Federal officials have charged nine people with stealing art by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollack, Yogi Berra's World Series rings, boxing championship belts and other memorabilia in a decades-old theft ring–a scheme that sometimes resulted in the alleged thieves destroying the pricy artifacts instead of reselling them.
French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres looks at a painting by Jackson Pollock at the ... [+]
Federal prosecutors said Thursday the nine defendants—who were indicted in federal court in Pennsylvania—worked together for nearly 20 years to break into museums and other institutions to steal "priceless” works of art, pieces of memorabilia and other objects.
Stolen items attributed to the crime group include “Le Grande Passion” by Andy Warhol and “Springs Winter” by Jackson Pollock; nine World Series rings, seven other championship rings, and two MVP plaques awarded to Yogi Berra; six boxing championship belts; a 1903 Belmont Stakes trophy; $1.3 million worth of antique firearms; $400,000 in gold nuggets and dozens of other items.
The defendants are alleged to have stolen from museums and stores in their home state of Pennsylvania as well as in New Jersey, North Dakota, New York and Rhode Island between 1999 and 2018.
After stealing the items, they would take many of the goods back to Northern Pennsylvania and melt them down into easily sold and transported metal discs or bars before selling them for “significantly less than the stolen items would be worth at fair market value,” the indictment alleges.
Four people were indicted by a grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit theft of major artwork, concealment or disposal of objects with cultural heritage and interstate transportation of stolen property, and five others were charged in the same conspiracy and agreed to plead guilty.
Attorneys for the defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The whereabouts of many of the objects and paintings allegedly stolen by the defendants. The indictment accuses Dombek of burning the painting “Upper Hudson” by Jasper Cropsey, valued at approximately $500,000, to avoid its recovery. The Cropsey painting was stolen from Ringwood Manor in New Jersey in 2011.
Between $8 and $10 million. That’s how much the Everhart Museum in Pennsylvania in 2005 valued its stolen Pollock painting, one of only a few masterworks completed by the artist during a brief period of sobriety in the late 1940s, according to the Times Leader. The stolen Andy Warhol piece, a typical pop-art serigraph called “Le Grand Passion” from 1984, was worth about $10,000 at the time of the theft.
Scranton, Pennsylvania police said it took less than 10 minutes for thieves to steal the Pollock and Warhol works from the Everhart Museum in 2005.
Andy Warhol’s Iconic Prince Silkscreens Violated Copyright Rules, Supreme Court Says (Forbes)
The 25 Greatest Art Heists of All Time (ArtNews)