Art Daily has an interview with Art Recovery Group’s founder Christopher Marinello, whose work investigating claims of Nazi-looted art and stolen works has made him a trusted authority on reclaiming lost art.  “This is one of our specialities,” Marinello says of his recent case returning a stolen Rodin to a Los Angeles family. “Getting in the middle of a case and finding a way to twist everybody’s arm to settle the case.”  (more…)

The Washington Post notes two American museums battling in court to prevent works claimed as Nazi-loot from returning to the families who claim them as rightfully theirs.  “I find it outrageous, and I’m embarrassed,” says Oklahoma state Rep. Paul Wesselhoft of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, one of the museums refusing to return a work. “With this artwork, we have definitive proof that it was stolen. We have copies of the Nazi documents. As an Oklahoman, I think it’s a moral outrage.” (more…)

The New York Times notes the increasing popularity of Chinese art on the secondary market, as the Chinese Communist Party increases its efforts to secure and repatriate works that have been looted, taken or sold away from the state in past centuries to the west, including, in some cases, thefts from national museums that target works looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace during  its century raid by British and French troops in the mid 19th century.  “They knew very well what they were after,” said Jean-François Hebert, president of the Château de Fontainebleau, where a number of iconic Chinese gold and bronze works were stolen in 2012. (more…)

An article in Bloomberg this week traces the path of stolen art from theft through to sale, accounting for the variations in strategy by thieves for maximizing returns on what are often considered unsellable works.  “Sometimes people don’t even recognize that the art’s gone missing” says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, head of the FBI’s art-theft program. “It could be in a storage facility, or in the basement of someone’s house, and it can often be years before anyone notices it’s gone.”  (more…)

A former employee of sculptor Dale Chihuly has been accused of stealing over $3 million in works from the artist’s Tacoma, Washington warehouse.  The accused assistant, Christopher Kaul, had been dealing with drug addiction, and began stealing works after leaving rehab.  “We’ve seen this story before — an employee is hooked on drugs and steals from his boss,” said Prosecutor Mark Lindquist. “The twist here is the boss is a world famous artist.” (more…)

The Art Loss Register, widely considered the authoritative body on looted and missing artworks, is currently involved in a trio of cases involving disputes on works’ provenance claimed by the register to be authentic which were actually contested.  “It’s incredibly frustrating because it doesn’t matter what you do,” says one anonymous figure affected by the cases. “You do everything you can to check a painting is clean, and it’s useless. How can you protect yourself? You can’t.” (more…)

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh has stated his fears that more art is missing from the Boston Public Library collection following the disappearance of two prints valued at $600,000.  “I think the lack of security with these two prints and (more) … really, really concerns me greatly that there’s other things missing,” Walsh said in an appearance on Boston Herald Radio. (more…)

The case surrounding the theft of works from Picasso descendent Catherine Hutin-Blay has taken a new turn, as Art Newspaper reports that more than 60 works could be missing from Hutin-Blay’s Gennevilliers storage facility.  “One thing is for sure,” her lawyer, Anne-Sophie Nardon says, “this case is extremely serious and much bigger that we first thought.” (more…)

Some of the paintings allegedly stolen from Picasso’s stepdaughter, Catherine Hutin-Blay, were found in the collection of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who purchased them through art broker and adviser, Yves Bouvier (currently under investigation for fraud).  Bouvier’s lawyer denies any knowledge of the works’ stolen status.  “For all the paintings he acquired, he asked for a certificate from the Art Loss Register, demonstrating that it has not been registered as missing or stolen,” says Bouvier’s attorney, Luc Brossollet.   (more…)

French art dealer Olivier Thomas is under investigation after Catherine Hutin-Blay, the step-daughter of Pablo Picasso, filed charges accusing him of allegedly stealing artworks he was meant to be transporting and storing for her.   (more…)

James Meyer, the former assistant to Jasper Johns convicted of stealing and plotting to sell works from the artist’s studio, has been sentenced to over a year in prison.  “I am truly devastated that I destroyed the close relationship that I had with the man who was my mentor, employer and friend since I was 21-years-old,” Meyer said in court. (more…)

Two paintings, including a classic Roy Lichtenstein held at the Sam Simon Foundation, an organization established by Simpsons co-founder.  The pair of works are valued at $400,000.   (more…)

The thieves behind the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum have been identified, according to a report by Breitbart.  The career criminals George Reissfelder and Lenny DiMuzio were named as the perpetrators by anonymous sources within the FBI, which had recently been reinvestigating the case.  Reissfelder had previously been represented by Senator John Kerry during his days of private defense practice for a murder conviction, which was overturned.  “I don’t know if those paintings ended up on eBay,” Kerry once joked, “but they’re not on my wall!” (more…)

An El Greco from the collection of industrialist Julius Priester, and seized by the Gestapo during WWII, has been returned to its rightful owners.  Portrait of a Gentleman has traveled widely since its confiscation in 1944, turning up in galleries in Stockholm, New York and London before a European Commission for Looted Art claim led to its return.  “The story of the seizure and trade of this painting shows how much the art trade has been involved in the disposal of Nazi-looted art and how difficult it is for those who have been dispossessed to find and recover their property,” says Anne Webber, co-chair of the Commission. (more…)

An article in The Atlantic this past week acknowledges the 25th anniversary of the notorious Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft in Boston, and examines the public fascination with art heists, examining this phenomenon against the difficulty in unloading stolen works of such cultural prestige.  “The true art isn’t the stealing, it’s the selling,” says Robert Wittman, founder of the FBI’s Art Crimes division. (more…)

Pierre Le Guennec, the electrician accused of stealing over 200 Picasso pieces from the artist years ago, has been handed a suspended two year sentence for his possession of the works, and has been ordered to return the works by a Parisian court.   (more…)

La Coiffeuse, a 1911 Pablo Picasso painting stolen from a Centre Pompidou storage room in 2001, has been recovered, after customs officials at the Port of Newark found it in a package marked with the words Merry Christmas.  “A lost treasure has been found,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch.  “Because of the blatant smuggling in this case the painting is subject to forfeiture to the United States. Forfeiture of the painting will extract it from the grasp of the black market in stolen art so it can be returned to its rightful owner.” (more…)

The trial for Pierre Le Guennec, a former handyman for Pablo Picasso, and his wife has begun.  The pair recently revealed an enormous trove of works by the artist they claim they were given in the 1970’s, and which state prosecutors claim they stole.  If convicted of theft, they could face up to five years in prison and a €375,000 fine. (more…)

Leigh Morse, the former gallery director who was convicted of selling over 70 works from the estates of artists like Robert De Niro Sr. and never notifying the beneficiaries, is in the news this week, after failing to pay the $1.7 million in restitution ordered by the court. “Her restitution tab to date is over a million dollars. She has paid, to date, $22,000, in cash, 2.2 percent,” says Prosecutor Kenn Kern. “What’s so unbelievably upsetting and appalling is that every time you give very clear directions somehow we end up back here.” (more…)

Nine works valued at $10 million, and stolen less than a decade ago have been recovered in Los Angeles, the LA Times reports.  The works, stolen from an Encino home in 2008, included Marc Chagall’s Les Paysans, and Diego Rivera’s Mexican Peasant.  Federal authorities arrested Raul Espinoza in connection with the theft.  (more…)

David Crespo of the Connecticut-based Brandon Gallery is awaiting sentencing today over his conviction in the sale of imitation Marc Chagall lithographs, which the dealer reproduced and forged the signature on.  Crespo was apprehended after selling a fake print to an undercover FBI agent.   (more…)

Thieves in Madrid have broken into Puerta de Alcalá art gallery, stealing 70 paintings worth an estimated €600,000.  The thieves reportedly entered the gallery through a hole punched through the wall of an adjacent building.  “This has destroyed us. It’s left us in a really tough situation,” gallerist Pedro Márquez says. “Forty years of work and they just walked out with it.” (more…)

A silver plate created by Pablo Picasso, and worth nearly $90,000 was stolen from the Art Miami fair this past week, part of a daring heist that has police still searching for the culprit.  “I’ve been doing art shows all my life,” says David Smith, the owner of the Leslie Smith Gallery and the victim of the theft. “I’ve never, ever had anything stolen.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper reviews the case of Pierre Le Guennec, a retired electrician accused of stealing and hiding a vast collection of works by his former employer Pablo Picasso before attempting to sell them in 2010.  Mr. Le Guennec has been ordered to appear in French court in February of next year on charges of receiving stolen goods.   (more…)