Breaking news---Breaking news, Small London Museum Raided, losses run to Hundreds of thousands, Pounds, Sterling

Details at http://www.arthostage.blogspot.com/

As I write the cost is being assessed, looks like a major blow, unique artworks stolen, Public deprived of these cultural icons.

Stolen Art Watch, Rewards being paid are like Harry Potter, a Figment of the Imagination, unless of course you are Ex-Police.

Art theft and 'rewards'

Da Vinci painting insurance payout

The owner of a stolen Leonardo da Vinci painting has received £3m from his insurers.

Madonna with the Yarnwinder was stolen from the home of the Duke of Buccleuch - Scotland's richest man - on 27 August.

The artwork is valued at between £25 and £50m and was stolen by a four-man gang at Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway.

A spokesman for the Buccleuch estate said complex insurance issues remain unresolved.

He said: "It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."

Two of the men who posed as tourists overpowered a female member of staff and took the artwork.

The gang fled in a white Volkswagen Golf car, later found abandoned in woodland.
A fine arts loss adjuster said the painting was one of the most important stolen in the UK in the last 70 years.

The da Vinci work, which experts say was painted between 1500 and 1510, depicts the Madonna with the infant Jesus holding a cross-shaped yarnwinder.

It is said to symbolise the crucifixion of Jesus.
Police issued an e-fit and CCTV footage of the suspects and one of the man who bought the getaway car.
The 80-year-old Duke said the family had been "deeply saddened and shocked" by the theft.

David Lee, the art critic and Editor of Jackdaw, said: “The Da Vinci Madonna stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in 2003 is so recognisable that thieves would have a better chance of selling the Crown Jewels.

“If they have a brain larger than a pickled onion they will park it in the back of a wardrobe and sit on it for a couple of years. I suspect it will be offered eventually through a middleman at an amount tempting enough to an insurance company to pay a ‘reward’. ”



Reply From Mr The Honourable David Scully

Sir, You suggest that the Leonardo stolen from Drumlanrig Castle might “be offered eventually through a middleman at an amount tempting enough to an insurance company to pay a ‘reward’ ” (report, August 28).

It is illegal for an insurance company to pay a reward, without the express permission of the police. Permission would not be given to pay anyone connected with the crime or any middleman.

As the largest insurer of art in the world, it is our unwavering company policy not to countenance ransoms, even if paid through middlemen.

In any case, it would make absolutely no commercial sense for an insurer to pay such a “reward” as it would simply encourage the thieves to steal more art, thus diminishing our cultural heritage (and insurers’ profits) further.

Yours sincerely,
DAVID SCULLY
(Underwriting Director),
Axa Art Insurance,
106 Fenchurch Street,
London EC3M 5JE.
david.scully@axa-art.co.uk


Art Hostage Comments:

There you have it, straight from the Horses mouth, David Scully, who represents the Worlds biggest Art Insurer AXA.

Secondly, the story about the Duke of Buccleuch only recieving £3 million insurence payout is a total fabrication designed to make a reward of £100-200,000 attractive.

Mark Dalrymple has been quoted to say, at a London Art Crime Conference, and this news report, "there is £1 million reward to the right person."

We all know what Mark Dalrymple means, Dick Ellis or Charlie Hill, if they promise not to forward any money to their informants can collect the £1 million reward.

The true story is that the Madonna was fully insured for £50 million and the Duke of Buccleuch was paid out in full.

Authorities did not want to alert the Underworld to this fact as it would make ransom demands higher.

By dealing with the likes of Dick Ellis, or any other ex-police officer with regards recovering stolen art, will only ever result in "Lining Dick Ellis and other Ex-Police colleagues Pockets"

Please read this article to reveal Dick Ellis and Charlie Hill's roles in major sting operations.

I love this extract from page 2:


"n 1994 the art-and-antiques squad was on a roll. After some years in abeyance, it had been revived in 1989.

It had an immediate success, recovering several paintings stolen from the Beit collection in Ireland in 1986, and notching a further coup in 1992 when it recovered a painting by Pieter Brueghel, Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, stolen from London's Courtauld gallery 10 years before.

The fate of the Brueghel is illuminating. Since the Brueghel - like the Turners - was unsaleable on the open market, it is likely to have been used instead as an alternative currency within the criminal world, whose denizens like to talk of 'laying down' stolen paintings, like vintage wine, until their value can be realised.

It may also have been used as collateral for funds raised for drugs or other criminal deals. Sometimes, says Mark Dalrymple, head of the loss adjusters Tyler and Co, who specialise in the art market, these deals can become quite labyrinthine, 'and you end up with half a dozen people having an interest in the picture'.

By 1991 the Brueghel had reached a high-ranking London criminal, who decided to cash in his investment.

He commissioned four minor London villains to sell it on his behalf. Somewhat naively, they telephoned Christie's to ask how much 'a Brueghel' was worth.

Then they called the director of the Courtauld, Dr Dennis Farr, and told him they had purchased the Brueghel only to discover it was stolen - and the Courtauld could have it back for £2m. Both Christie's and Farr told the art-and-antiques squad about the gang's approach.

The squad's head was Dick Ellis, a detective sergeant renowned for his talents for running stings, above all in devising some extra ingredient to give them plausibility or 'edge'. 'There's an art to running an undercover operation,' Ellis says now. 'You've got to be imaginative.' ('They are quite fun,' he adds.)

Ellis now constructed a sting to recover the Brueghel. He recruited two characters: one was Farr, who would play himself. The other was to be a brash American, a part to be taken by one of the Yard's undercover officers, Charley Hill, who had spent much of his life in the US - his father was American - even serving as an officer in Vietnam.

The edge to the sting lay in introducing a whiff of illegality that would appeal to the sellers. Farr told them that the Courtauld Institute could not be seen to buy back a stolen painting, and anyway did not have £2m at its disposal. However, Hill was a wealthy American who was willing to buy the painting on the Courtauld's behalf.

It worked to perfection. The sellers were invited to meet Farr and Hill at the Savoy hotel in London. They were still asking £2m for the painting, and Hill showed them a bag containing 'show money', or the 'flash' - £100,000, the maximum the police were allowed to draw. The sellers, says Hill, 'effed and blinded and said it wasn't good enough' and walked out. The police already had ample evidence and the four men were arrested, receiving sentences of up to five years. (The Brueghel was found at the home of an alleged accomplice, who claimed he did not know it was stolen and was acquitted.) "

Today both Dick Ellis and Charlie Hill still employ those methods, but with the added bonus of getting the reward money as well, also they get paid by insurers and victims whilst they investigate, quids in all round for these guys.




Those with inside information about stolen art must first retain a lawyer, then get the lawyer to approach the relevant Police force investigating the particular art theft, then if Police issue a Comfort Letter to the lawyer, then and only then will the stolen art surface.

There is no need to ever engage with Dick Ellis, not that anyone will from now on, as these are just middlemen who can claim rewards using the Old Boy Network, Nepotism Inc, on condition they never share rewards.

Engaging with Dick Ellis, Charlie Hill and co will only ever result in them receiving reward money, although Charlie Hill is regarded as an outcast because he had the audacity to pay a £100,000 reward for recovering the stolen Titian.

Charlie Hill's only mistake was to pay out the reward to David Dudden.

If Charlie Hill had kept the reward for himself, like Dick Ellis does, then he would still be on the Exclusive Ex-Police Gravy Train.

However, Charlie Hill has been offered a way to redeem himself, to become Hardy Kruger, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold."

This involves Charlie Hill convincing Mr Sheridan and Mr McGinley via Letterkenny Donegal, to retrieve some of the Gardner Art and allow it to surface.

Once it has been recovered, Charlie Hill will apply for the Reward from the Gardner Museum Boston, which, if successful, will be on the condition that he not share it with Mr Sheridan and Mr McGinley, or anyone else for that matter.

Problem is, if this happens, then the rest of the Gardner Art will be buried deeper, even worse, one or more artworks may be destroyed on video, then put up on You Tube as a Cocaine fuelled message from the scorned Underworld.


This is the reason why the Gardner Art must be treated as a special case, whereby things other than reward money from the Gardner Museum are offered and legally binding.

Details of which I will go into soon.

For any other stolen art recovery, rewards will never be paid, period !!

This not a slur against Dick Ellis or any other ex-police officers, it is a statement of fact and the rules that govern recovering stolen art and who can receive reward payments.

If anyone falls for the Sting operations or charms of Dick Ellis, Credit to Dick Ellis, bigger fool informant.

It is not Rocket Science, it is the Law.

Stolen Art Watch, Legal Action Looms as Reward for Recovered Stolen Art is Refused to Informant, but Paid to Ex-Police Officer, Tricky Dicky Ellis!!

LSAD 50648
Gouache on paper, title "Rue Chaude a Marseille" by Raoul Dufy.





Pastelle on paper. Titled, "Coin d'interieur" byEdouard Vuillard.







LSAD 50648Oil on canvas, titled "Nu Couche"byPeirre Bonard.






After the recent mysterious recoveries of stolen art, Magritte painting, Helen Blumenfeld sculpture etc I thought it time to reveal the circumstances behind this recovery of stolen art by the Whiley Old Fox of Scotland Yard Richard "Tricky, Dicky" Ellis.



Those of you familiar with Stolen Vermeer and Art Hostage blogs will know of my incessant harping on about how rewards are impossible to collect, unless you are ex-Police, or have a Comfort Letter from Police giving absolute discretion to insurers or victims to pay a reward.



Well here is the proof that those who seek rewards for information leading to the recovery of stolen art are "Pissing in the wind" and the only thing informants can expect is an interview under caution by Police and a file sent to the Crown Prosecution service with view to bringing criminal charges for complicit knowledge and trying to obtain a reward for selling stolen art back to insurers or victims.



Two years ago these three paintings were stolen from a dealer and entered the Underworld.


A Second Hand Car dealer with criminal connections approached Dick Ellis and said he could provide information that would lead to the recovery of the three stolen paintings and he wanted to claim the £50,000 reward.

Tricky Dicky Ellis engaged with this go-between and started to negotiate.


Dick Ellis pointed out to this go-between in an explicit, carefully worded E-mail, that once the paintings were recovered he would be interviewed by London Met Police from the Acton area of London and if Police were satisfied he was not involved with the theft and subsequent handling of the stolen artworks he would receive a letter of absolute discretion, Comfort Letter in the trade, thus allowing insurers to pay the £ 50,000 reward.


What the go-between did not realise, due to lack of research, was that under both the 1968 Theft Act sections 21, 22, 23, and 27 and the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act it is an offence to reward anyone involved with the theft or subsequent handling of stolen property.



The go-between when interviewed, told Police he bought the paintings from someone who had purchased them from the thieves and he wanted to do the right thing and return them to their rightful owner.



From that moment on it would be unlawful to pay this man a reward and Police forwarded a file to the Crown Prosecution Service with view to bringing criminal charges against the Go-between, who was bailed to attend the Acton Police station when the C.P.S. came to a decision.



Less than happy the go-between began a concerted campaign of abuse towards Dick Ellis accusing Tricky Dicky of setting him up and stinging him into returning the paintings.


Furthermore, adding fuel to the fire, Tricky Dicky Ellis, the toast of the Art Insurance world, collected the reward for himself.

The Go-Between is telling the Underworld that Tricky Dick Ellis negociated a reward of 40%, some £500,000 still saving the insurers a million.


By now the Go-between was incandescent with rage and was consulting his lawyer about launching a legal action against Police, Dick Ellis and insurers.



The Crown Prosecution Service decide there was not enough evidence to convict and criminal charges were not issued against the Go-between.


This only made the Go-between more determined to seek revenge on Dick Ellis and threats of an unfortunate nature have been going around the Underworld.


Dick Ellis, well aware of these threats has moved home twice now in the last six months.

















Dick Ellis now lives at a secret location far outside London in a modest little house, above.











The moral of this story is anyone with information about the whereabouts of stolen art must first consult a lawyer about their legal position. Payments of reward money is impossible as demonstrated, one excuse after another, it is a closed shop.











The only way this go-between could have received the £50,000 reward was if he had gone to Police with the name of the person holding the paintings, set up a meeting to purchase them, at the meeting the paintings are recovered, the handler arrested, charges bought with the Go-between becoming a prosecution witness.



Now, after about a twelve month wait the case is heard in court and afterwards, if there is a conviction, then and only then would Police issue the elusive letter of absolute discretion, "Comfort Letter" that would allow insurers to pay the £50,000 reward.









If there was not a conviction then Police would be reluctant to issue the letter of absolute discretion, although if the Go-between informer had given other valuable information that resulted in arrests he may get the letter as payment for all his informing.




Obviously, those with inside information about the whereabouts of stolen art are connected to the Underworld in some manner and because of the nature of this, Police use the lure of a reward to hook, haul, then cast back an informant when they become exposed and not of any more use to Police.






This tale does smack of the Frog and the Scorpion story below




The Scorpion and the Frog



One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change.


So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.



The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.




Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.


"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"



"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.


"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"


Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"


"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"


"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.



"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"



So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger.


The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river.


The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown.



He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.



Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back.


A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.


"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"



The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.


"I could not help myself. It is my nature."


Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.



Self destruction - "Its my Nature", said the Scorpion...



Difference here was Dick Ellis as the Scorpion, got off the back of the Go-between, as the Frog, just as they reached the other side, the Frog Go-between sank, Dick Ellis the Scorpion carried on his way, with the reward money just for good measure.



This has some way to run, I'll keep you posted..........



This leads me nicely onto the current status of the Gardner Art Heist case, which I will address soon.

The Three Musketeers of the Stolen Art World, Charlie Hill far left !!

Masterpiece detectives: inside the investigator’s art

The Herald Focus

Karin Goodwin

Lord Stewartby's coin collection was said by experts to be unique. The former Tory minister started it when he was just four years old and, more than 60 years later, he had amassed almost 2000 coins, dating back as far as 1136 and valued at more than £500,000.

They included a silver penny minted under the reign of Robert the Bruce and others struck under James I and II. In short, it was the most historically important collection in Britain. A leading numismatist, the 72-year-old peer had retired in May and, anticipating time to concentrate on research, had taken his collection home to Broughton Green, the house in the Borders where 39 Steps author John Buchan once lived, to be catalogued. But it seems he was not the only person attracted to rare coins. Between June 6 and 7, while he and his wife were on holiday, the house was broken into and the collection taken. "It was such a great shock," he said at the time.

The £50,000 reward he has put up for information leading to its safe return speaks volumes about his determination to get the collection back. That means a select band of individuals may be wondering if the phone will ring requesting their expertise. A group of former senior police officers - most of whom worked for the Metropolitan Police's art and antiques unit - loss adjustors and international data-base co-ordinators are the UK's art detectives.

For the most part they insist that criminals behind art thefts are not really any different from any other. They reject outright too, the myth of a Dr No-type figure sitting in his nuclear bunker surrounded by precious masterpieces and fine antiques.

But it's certainly big business. Internationally, an estimated 10,000 works - collectively worth billions of pounds - are taken from museums, private collections and country homes every year. These supplement the catalogue of the already missing, which runs to some 479 Picassos, 347 Miros, 290 Chagalls, 225 Dalis, 196 Durers, 190 Renoirs, 168 Rembrandts and 150 Warhols. Internationally, the most famous thefts include that of 13 works, including a Vermeer and a Rembrandt and collectively worth $300m, from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston.

Among Britain's most notorious thefts are that of Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece Madonna of the Yarnwinder, taken from the Duke of Buccleuch's home, Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, in August 2003. The thieves simply bought tickets along with other tourists and then held up a guide before pulling the painting, worth £70m, off the wall and walking out the door with it.

Their tactics might seem crude but Richard Ellis, a former head of the Met's art and antiques unit, who now works as a security and recovery expert for Art Management, says they should not be underestimated. "They are professionals who will do their research very carefully and know exactly what they are looking for before they strike," he warns.

According to those in the know, art is stolen not usually to order but by someone who knows they can shift works quickly to a handler for cash. Profits often go into drugs or arms, or the painting used as collateral in a deal.

"Another trend that we're seeing now is that pieces are being sold through eBay," explains Ellis. "There is no way of regulating that and police will admit that they just don't have the resources to monitor it."

The Met art and antiques squad, the UK's largest (it receives 120 requests a year for assistance on average), only stretches to four officers. It's no wonder the police can't cope.

But Ellis sees another problem. "What makes this type of criminal so successful is that the police are under pressure to concentrate on crimes such as anti-social behaviour but you have to be operating in the upper stratosphere to draw the attention of the organised-crime agency. Consequently there is no-one looking at this high-value professional type of criminal."

In recent decades several attempts have been made to tackle the problem. In 1989, with art theft on the rise, Ellis joined the Met and started a new phase in detection. In the 1990s he worked on high- profile sting operations with fellow officers John Butler and Charley Hill, recovering a Vermeer in an Antwerp car park in 1993. A year later, Hill posed as a representative of the Getty Museum in New York. Offering a $5m reward, he bagged Munch's The Scream.

Gradually budgets dried up, ironically creating a gap in the market for Ellis and his contemporaries to work independently. Ellis now works for a variety of clients including the Egyptian government, loss adjustors and owners. He travels all over the world following leads and recently recovered paintings worth millions.

But he remains frustrated at the number of UK country houses that are easy targets, claiming that the recent coin theft is one of a series sweeping the north of England and the Borders.

Mark Dalrymple, director of Tyler & Co and a fine-art loss adjustor charged with trying to return the Madonna to its owner, understands his frustration but says the thefts will continue because of one main factor - money.

"People aren't stealing these for their homes," he says. "They may be bathing in the afterglow and prestige that comes with such a major theft in the eyes of their contemporaries. But, at the end of the day, it's about making money."

One former stolen-art handler and author of the Art Hostage blog, who left his criminal career behind almost a decade ago, concurs. He explains how it worked. "When people came to me after a job, they would get a percentage of trade price. For example, if something was worth £3m and I could get £50,000 for it, they'd get £10,000. I'd pay them there and then so it's relatively easy money for a couple of hours' work. And you're much less likely to get caught than you would be holding up an ATM machine."

The handler would then pass it on to contacts in the antiques trade, who he claims were happy to turn a blind eye and would offer information to the police in return for them occasionally doing the same thing.

Often works would end up at London's Bermondsey Market, where, due to the ancient marche ouvert (open market) principle, an owner who had bought in good faith between sunrise and sunset got good title. "That meant you had people out thieving on a Thursday night, shunting it straight to handlers and selling it for cash at 5am in the morning," Dalrymple sighs. "Even if the buyers subsequently found out it had been stolen they wouldn't have it taken off them. It was daft."

In response, he founded the Council for the Prevention of Art Theft (Copat) in the late 1980s, a forum for the art world, insurers and police to work together. It resulted in the abolition of the market ouvert principle, and, for a while at least, better co-operation from dealers.

It may have helped but art theft is still rife and tracing works is harder than ever according to Dalrymple, who claims that, due to new legislation about protecting informants, most of his criminal sources don't bother to give him the badly needed tip-offs that led to the concealed masterpieces. He still has means, one of the most unlikely being the placing of ads in the trade press, which in 2002 led to the recovery of a Goya, stolen the year before.

Another helpful tool is the London-based Art Loss Register, which has recovered £120m worth since it was established in 1991. For a 15% finders fee they will rake through auction catalogues and have a presence at every major art fair, checking for pieces registered as stolen.

"The strength of the data base lies in that registered items will never get removed and that we work closely with the police and the insurance industry worldwide," says organisation spokeswoman Maya Bernard.

But, according to former police officer Hill, there's no substitute for good old-fashioned legwork. The maverick detective who developed a formidable reputation for his undercover work with the Met in the 1990s, now works freelance, flying round the world in search of the "big ones". When we speak he is on his way to Spain to follow a lead on the Gardner thefts committed 17 years ago in Boston.

But not everyone is a fan of his methods. In 2002, while on the trail of Titian's Rest on the Flight into Egypt - stolen in 1995 from Longleat - he enlisted the help of known art criminal David Duddin. That led to an approach by another man who said he could help, driving him around west London until he discovered the painting in a plastic bag near a bus stop. The man was paid a £100,000 reward, and Duddin also got a fee. Hill says he was satisfied that neither was involved in the crime, allowing him to pay the reward without breaching laws preventing criminals benefiting from their acts. Others said that by paying out he was encouraging works to be held to ransom. He insists he knows his limits. "You have to be confident that you know the difference between right and wrong," he says. "My test is that everything I do has to be both legal and reasonable."

The other requirements are persistence, a love of the chase and, perhaps most importantly, a fascination with the works. He confesses he is more interested in recovering art than catching crooks. "It's the art that I'm really interested in," he says. "Its historical significance sometimes outweighs its financial value, like that coin collection for instance. That is really important to Scotland. I'd like to think I could get that back."

Worrying Trends in Art Crime, Charlie Hill Mounts Canadian Police !!

Vol. 69, Issue 2 2007

The Royal Mounted Canadian Police
By Charles Hill

Art crime is any property crime with one or more works of art as its focal point. In our age, art is what you want it to be-and what you can get away with convincing others it is.
Most incidents of art crime are not committed by violent theft during robberies nor by burglary, but from thefts by deception. These thefts include any in which fraud, fakes, forgery or false attribution takes place, and they are the big money spinners.

Violent art thefts are relatively rare compared to thefts by deception. Once in a blue moon people do make money out of high-profile heists but, essentially, violent art crime is a game in which everyone loses.

Most successful and professional art thieves are smooth-talking tricksters. Art thefts by family members, employees and opportunists tend to be serious annoyances, usually covered by insurance. All such crimes will continue as long as art remains an enticement for avarice, an exercise in power and generator of excitement.
Art and violence

Violent art crime, however, is obviously different in its intensity, and it needs to be curbed.

Most violent criminals enjoy the self-esteem, self-regard and self-indulgence they feel when committing high-profile art crimes on specific occasions.

They tend to commit these crimes when police resources are stretched, for the obvious reason that they don’t want to get caught.

Here are five examples of high-profile art crimes that have taken place in the past two decades:

The theft of the original version of Edvard Munch’s Scream stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo on the first day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

The theft of a portrait attributed to Rembrandt called Rembrandt’s Mother from Wilton House, Wiltshire in England on Guy Fawkes /Bonfire Night, November 5, 1994.

The theft of Titian’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt and two other 16th century paintings from Longleat House, Wiltshire on Twelfth Night, January 6, 1995.

The theft of the Ashmolean Museum’s only Cezanne at Oxford University on Millennium Eve, 2000.

The armed robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Mass. on the night of St. Patrick’s Day 1990 in which several Rembrandts, a Vermeer and other highly significant works of art were stolen.

To those examples we can add three violent art thefts committed by Eastern European gangsters:

The armed robbery of versions of Munch’s Scream and Madonna paintings from the Munch Museum in Oslo in August 2004 by Norwegian criminals working on behalf of Balkan bandits, specifically Kosovar Albanians.

The armed robbery of a Rembrandt and two Renoirs from the National Museum of Sweden in Stockholm in December 2000. Again, this was a crime instigated by Balkan bandits, specifically Kosovar Albanians.

The armed robbery of two Turners stolen in July 1994 from an exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt while on loan from Tate Britain, the national gallery of British art in London. The theft revealed a trail that led back to a Serbian gang and its leader, Arkan. His own people later assassinated him for political reasons.

In all three latter examples, the paintings have been recovered. A substantial monetary reward was paid for the two Turners (although not for a third painting stolen at the same time). The Albanian Norwegian gangster who instigated the Scream and Madonna armed robbery in 2004 is currently appealing.

Organized gangs

Although there are many art crimes that are unrelated to organized criminal gangs, the notoriety of the ones mentioned above means that we should probably prepare for more.

These are not lunatics operating to the phases of the moon, but gangsters who see specific opportunities for crime when their profiles and vanities can receive a boost from specific occasions and places, and when they think the police will be otherwise engaged.

If a cut stone is a work of art, the attempted armed robbery in 2002 to steal a collection of gems including the 203-carat Millennium Star diamond at the Millennium Dome in London, England is another example of the attraction of art crime to calculating minds. Although foiled by police, those thieves derived inspiration from a James Bond film. They smashed into the dome with a bulldozer and planned to escape in a speedboat across the river Thames.

Even worse was the destruction in Afghanistan of the great Bamiyan Buddha statues by the Taliban in 2001 and the earlier looting and destruction of the Kabul Museum by various Afghan groups, including the Taliban. There is a constant threat to religious works of art from religious groups who regard themselves as iconoclastic purifiers of faith.

In 2005, while looking for very valuable stolen property from the counties surrounding London, I asked a notorious Irish traveller in the West of England called Jimmy Johnson if he had seen any signs of Balkan bandits coming to England to steal works of art.

His reply was interesting. He said that two Albanians had visited his caravan site some weeks earlier and asked him if they could run with his family in drugs crime and major house burglaries. He told me he said no to them because he was trying to get his family away from those activities.

Then, he said, they asked him if he wanted anyone killed, to which he replied that if he needed someone to do that, he would do it himself.

The significance of Johnson’s responses is that the newer organized criminal groups in England work to a different code of conduct than the typical people who commit violent art crimes in the British Isles. Whether Albanian, Somalian or a member of any organized crime group, these criminals are likely to be increasingly violent and remorseless because they often come from societies more violent than contemporary English society.

For them, art crime will be an easy option once they have the motivation and opportunity, the infrastructure and the right criminal contacts.


The most serious art theft since the Second World War was the robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, 17 years ago. My view is that the stolen paintings were shipped to Halifax, Nova Scotia, then containerized and sent to Limerick, Ireland. All of that may have been organized by a remnant of the Winter Hill gang in Boston. Joe Murray, its leader at the time, was shot dead by his wife at their summer house near the New Brunswick-Maine border. She subsequently died from a drug overdose.

The paintings are probably in the west of Ireland where they will remain indefinitely and are unlikely to surface until Boston mobster James J. "Whitey" Bulger is arrested. Bulger also stars on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list and was the major Boston criminal at the time of the Gardner Museum robbery. For those who like their criminals fictionalized, Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the Bulger character in Martin Scorsese’s 2007 Oscar-winning film The Departed is interesting, but in real life, "Whitey" is still alive.

To curb violent art robbery by organized criminal gangs in Western Europe, those Gardner Museum paintings need recovering as a lesson in the futility of stealing priceless works of art.

Looking ahead



The threat of terrorist activity and violent art crime will come together in London when the city hosts the 2012 Olympics. The museums, galleries and archival stores in London will become soft targets when public order policing dominates Olympic security considerations.
Preparing for and preventing such an attempt is important because it will be the benchmark by which other major violent art crime attacks will be measured in future decades. The war on terror is going to go on for a long time, and international art treasures are vulnerable.

We need to think about these potential art crime problems and the solutions to them now. Law enforcement agencies in British Columbia could prudently do the same when preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.


During his more than 20 years working for the London Police in the U.K., Charles Hill specialized in investigating art and antiques theft. He has been involved in recovering numerous works of art, including the original version of Edvard Munch’s Scream, stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway. Today he provides art risk management and security advice to individual art collectors, dealers and public and private institutions.

'High value' jewellery snatched










Detectives have launched an inquiry into the theft of jewellery worth at least £100,000 in Dunblane.

A bag containing the gems was snatched from a 61-year-old man as he got out of a car in the town's Grant Drive at about 1400 BST on Thursday.

The thief, described as of Asian or Mediterranean appearance and in his early 20s, escaped in a maroon-coloured car with three other people inside.
Police confirmed that the stolen items were worth a six figure sum.

Detective Sergeant Donna Bryans, of Stirling CID, said: "A substantial amount of jewellery was taken from the 61-year-old as he got out of a car.

"The thief is described as of Asian or Mediterranean appearance, in his early 20s and had short dark hair.

"This man made off in a waiting four-door maroon-coloured car which had another three Asian or Mediterranean men inside."


Art Hostage comments:

Charles Hill is a Lumberjack and he's Ok, he works all night and he sleeps all day......... headin "Due South" for Sunny Spain Junket, wonder who is paying ??

Perhaps the Balkan Bandits have landed in Dunblane Scotland?

Art Hostage does have much to say as you would expect, however, I need to get security clearence before doing so.

A classic case of Realpolitik going on behind the scenes.

World Breaking News, Harry Potter Author, J.K. Rowling Targeted by Country House Art Thieves !!

World Exclusive

Tale of Two Targets


World Exclusive, While J.K Rowling promotes the new Harry Potter movie and final book, Country House Art Thieves are targeting the Scottish Country House retreat of the Author and her family. Killiechassie House, on the banks of the river Tay on the far side of the Perthshire Town Aberfeldy, home to the first muster of the Black Watch is high on the "things to do" list of Organised Art Raiders.



It was at the beginning of May 2007 that Art Hostage was given information from a trusted Underworld source that high value art thieves had been driving along the banks of the river Tay in Aberfeldy and came across a Victorian mansion with colour coded spiked railings around the perimeter.





These art thieves parked their vehicle opposite the Mansion outside a family graveyard.

Apparently the graveyard dates back hundreds of years and is the ancestral burial place of former owners of Killiechassie House, the Stewart family I think.


One of the thieves jumped over the railings and went unchallenged to the main house. A quick look through the ground floor Windows and a check on type of windows and French doors to see if they could be drilled and taken off their hinges for a snatch raid, or if a ram raid would be better was established.





Subsequently, the art thieves found out that this was the Country home of Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling, husband and three children.


It is alleged that the Rowlings have a large art collection including some very valuable Scottish Colourist paintings, how the thieves found this out is unclear, or if even true. This interior photograph of Killiechassie House shows luxury furnishings that attract thieves.


Stunned by this news, Art Hostage contacted an London Insurance insider who in turn passed this sinister news to a Senior, trusted, Scottish Police Officer, who promised to pass this crucial information through to Tayside Police with the strong recommendation to follow up and conduct a new risk assessment at the very least. However, the Insurance Insider was warned that Perthshire, Tayside Police may not act on this intelligence and just hope for the best.



The vital question is whether Perthshire Tayside Police have alerted the Rowling family of the threat, especially as the promotion of the new movie and book will leave the house unattended, or worse, the family may be in residence during a raid and be at risk of being injured.


To heighten fears more, it has come to the attention of law enforcement that some Country House High Value Art Thieves are Cocaine fueled and are carrying guns whilst they conduct their art raids.


Why you may ask is Art Hostage going public on this?


Cilla Black marries her Manager Bobby, who gave her a fabulous jewel collection stolen by heartless thieves.



Well a nasty experience before resulted in Cilla Black being robbed although Thames Valley Police were warned about the threat a year before, see story below.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/archive/tm_method=full%26objectid=13338399%26siteid=89520-name_page.html


Information was passed to DC 3882, Jackie Murdoch, Sgt Mick Brown and Sgt 2806 Richard May of the Thames Valley Police Force Intelligence Bureau.



THAMES VALLEY POLICE Tel: 01865 846000 & Direct Line 01865 293956, ask for Jackie Murdoch and she will confirm Cilla information was received but not acted upon.





To make matters worse the same Gang who robbed Cilla Black went on to commit further offences, before being convicted of other robberies in 2004



Thames Valley Police Force Intelligence Bureau

Oxford Road,

Kidlington, OX5 2NX

, Oxfordshire, UK

Fax: 01865 855736Contact :



DC3882 Jackie MurdochPolice antiques desk



Also ex-Thames Valley art and antiques Police officer Jim Hill was present when Cilla information was given.


As you will note, Police failed to warn Cllia Black because they did not want to unduly concern the family.

Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber was warned and had risk assessments done, Sting got Police surveillance at Lake House Wiltshire, poor old Cilla did not even get a visit or a phone call to warn her.


However, if Thames Valley Police had done a risk assessment check on Cllia's house they would have told her to secure all the downstairs windows with locks and upgrade the alarm system.


This would undoubtedly have prevented Cilla Black losing her treasured jewels given to her by her late husband Bobby.





So, amongst all the fluff stories about Harry Potter this is one that could turn nasty.






Subsequent to this, it was at the end of May 2007 that Art Hostage obtained further Underworld information that an Art crime "Spotter" had been on a visit to Frogmore, Windsor, to see the mausoleum of Queen Victoria that is opened only a few times a year for the public. this was on her birthday, 23rd May I think.


Anyway, while touring the grounds of Frogmore this Art Crime Spotter saw a set of French windows open and could see numerous amounts of Silver gilt items adorning a big dining table as well as other high value artworks.

The Spotter also saw that the French windows were wooden and would be easy to drill and take off their hinges for a snatch job.

It is interesting to note that even as the alarms are sounding, it would only take a matter of minutes to assemble holdalls full of silver gilt and pictures and be off before any guard arrive.


This Spotter reported his findings back to a particular high value stolen art handler, who in turn was in the process of rounding up his A-Team burglars to go take a look at Frogmore.


Again Art Hostage contacted a London Insurance insider, who in turn passed this dreadful news to S.O.C.A , who, in light of the Royal connection, dropped everything, raced to Frogmore, demanded a new risk assessment and put Frogmore on lock down.

Why, I hear you ask was Frogmore given top priority?


Well, it is a Royal House and part of Windsor Castle.

Law Enforcement would not dare act in a dilatory fashion with regards the Royals, it would be

"off with their heads"

Moral of these True Tales of Two Art Theft Targets:

"Money can't buy you everything, especially simple advice on protection if under a credible threat, unless of course you are part of the Royal Establishment"

I hope it is not the case, but for J.K. Rowling, being Royalty of the book and movie world may not be enough to get priority from dilatory Police.

No doubt, to be continued.................................................

Gardner Art Heist Style Robbery Prevented at the Barnes Art Collection, Cezanne's "The Card Players" Saved !!

Barnes Rejects Montgomery County Lease Offer

By Jeremy Rogoff
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Barnes Foundation Chairman Bernard C. Watson has turned down a funding proposal offered by Montgomery County to keep the historic art collection in its Merion home.
Watson rejected the proposal Monday in a letter to a lawyer representing the county, saying the foundation had made binding commitments to Philadelphia to relocate to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. He added that the "decision is irreversible."

In a written statement, a spokesman for the foundation said today that "the Barnes Foundation has already raised $150 million from a broad base of donors, has the steady support of the city of Philadelphia and a lease for a city block on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and will shortly pick a world-class architect to build a new home for the art collection to fulfill its mission."

In a letter sent June 12, Montgomery County asked the foundation to consider selling the county the building where the art collection is housed and the grounds, with the county using tax-exempt bonds to raise money for the purchase. The art collection would remain where it is, and the Barnes would pay rent to the county by investing profits from the sale.

Mark Schwartz, a lawyer hired by Montgomery County to keep the Barnes in Merion, criticized Watson's swift rejection of the proposal, saying that the chairman "turned down this offer with the brush of a hand."

Schwartz vowed he would continue the fight in Montgomery County Orphans' Court, claiming Watson was disregarding "his fiduciary resposibility," to the foundation.

Barnes Rebuffs Montco Offer
By: Jim McCaffrey, The Bulletin
06/21/2007


Philadelphia - And they are off to court.
Once again the Barnes Foundation has probably landed itself in court, where it will again have to defend its decisions. This comes thanks to its response yesterday to Montgomery County's offer to create an endowment for the foundation. The county believes it can do this by purchasing the Barnes' properties using money from the sale of low interest, county-backed bonds and leasing the properties back to the foundation.

The offer would create a fund worth "at least" $50 million, according to Montco attorney in this matter Mark Schwartz.

Yesterday, Bernard Watson, chairman of the Barnes Foundation, rejected the Montco offer.
"The Barnes Foundation intends to fulfill its mission 'to promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of fine arts' by moving the gallery collection to the site on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway provided to us by the city of Philadelphia," Watson said in his reply.
"Over the years, the board of trustees has considered all reasonable proposals presented to us. At this juncture, we have now made binding commitments to carry out the move of the gallery collection to Philadelphia and the decision is irreversible."

The bond money would purchase the foundation's property in Lower Merion as well as its Chester County estate known as Ker Feal.
Interest on $50 million would amount to approximately $3.5 million a year. Payments to the county would be only $2.5 million a year, leaving the Barnes a $1 million per year financial cushion.

The deal is contingent on the Barnes Foundation agreeing to keep its $30 billion art collection in its Merion home. The plan has the virtue of using no taxpayer money.
The foundation last year negotiated a deal with the Lenfest Foundation, the Pew Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania to move the Barnes art collection to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

So far the state has committed $25 million in matching grant funds to the move.
After watching silently from the sidelines as the foundation struggled to overcome hurdles placed before it by the efforts of Walter Annenberg's lawyers, Montgomery County finally decided last week it should probably make a last-minute jump to try and rescue what are undeniably its crown jewels.

This decision also comes after taking no action when zoning laws imposed by the township handcuffed the Barnes' ability to raise the visibility of its collection, and after county watchdogs did not even so much as a bark when the Philadelphia came in and made the deal to steal away the fabulous art collection.

Schwartz promised he would now take the offer to Montgomery County Orphans' Court where he will ask Judge Stanley Ott to decide if the Foundation is properly fulfilling its fiduciary duty by rejecting the Montgomery County offer.
"One of the interesting things is understanding the mindset," Schwartz explained in a phone conversation yesterday. "The fiduciary is supposed to exhaust all its options. It's not for Bernard Watson to sit on a throne and wait to be presented with options. They could have gone to the county and said 'let's do this financing.'

"They feel like they don't have to do anything. They act like they are above it all. Now the emperor has no clothes. I don't believe Bernard Watson's testimony that the foundation exhausted all its options before reaching out to the Pew Foundation."

He added, "Bernard Watson is not only contemptuous of his responsibility to the trust, he is not only contemptuous of Montgomery County and Judge Ott, he is contemptuous of tax payers."

Jim McCaffrey can be reached at jmccaffrey@thebulletin.us

Art Hostage comments:

It is with considerable interest that I watch how this develops because of a personal interest and connection to the Barnes Art Collection.

Let me begin, it was in January 2005 that information was received from the Underworld about Irish Gangsters, with Traveller connections from the West of Ireland, and who's members had been responsible for some of the biggest high profile art thefts of recent times, had been to the United States for Automatic weapons training on the East Coast of America..

This was a result of several failed assassination attempts because of poor shooting accuracy as well as the lack of training to use automatic weapons.

The West of Ireland Organised crime Clans have possession of, an interest in, and access to, some of the most valuable stolen art in the world currently outstanding. Vermeer and co from the Gardner Museum Boston, Da Vinci from Scotland, Cezanne from Oxford England, White Duck from Norfolk England, Harry Hyams unique artworks etc etc.

The only way to recover these items is to buy them back, or offer a deal that may involve less jail time. Distasteful as this may be, it is the only way left, as numerous attempts to try and sting these Irish Clansmen have all failed, and nearly led to a gun battle last fall.

Whilst in the United States honing their weapons skills, these Irish Traveller Gangsters met with American/Irish Travellers who hail from a place called Murphy Village South Carolina.

(Contact was also established with Irish Travellers who live in Mansions outside Dallas, and who obtain their considerable wealth by conning the elderly across the United States into paying extortionate amounts for shoddy sub-standard building work. These high rollers, within the Irish Travelling community of America, also organise art and antiques thefts from their building work customers, who are often elderly and have valuable art and antiques.)

During the Modus Vivendi meeting the subject of the Barnes Art Collection came up and because of all the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the collection, perhaps there was chance to execute a Art Heist similar to that of the Gardner Heist in Boston 1990.

Similar type of location, not high tech security, in-experienced guards on low pay etc.

Shocked at this news, Art Hostage contacted FBI Agent Robert Wittman to discuss how to counter this threat.

Such was the shock and horror FBI Agent Robert Wittman headed for the Barnes straight away to conduct a brand new security assessment and put the Barnes Art Collection on lock down.

Subsequent threats were neutralised, not least by the public show of high security and visible increase in visitor awareness.

Now the Barnes is back in the news it has me thinking that the art collection could still be in danger, especially when it moves to its new location, and would it be best if the FBI Art Crime Team personally oversee the transportation?

There is always a risk of a private security transportation guard being corrupted which could lead to a hold up.

I shudder to think if after all the controversy surrounding the Barnes Art Collection, a number of artworks get stolen, especially "The Card Players" by Cezanne, which resonates like the "The Concert" by Vermeer stolen from the Gardner Museum.

Don't worry, I have communicated my fears to FBI Agent Robert Wittman, who, I am sure has put in place mechanisms that will prevent any Gardner style Art Heist.

I expect the Barnes Art Collections most valuable works, including Cezanne's "The Card Players" will be escorted to their new home via the Presidential limousine, accompanied personally by FBI Agent Robert Wittman.

The game is to identify targets that Art thieves have also looked at, then plug any security gaps to make the Art thieves look elsewhere. The only loss is travel expenses for the Art Thieves.

Prevention is better than cure.

Just another tale of how a major art theft was thwarted.

Upon another note, it has been the topic of conversation around the art related crime world about FBI Agent Robert Wittman retiring this coming October, and to add insult to injury, the FBI Art Crime Team is to be down-graded, a victim of it's own huge success.

If Bob Wittman does retire, then what a golden opportunity for the Barnes Art Collection to employ a man who strides across the Art World like a Colossus.

Head of Security at the Barnes collection will only be one of many titles awaiting FBI Agent Robert Wittman in retirement.

U.S. Culture Secretary, Hollywood Crime Host, Cultural Author...etc

Stolen Vermeer, Hunt for Whitey Bulger brings Charlie Hill, out of the Closet !!

Breaking news:
INLA Leader conveniently found dead in cell http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6736185.stm

Does this help smooth the way for Gardner art to surface, yes when FBI/Irish Authorities take "Yes" for an answer

Chris Roberts/A.K.A., Charlie Hill and FBI Bulger Squad get in character to trace Whitey Bulger !!!!!



UK expert on the trail of godfather suspected of masterminding $350m art heist
Sandra Laville in Las Palmas
Monday June 4, 2007

The Guardian

"No, the legs are wrong. The walk is wrong. He'd be wearing a hat, and sunglasses, always sunglasses."
Along the two-mile promenade of Playa de las Canteras, elderly men with white hair and skin the colour of worn leather pass the time of day with friends. Some walk purposefully along the beach skirting the surf line, baseball hats pulled down on their heads. Others sit on benches smoking cigarettes.

Secreted here, amid the sweep of hotels, facades of broken-down buildings and surfers' haunts, is a British art crime investigator working under the pseudonym Chris Roberts to protect his anonymity. Nearing 60, he is a loner, with strong contacts in the criminal underworld and a reputation for finding what he seeks. He is convinced he will know the man he wants when he sees him. The legs will be distinctive, strong and significantly bowed, lending an unmistakeable sway to the walk. The face will be chiselled, the arms muscular despite his 77 years and the blue eyes hidden behind aviator sunglasses. He will be carrying a knife.

For 12 years James "Whitey" Bulger has evaded capture. The violent and feared godfather of the Irish mob in Boston, Massachusetts, Whitey fled the US in 1995 after being tipped off by a corrupt FBI agent, John Connolly, that an indictment was heading his way. With Connolly now in jail in the US, Whitey, so named because of his slick of white hair, is wanted for 19 murders, violating the laws against organised crime, extortion, drug dealing and money laundering, all committed from the early 1970s to the mid-80s. Considered armed and extremely dangerous, he ranks in the top 10 of the FBI's list of most-wanted villains and carries a $1m (£500,000) bounty.



In 12 years the FBI's Bulger taskforce has searched England, Ireland, France, Italy, Thailand and Brazil for Whitey - the man on whom Martin Scorsese is said to have modelled Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson in the Oscar-winning film The Departed.

What might appear to be a search for a needle in a haystack has recently focused on Spain. The US attorney in Boston, Michael Sullivan, will not comment on the investigation but it is understood a Spanish arrest warrant has been issued for Bulger and investigators from the justice department have recently travelled to the Canary Islands in the hunt for him.

What brings Roberts, one of Britain's leading specialist art crime investigators, to Gran Canaria dates back to 1990 in Boston, a city where nothing moved in the underworld without the Irish godfather knowing about it.

In the early hours of March 18, as Boston's St Patrick's Day celebrations drew to a close, two thieves, dressed in ill-fitting police uniforms, carried out one of the biggest art heists in history.

Thirteen paintings worth $350m - including Rembrandt's only seascape, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, The Concert by Jan Vermeer, Landscape with an Obelisk by Govaert Flinck, five Degas drawings and a Manet portrait - were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

The thieves handcuffed and bound the guards and ripped the canvases from the frames, leaving the ragged edges of the masterpieces protruding from the smashed glass and splintered wood.

The crime may have taken place 17 years ago, but the hunt for the paintings continues. Many investigators believe Bulger was the mastermind. "Find Whitey and you find the paintings," said Roberts.

Armed with tips from informants, Roberts treads the beaches of Gran Canaria scanning the groups of old men in their 70s, watches the ferry port and sits scouring hotel lobbies, a digital camera and a notebook in his pocket. "It's like a painting, it tells you whether it's real or not if you know what you are looking for and look closely," he said.

Roberts's success in recovering masterpieces for museums and private individuals during his 30-year career belies the hard work and tedium of the traditional gumshoe. Hunting for a fugitive requires good informants, patience, instinct, tenacity and an ability to take repeated, crushing disappointments. Investigators immerse themselves in the lives of their subject in an attempt to get inside their minds. In Bulger's case the FBI lists his predilections as walking on beaches, exercise, historical buildings, libraries and a love of animals.

"He will be in a place away from the tourists, somewhere with a slightly seedy edge, where he can walk along the beach unnoticed and have control over his surroundings," said Roberts. "What he won't want is to draw attention to himself. He is very proud of his physique, so will be keeping fit. He has to be in a place where he can escape quickly, not some small village where he would stand out and could be trapped."

Roberts is one of at least two British experts trying to crack one of the art world's greatest mysteries. Other freelance bounty hunters are also looking for the paintings, attracted by the $5m reward for the safe return of the works.

Unlike most crimes, where the trail goes cold the longer the investigation continues, when it comes to high-value art thefts, the years that pass make a breakthrough more likely. "You are not looking for the thieves. It is the handlers you want, the people who have hold of the art and have laid it down to await further instructions," Roberts said.

Contacted last year by the US attorney in Boston, he has visited Spain and the Canaries four times in his search. In October last year he believed he had spotted the fugitive in a rundown part of Alicante, exercising in the early morning on the seafront. "When I saw him I took pictures, and went back and watched again. It was his walk that gave him away, I was convinced it was him."

He took several photographs, contacted the lead investigator from the US attorney's justice department in Boston and sent off the pictures. "It took seven weeks for them to turn up in Spain," he said. A return visit by Roberts during a wet, cold November drew a blank. "By then I think he was long gone."

Accusations abound that the FBI and the US attorney's justice department have been leaden-footed in the 12-year manhunt, fuelled by the history of the mobster's relationship with the bureau. For nearly two decades Bulger was a top-tier secret FBI informant and as such was given protection by his corrupt handler, Connolly, from prosecution by other agencies, including the police. The allegation is that the last thing many within the FBI want is to find Bulger and stir memories of the rampant corruption within the agency in the city.

As for the paintings, sources within the art crime underworld and the Garda believe they have been laid down in a secret hideaway in the west of Ireland, a result of strong links between Bulger's Irish mafia in Boston and senior figures within the IRA leadership at the time.

"If Bulger is caught there is no need for those who hold the paintings to hang on to them," said Roberts. "That is the moment you are likely to have a breakthrough. At the moment it is not worth the lives of those holding the art to do anything differently from what they have been told by the people who are supporting Whitey's fugitive status."

A security source within the art world said the paintings may be used as a bartering tool by known criminals. "Art thefts in general are often carried out not for actual cash but for collateral for drugs or bartering your way out of charges," said the source. "People steal art, store it away and hold on to it. When they get into trouble, they use it as a means of trying to get out of trouble."

It is known that before he fled America, Bulger travelled to Ireland, the UK and elsewhere in Europe, leaving money and other possessions in deposit boxes as a means of support when on the run. Scotland Yard became involved in the case, the Guardian understands, when one of the many boxes deposited by Bulger was found in the security vaults of a bank near Piccadilly Circus. Inside, officers found $50,000 and the key to another deposit box in Dublin. In Boston, the head of security at the Gardner museum, Anthony Amore, believes the $5m reward will eventually attract vital information."There are a number of investigations going on," said Mr Amore. "Primarily, the FBI has the jurisdiction, and they are heading up the investigation into the theft.

"From our perspective I will walk over broken glass to get the paintings back. We are optimistic. There are a number of very good people who are investigating the theft and issues around it," he said. He went on to name Roberts and another Briton.

But for Roberts the hunt ended in Gran Canaria, albeit temporarily, in disappointment and a trail gone cold. His continued conviction, however, that Bulger holds the key to finding the art comes as no surprise to museum staff.

"He was the main crime boss in Boston at the time, he knew everything that went on," said a museum source. "No one really knows what the FBI are up to, they don't tell us, but his name certainly cannot be ruled out."

Today, the empty frames of the paintings still hang on the museum walls. A notice next to the space where once Vermeer's The Concert hung reads: "On the night of March 18 1990 thieves stole 13 priceless works of art including The Concert and The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI."

Mr Amore often pauses to stare at the empty frames. "We like to look at those empty frames as place holders for our art," he said. "They are not there to mourn the loss of the paintings, but to hold a place for those important pieces which we are sure will one day be returned to the Gardner collection."


Artful dodgers


Charles Hill talks to Stephen Armstrong about catching culture thieves

Charlie Hill begins by shattering my illusions. "Jules Verne did it first," he says. "In Captain Nemo's ward room he had all these stolen masterpieces. Then you get Dr No where Sean Connery and Ursula Andress walk past Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington that had been stolen a couple of years before the film was made and Bond says 'Oh, that's where it went.' Then there's the Thomas Crown Affair and countless others - writers perpetuating the idea that collectors have paintings stolen to order." He pauses. "That's almost all bullshit."


Hill should know. He's got one of best records in the business for recovering stolen art. In 1993, while working for the art and antiquities unit of the Metropolitan police, he went undercover and returned with Vermeer's Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid, seven years after it had been stolen by the brutal Irish gangster Martin "The General" Cahill.


In 1994 he helped track down Edvard Munch's The Scream after it was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo.



Since leaving the force, he has helped the Marquess of Bath find Titian's Rest on the Flight into Egypt, which had been missing since 1995, and he tried unsuccessfully to negotiate for the return of the Henry Moore bronze stolen last December. "I got a call saying it had been melted down," he says regretfully. "That's the most frustrating part of the job, hearing that art has been melted down for scrap. I find it very disheartening."

Right now, Hill is pretty disheartened. A spate of bronze thefts around London shows that - after a lull - art theft is back in a new and depressing way. "The National Trust hasn't been hit for 18 months," Hill explains. "There had been plans to hit Knole [an NT property near Sevenoaks, Kent], but the gang changed their minds after they were told it wouldn't be worth their lives. One of the men, who is behind a lot of the art theft from houses - the paintings-lifted-from-walls jobs - issued instructions they weren't to do the job. The gang knew his reputation - a very violent, multifaceted criminal - so they did an ATM instead."

He says this as we wander through Kew Gardens, near his home in Twickenham, on the day news broke that one of Lynn Chadwick's Watchers had been lifted from the grounds of Roehampton University. "These bronze thefts - they're part of something new." He seems gloomy at the prospect. "When my contact told me the Moore had been melted down, he said they'd got a couple of grand for it and considered it a good night's work."

This new type of theft depresses Hill because there's so little time between the crime and the crucible. He works on jobs that take years - years spent following ripples in a murky pool of criminal gangs and dubious art dealers until he can fish out his painted prize. "The amount of beauty matched by moral turpitude in the art world generally, but specifically in the world of art crime, is fascinating." Hill half smiles beneath his well-trimmed beard. "There's a great fluctuating moral tide and people just bob along on it."

Most of the actual thieves who snatch the pictures do so out of ignorance - they're the kind of petty criminals who could take a JCB to an ATM one day, sell some weed the next and rip a Vermeer from a stately home at the weekend. "Most art collections are very badly protected," Hill points out. "The reason is, they're on public display. You can't turn the National Gallery into Fort Knox, what's the point? They do what they can within budget, but if you're determined you can probably get away with it. The thieves are told the things are worth a fortune, that they're relatively easy to steal so they steal - then they have to get rid of them."

The bronze thefts worry him, because turning them into cash is easy. With picture thefts it's different. Once most thieves get their hands on something they've no idea how to sell it on and usually let priceless pieces go for tiny sums. It takes a few more transactions before the picture brushes against the art world proper, and then it's legal for reward money to change hands - which is usually where Hill steps in.

The only theft he can recall that matches the Technicolor glory of heist flicks was the 2003 theft of a Benvenuto Cellini gold saltcellar from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The thief had worked out that the museum's infrared detector beams met behind the cellar's plinth, so during building work he climbed the scaffolding, entered the gallery through the window and, despite triggering an alarm, made off with $58m worth of condiment.

"The cellar was recovered last Saturday by the Austrian police." Hill sounds impressed with their detective work. "What's interesting is that the guy had just buried it in a box. He'd taken quite good care of it - there was only a little damage. He was pleased with himself that he'd stolen it and he was keeping it for his own pleasure - although he had tried to turn it in for a reward, which is how they'd cottoned on to him."

If art crime is some way from fiction, Hill's own life is a proper adventure yarn. His American airforce father and British ballerina mother met during the second world war. After the war, the family became camp followers as his dad was posted around the world, "like Mother Courage", Hill jokes. He went to a dozen different schools in Europe and the US. His mother would take her kids around galleries, and it is from her that he picked up his love of the art world. He was still the son of a soldier, though, and in 1967 - one year after his father's accidental death - he volunteered for the draft, spending two years in the US infantry including a tour of Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne. He survived without a scratch and earned a reputation as a lucky charm. Other soldiers clustered around him in battle, convinced that his juju would protect them.

Hill returned to college in Washington DC in 1969 and spent his Sunday mornings watching Kenneth Clark's Civilisation at the National Gallery. Winning a Fulbright scholarship allowed him to pursue post-grad work at Trinity College, Dublin - where he met and fell in love with his wife, but fell out of love with academia. After briefly considering the church, he opted instead for the Metropolitan police and, by 1978, was a beat officer in Stoke Newington, north London.

"My beat was the top of Stamford Hill - three different groups of Orthodox Jews in the area and high immigration so it was a high-pressure job," he recalls. "I mainly arrested muggers, because I was fitter then and a good middle-distance runner - if they couldn't get away from me in the first 100 yards, I had them."

A career in CID followed, and it was while undercover that his artistic expertise came to the force's attention. He was posing as a collector looking to buy a stolen picture from two career criminals who saw the job as their retirement fund when he realised the painting was a poor Victorian forgery. He told both the crooks and his bosses and - after they'd busted the pair - he started working on art and antiquities full time. Typically he'd be undercover as a blustering American collector, although for The Scream, he posed as a representative of the Getty Institute offering a $5m reward.

"It's often easier at the robbery level to go through the criminal world, as money talks," he explains. "That's why it's so important to have rewards. Some people feel uneasy because I do cultivate bad guys I feel can help. Take the gangster who stopped the Knole job. He's the head of a large Irish travelling family over here and they'd been involved in Bath's Titian but he now feels they have to get away from raiding historic houses. Mind you, a lot of people in his family don't like him being friendly with me. I've been to his main site where his family is and I felt like Hawkeye going into the camp of the Huron chief to rescue Colonel Munro's daughters. They feel I've twisted the mind of their boss."

As we're talking, he gets a call from a guy in Scandinavia who thinks he's got a lead on the two Munch paintings stolen in 2004. Hill is delighted. He's been hoping for the call all week. He's sure that if he can talk to the people with the paintings - the thieves have all been caught and are on trial - he should be able to get them back. "It's about persuading people that they can return things and not go to jail," he says.

We head back towards the station and he ruminates on his low pay now that he's working for himself. "I left the force when I was 49, 10 years ago," he explains. "There's not much money in this game though. My wife has had to go back to work full time. Financially it's a struggle, but it's enormously worthwhile. I've held a Goya, a Munch and a Vermeer in my hands that I personally helped recover. There's nothing else I want to do. This is my vocation - I intend to do it for as long as people steal things. Which is for ever."

Stealing the show: Hill's recoveries

Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid (Vermeer)
Russborough House, the late Sir Alfred Beit's home in Ireland, has been raided at least four times. Before the 1986 raid, Martin Cahill joined guided tours of the Beit Collection, and returned in the early hours of May 21. His gang deactivated an alarm, and hid while gardai checked the premises. They then loaded 18 works of art into stolen cars, abandoning the seven least valuable next to a nearby lake.

The Scream (Munch)
The 1994 theft of the painting (one of four Screams) took less than a minute. At 6.30am on February 12, two men smashed a window in the National Gallery, Oslo, cut the wires holding the painting in place and fled before guards responded to the alarm.

Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Titian)
The thieves entered Longleat House, Lord Bath's Wiltshire home, through a broken window on January 6 1995, a week after Charles Hill, then head of the art and antiques squad, warned art owners to improve their security.

Art Hostage comments:

Chris Roberts is the pseudonym Charlie Hill uses when he goes on a Gay Gangbanging Guardian junket. "Dick Ellis, June 4th 2007"


Charlie Hill's favorite Karaoke track, variation of the George Michael song:


"Don't Let Your Son Go Down On Me"



"Charlie Hill was once so depressed he tried to drown himself, he was found clinging to a Boy"
Michel van Rijn June 4th 2007


Charlie Hill loves Chinese food, his favourite soup:


"Cream of some young Guy"


O'h and while Charlie Hill is having a jolly up at the Guardian's expense, poor old Jimmy Johnson is languishing in Jail doing four years.



Jimmy Johnson's only crime was to try and recover stolen high value art and collect a reward.


Wonder what Jimmy Johnson will think when he next gets a visit from Charlie Hill all tanned and mincing into the visiting room like Liberace on speed??

Charlie Hill, in full regalia, ready to visit Jimmy Johnson in Jail.


Charlie, we are just joking, having a laugh, nothing personal, no offense intended.

Furthermore, Charlie Hill is certainly not Gay, in fact he has been described as the most virile Hetrosexual man ever to serve at Scotland Yard in the London Met Police.



To matters at hand:


I have been saying until I am Blue in the face that the only safe way to recover the Gardner art without the Gardner Museum paying a reward to the bad guys via Chris Roberts AKA Charlie Hill, is for General Thomas Slab Murphy to secure the Vermeer and co, paying what money is owed to underworld figures, then allowing the Vermeer and co to surface via a confession box (Symbolism of absolution)


Subsequent to the recovery of the Gardner art the Sectarian prosecution and bogus tax demand of $40 million is withdrawn against the Murphy family and that is that.


By taking this route there are no payments made that could be given to bad guys thereby not encouraging further art thefts.

It seems that authorities keep on trying to pull the tail of the Celtic Tigers, so don't be surprised to if the Tiger turns round and bites their hands off, metaphorically so to speak.




Now there is power sharing in the North it is about time there was an amnesty for past moneymaking operations and a cut off date set as May 8th 2007.


Any Republican or Loyalist moneymaking activity before May 8th 2007 should be consigned to history alongside the dark days of the Struggle/Troubles.




This amnesty should also include Jackie McDonald as well as Brian Arthur's.



If good old Bobby Storey can get a car, expense account and new job, why not afford this to other former paramilitaries?


Finally, a week in the sun courtesy of the Guardian, looking for men with bow legs sounds like a junket to me, also there is a risk of being arrested for importuning and the accusation of a sexual fetish.




I wonder if Chris Roberts had his bushy moustache, leather hat and handkerchief in the back pocket to attract the attention of Whitey Bulger??

Charlie Hill in his Spanish Undercover outfit !!!

A quick rendition of Y.MC.A

"Young man, there's no need to feel down, I said young man, ................"


Whitey Bulger was in Spain last year but now he has been in South of France, on his way to Ireland for the Summer, via Channel Tunnel, then ferry from Stranraer to Belfast.

Word is Whitey is already in West of Ireland hooking up with Dessie O'Hare,

see wikipedia search for Dessie o'hare and Sean O'Callaghan

A throw-back to the historic connections between the Boston Underworld and the I.N.L.A. namely, Joe Murray, Whitey Bulger and Dominic McGlinchey now Whitey Bulger is close to Dominic's children Dominic jnr and Declan.

Declan McGlinchey is why the FBI and Irish Authorities will not allow any reward to be paid for the Gardner art, because they fear Declan McGlinchey will use it for Terrorist purposes.

Joe Murray was murdered by Whitey Bulger, with FBI approval and not by his wife, as reported by the FBI controlled media Whores.


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



The Foxes Guarding the Hen-House ?????????????????

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