AUGUST 18, 1997
- Auction house tip puts police on trail of £1m art gang
-THE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION ON CULTURAL PROPERTY protection
- Broker Charged with Art Theft (No plea entered in art fraud case)
- The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum renews reward offer for stolen artwork
(Telegraph London)
Auction house tip puts police on trail of £1m art gang
By John Steele and John Vincent
POLICE hope to have halted a series of burglaries of arts and antiques valued at £1 million from homes in the South East following a tip from an auction house about a stolen canvas. The information from Christie's in London led detectives to establish that 160 stolen items had been passed off as genuine items to unwitting dealers and auctioneers in London. They were sold for more than £60,000. Those items are believed to have been stolen in a string of sophisticated and well-organised raids since 1994 in areas such as Kensington and Chelsea and around the Home Counties. Two men have been questioned about the raids and have been released on police bail pending further inquiries. The police inquiry came after two men took an unsigned canvas from a van into Christie's in St James's. Experts recognised the work as one that had been in a mansion in Twickenham, south-west London. They identified the seated figure of a young girl as the future Queen Victoria, with a friend, and believe it was commissioned by George IV around 1820. Attributed to the school of Richard Cosway, the fashionable painter who died in 1821, it is estimated to be worth up
to £15,000. The men left the canvas for valuation and police, alerted to Christie's suspicions, identified it as one stolen in a raid in Twickenham. Further investigations showed that more than 160 stolen items - mainly small pieces of furniture, porcelain and jewellery - had been sold through unsuspecting London auction houses for more than £60,000. The painting is now being stored in a warehouse full of property recovered in Operation Bumblebee - the police campaign against burglaries - together with a large mahogany breakfast table, valued at £5,000 and allegedly stolen in the same raids but recovered before it went under the hammer. Police are anxious to trace the owner of the table, along with the owners of the 160 items. They include Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian tea caddies, chests, document boxes, fold-over tea tables, davenports, nutmeg graters, card cases and spirit flasks, as well as rings, brooches, necklaces and earrings featuring diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls and amethysts. The table and photographs of the other items will be on show at the Bumblebee Roadshow at Epsom Racecourse from Nov 21 to 23. Property valued at more than £1 million recovered under Bumblebee will also be on show in the civic centre, Sutton, south-west London, today and tomorrow.
Police hope similar tips from the auction rooms will be repeated under a plan by the Association of Chief Police Officers to establish a network of arts and antiques experts in the 43 forces in England and Wales.
Police are seeking a shift away from the "few questions asked, cash only" culture of many auction houses.
-----------------------------------------
Date sent: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 12:20:41 -0400
From: Roger Wulff <museplan@erols.com>
Send reply to: museplan@erols.com
Organization: Museum Services International
To: securma@xs4all.nl
Subject: Posting
Dear Ton:
The Smithsonian is about two weeks away from contracting with The Hyatt
Regency Hotel in Crystal City, Va. for our security conference for next
year.
Would you please list THE INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION ON CULTURAL PROPERTY
PROTECTION 9-12 FEB. 1998, WASHINGTON, D.C. in you fairs listing. We
have lost enough time already.
Kind Regards
Roger
-------------------------------------------------------
(Also see extensive report about this matter of last week.)
Broker Charged with Art Theft
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) An art broker who allegedly swindled two wealthy friends out of tens of thousands of dollars has turned herself in to police. Nancy Chaffin, 39, used her connections to befriend and then rip off wealthy connoisseurs including the granddaughter of brokerage founder Dean Witter to finance a high-society lifestyle, police said. Chaffin, who lives with her parents in San Rafael, was charged with 40 counts of grand theft and two each of embezzlement and taking money under false pretenses. She did not enter a plea at Friday's arraignment. Jack Wong, an engineer, and Jane Witter, a San Francisco heiress, told police that Chaffin got them to invest in art and antiques but did not deliver the goods. Chaffin, who based her art brokerage in San Francisco, turned herself in to police Thursday and was released without bail.
"I think the charges will not withstand scrutiny," said her attorney, Frank
Leidman.
(16 Aug 1997 07:46 EDT)
MORE ABOUT THIS AFFAIR:
No plea entered in art fraud case
San Rafael broker faces 40 counts of grand theft
EXAMINER STAFF REPORT
An art broker who allegedly swindled two wealthy friends - including the granddaughter of brokerage founder Dean Witter - appeared in San Francisco court Friday morning, but did not enter a plea. Nancy Chaffin, 39, of San Rafael, was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging 40 counts of grand theft and two each of embezzlement and taking money under false pretenses. She was released on her own recognizance after promising to appear for Friday's arraignment. She appeared before Municipal Judge Wallace Douglass.
Police said Chaffin used her connections to befriend and then rip off wealthy art connoisseurs to finance a high society life. Jack Wong, an East Bay engineer and land developer, and Jane Witter, Dean Witter's granddaughter, told police that Chaffin got them to invest in artwork and antiques but did not deliver the goods or repay the money. Inspector Phil Dito of the Fraud Detail said a six-month study of bank records, canceled checks and credit card bills indicated she received $555,457 from Wong and $32,500 from Witter, a San Francisco resident.
Chaffin's attorney, Frank Leidman, said the charges are based on untrue allegations that have not been fully investigated.
Chaffin was ordered to return to court Sept. 4.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Museum renews reward offer for stolen artwork
By Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff, 08/16/97
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum again pledged to pay a $5 million reward for the safe return of the 13 famed works of art stolen seven years ago. The museum issued the statement after a news report that Myles J. Connor Jr., a convicted art thief, said the museum would ''pay dearly'' if it does not post bail for a jailed antiques dealer who claims to have information on the whereabouts of the artwork. ''When 13 works of art were stolen in March of 1990 ... the world lost access to remarkable works of art, works that were left by the prominent art collector Isabella Gardner for the enjoyment and education of the public forever,'' the statement said. Museum spokeswoman Joan Norris declined to comment on Connor's remarks, which were reported in the Boston Herald. She urged anyone with information to contact the FBI or to call the museum security director at 617-278-5114. Two men disguised as police officers on March 18, 1990, stole artworks valued at $200 million, including Vermeer's ''The Concert,'' and Rembrandt's only known seascape, ''The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.'' The museum, which has fielded hundreds of tips along with the FBI, is still hopeful that one of them will lead to recovery of the stolen art.
Investigators have also been tight-lipped about Connor's remarks, and those of William P.Youngsworth III, the jailed antiques dealer. Youngsworth, facing state felony charges, has offered to tell what he knows about the heist and the artwork - in exchange for immunity and a share of the reward. ''We're willing to listen to anyone, but we would prefer it be unconditional,'' said FBI spokesman Peter S. Ginieres. To prove his information is bona fide, Youngsworth allegedly disclosed what he said were previously unknown details about the burglary. They include how the burglars fumbled with security bolts and slashed a painting with a pen knife in frustration. He also told the Herald that the thieves left a museum window open as a secondary point of entrance. Sources close to the investigation have said those details are not exclusive.
After Youngsworth was arraigned Wednesday for possession of firearms without a license and possession of marijuana, an FBI agent met with him and his lawyer.
Since then, Youngsworth has remained in jail on $5,000 cash bail. Authorities searched Youngsworth's property on July 8, when he already faced charges of possession of a stolen van and ammunition.
This story ran on page B06 of the Boston Globe on 08/16/97.
(c) Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
---------------------------------------------------