gangs and paramilitaries. It has specifically tageted cross-border smuggling and illegal diesel washing by IRA members.

This has led to the belief that the surprise move was part of a deal between the British government and Sinn Fein, to secure Sinn Fein/IRA support for policing in the North. When the agency is abolished, it will make it more difficult, if not impossible, to investigate the financial affairs of senior IRA figures, like Thomas 'Slab' Murphy.

The support of Murphy, who was under active investigation, and of other terrorists-turned-criminals, is seen as essential in getting Sinn Fein/IRA figures in south Armagh to sign up to policing.

It is now likely that Murphy will be saved from further investigation.

The official announcement of the abolition of the agency came a day after Prime Minister Blair issued a statement on the role of the intelligence service, MI5, in the North. Sinn Fein hailed the statement as a "major victory".

The announcement that the Assets Recovery Agency was to be "merged" with the Serious Organised Crime Agency in London was a surprise to other political parties.

However, according to well placed sources in south Armagh, news of the imminent closure, announced on Thursday, spread throughout the area last weekend.

Yesterday, the Fine Gael Senator Brian Hayes called on the Government to say if the closure was part of a "desperate deal" to get Sinn Fein to recognise the PSNI and enter government with the DUP.

He said: "I cannot understand why both governments seem to be playing such a high-wire strategy with the Provisionals. For the British government in particular, this news points to wanting to do a deal at any cost. It sends out wrong signals and is a sign of weakness.

"Any dilution of the Assets Recovery Agency or any merger with a UK agency would not only be damaging to the fight against organised crime in Northern Ireland, it would be damaging to the fight against organised crime on the island of Ireland. We need closer co-operation between the ARA and CAB. Both governments are trying to do this desperate deal which will compromise our security and damage efforts to take on organised crime."

The ARA had been hugely successful. It hit border smugglers, including leading republicans, and loyalist drug dealers, seizing houses, pubs, businesses and other assets linked to crime.

Last autumn, the agency seized over €2m worth of houses in Manchester, which it said were bought from the proceeds of fuel smuggling.

The ARA in the North has accounted for almost half the entire proceeds seized in the UK, since it was set up two years ago.

Its chief Alan McQuillan is hated by the Sinn Fein/IRA. A former senior officer in the RUC's Special Branch, he was previously involved in many high-profile cases against the IRA.

In an extraordinary week, Sinn Fein indicated it was set to recognise the PSNI - and apparently accept MI5 holding the role of intelligence gathering in the North - policies which are to be ratified at a special ard fheis at the end of this month.

This, both governments hope, will be a prelude to getting the DUP to share power with their former enemies. The deal was announced on the front page of Sinn Fein's weekly paper, An Phoblacht, under the headline: Major victor on issue of MI5.

Officially, the British government position on the Assets Recovery Agency is that it is not being shut but merged with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

The North's other political parties were informed of the "merger" in a letter from Northern Secretary Peter Hain on Thursday. He said the ARA's 50 staff in Belfast will transfer to SOCA, which is based in London, but that this would not cause a "reduction of ARA's current levels of activity".

The move was criticised by the North's largest business organisation, the Federation of Small Businesses, which pointed out that small businesses in the North face the highest extortion and racketeering levels in the UK, most of it coming from paramilitaries. The DUP described it as a "retrograde step".

Downing Street accused of pandering to Sinn Fein


Timing of Assets Recovery Agency abolition 'very suspicious', claim Tories

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor Sunday January 14, 2007

Downing Street last night rejected claims that the announcement of the abolition of the Assets Recovery Agency was timed to win republican support for policing in Northern Ireland.

Republicans in South Armagh - one of the regions on which the ARA focused in its efforts to recover the proceeds of organised crime - say they were made aware that the agency was being dissolved before the official announcement was made last week.

Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary David Lidington described the timing of the ARA's dissolution as 'very suspicious'. It came about just days before the Sinn Fein leadership met in Dublin to plan a historic conference on policing.

The agency is hated by republicans and loyalists, especially in South Armagh where it is investigating the assets of the former IRA chief of staff and smuggler Thomas 'Slab' Murphy, who is a multimillionaire.

Yesterday, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams won support from his party's ruling body for a special Ard Fheis, or conference, on 28 January, where he will put forward a motion aimed at overturning decades of republican opposition to policing. Sinn Fein's support for the police and justice system in Northern Ireland would help clear the way for Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists to share power with the republicans.

Speaking at the Great Southern Hotel at Dublin Airport yesterday, Adams said: 'We still need to have an accountable police service and we still need to get the power-sharing institutions in place. We cannot allow others to dictate the pace.'

Last night Downing Street welcomed the move and said the Ard Fheis decision would be crucial. Late last night, the wording of the policing motion had not been made public.

A spokesman for Number 10 denied that the agency's disbandment had been synchronised with the Prime Minister's assurances in Parliament that MI5 would operate entirely separately from the Police Service of Northern Ireland and PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde's statement that his officers would no longer use plastic bullets.

However, normally reliable republican sources said news of the ARA's dissolution had been leaked to South Armagh activists days before the official statement. 'Everyone was going around the border area saying "Alan McQuillan [the head of the ARA in Northern Ireland] is going. The ARA is gone." It's no coincidence that all of the delegates to the Ard Fheis are now mandated to support the leadership on the policing issue,' one said.

Lidington said people were right to be suspicious: 'I doubt very much that the ARA was abolished for political reasons. I am not saying that. But what I think is very suspicious is the timing of this all. It came in the same week the government gave Gerry Adams a fig leaf about MI5's presence in Northern Ireland and the Chief Constable's announcement on plastic bullets not being used.'

He added that he would be tabling a parliamentary question to Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain asking him to confirm that there will be 'no let-up in the fight against ordinary crime' once the ARA is absorbed into the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.

Window Dressing For Public Consumption

Gardaí seize €2m in contraband cigarettes, Or Were They Given Them, Token Gesture ??
14/01/2007 - 10:06:28
Breaking News Ireland:

Contraband cigarettes with a value of €2m have been seized by Revenue officials in Co Louth.

The haul was made outside Dundalk last night as part of an ongoing operation in the area.

Gardaí believe the six million cigarettes seized were destined for sale in the North.

No arrests have been made, but investigations are continuing.

Art Hostage comments:

Nearly there !!

Update !!


€2m stolen in latest 'tiger' kidnapping
15/01/2007 - 13:00:41

A husband and wife today became the latest victims of a 'tiger' kidnapping in which an armed gang got away with almost €2m.

The man was confronted at his home in the Hillcrest area of Lucan, west Dublin, last night where he was taken hostage, gardaí said.

At the same time, other members of the gang abducted his wife, drove her away and held her overnight at an unknown location.

The man was then forced to go to work for a security company as normal this morning and ordered to drive a van, packed with cash, to Carlow town where a handover was made shortly before 10am.

His wife was found at 11.30am in the Rathcoole area of west Co Dublin.

The couple were not harmed during the kidnap, but it is understood they were left severely shaken by their ordeal.

Gardaí are looking for a Green Toyota car, registration number 02-D-53074, in connection with the incident. Detectives are also examining three scenes in Carlow town, Rathcoole and Lucan.

It is the third time this year 'tiger' kidnapping gangs have struck. In the first incident, on January 7, three armed men took a security firm worker and two others hostage in Swords, north Co Dublin, before demanding cash be handed over from the company.

The attempted robbery was foiled after two of the hostages managed to escape from a derelict house in the Oldtown area of the town and alert gardaí.

In the second incident, two men targeted a young couple in the quiet village of Muff, Co Donegal.

During the cross-border robbery, the man was held at the home while his 28-year-old partner was forced to hand over cash from McDonalds fast food outlet in Derry's Waterside.

The robberies are known as 'tiger' kidnappings because the raiders stalk their prey to study their movements before striking.

The gangs require a detailed knowledge of bank or security staff including daily journeys, job responsibilities and their families - which may come with inside help from a current or former employee.

The family or friends of a member of staff is often held hostage to force the employee to participate in the robbery.

The worker is forced to enter his workplace as normal and collect cash knowing that one false move could mean loved ones could be harmed.

Art Hostage comments:

If you pull the tail of the Celtic Tiger, don't be surprised if he turns round and bites your hand off.

we have a return of the status quo.

2 million Euros worth of cigarettes seized yesterday, 2 million Euros cash stolen in today's Tiger kidnapping.

There's A New Sheriff in Town, He Goes by the Name of Buford T Justice, AKA, Warren T. Bamford !!

Bamford to lead Boston FBI

BOSTON A Massachusetts native has been picked to lead the F-B-I's Boston office.
The Boston Globe reports that Warren T. Bamford -- who has led the F-B-I's Los Angeles counter terrorism division since last March -- will take up new post in February.

Bamford is a 48-year-old native of Lowell who has worked as a sniper, hostage rescuer, anti terrorism specialist and gang task force leader in 21 years with the F-B-I.

Bamford says the search for fugitive mobster James "Whitey" Bulger will remain a priority for the Boston office. And he says he plans to work with local and state law enforcement against gang violence and international terrorism.

Bamford succeeds Kenneth Kaiser, who left last week after three and a half years in Boston to become assistant director of the F-B-I's inspection Division in Washington, D-C.

Bamford says it's "a pleasant surprise" to be coming back to New England. He's a big fan of the Patriots and the Red Sox.

Weekends in the National Guard give a military perspective.







Art Hostage comments:

I wish Warren T Bamford all the very best and remind him he has the good fortune to be the at the helm when finally the Vermeer and Whitey Bulger return to Boston, the later to face the music, the former to be honoured by music.

A pragmatic approach will, I am sure, see exciting, headline grabbing, sensational success and with it hopefully, a new day dawning over the much maligned Boston FBI field office.

Memo:

The three FBI Amigos, Robert "Billboard Bob" Wittman, Geoff "Ned" Kelly and now, Warren "Buford T", T. Bamford have been hand reared, hand picked, to recover the Gardner Art and collar Whitey Bulger.

Classic Buford T Justice line to his son Junior:

"Junior,I cannot believe you came from my loins" "Sun bitch"

"Let the tournament begin"!!!!
Democratic funding cuts start to affect FBI comfort zone !!

Stolen Vermeer Will Be Recovered by St Patrick's Day 2007

Asset Recovery Agency Abolished

Art Hostage has learned, Tomorrow,Thursday, the Brit Home Office will anounce the abolition of the Asset Recovery Agency.

The task for recoverying criminal assets will fall to the new Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The deal has been done with Johnathon Powell whereby the sectarian tax demand of $20 million against General Thomas Slab Murphy will be withdrawn discretely, this will allow General Thomas Slab Murphy to order the Vermeer be handed back, hopefully via a confession box.

Politically, Tom Slab Murphy will use some of his wealth to support Gerry McGeough , left, in his attempt at political office.

This is all part of the stategy I have been calling for, to create a Irish Republican political force opposed to Sinn Fein in order to bring Dissident Republicans in from the cold, get them to call ceasefires and engage them in the political process.

This will prevent the Devil from finding work for idle hands.

Hopefully the whole Irish Republican movement will be on ceasefire soon and all aspects of Irish Republicanism will be represented politically, rather than militarily.

General Thomas Slab Murphy is vital for this and that is why he is being called on to help.

As for the Vermeer, My constant bugging Slab has caused him to gain control of the Vermeer and he will produce it when the time is right.

All I can say is, hurry up, as soon as possible please !!


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