SEPTEMBER 2, 1997

- Moderator's message
- Thieves bargain for freedom in major US art theft (Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum)
- Museum canvasses latest tip on stolen art (Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum)
- Gardner officials encouraged by reporter's recall of painting (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)
- Two `art lovers' offer FBI a deal for return of stolen masterpieces (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)
- Manassas, Late Bids to Keep Artifacts, Rohr's Museum to Put History
on Auction Block
- Herzog agrees to return Amber Room furniture


Moderator's message:
Folks, I do realize that some of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
reports contain duplicate information. Since this is a very important
case and (hopefully) a solution is getting closer I ignore that some
reports might be redundant. I look forward to making a separate page
about this theft as soon as the whole matter is solved.
Ton Cremers
---------------------------------
Thieves bargain for freedom in major US art theft
11:17 a.m. Aug 31, 1997 Eastern
By Leslie Gevirtz
BOSTON, Aug 31 (Reuter) - Two self-described art lovers are trying
to put the finishing strokes on a deal to guarantee their freedom and
a $5 million reward in exchange for 13 masterpieces stolen from a
Boston museum. Thieves posing as police brazenly looted the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum more than seven years ago, making off with
works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Manet and Degas. None of the works, now
valued at $300 million, has ever surfaced. Tantilizing leads stemming
from the return in July of a 17th century royal seal that created the
Massachusetts Bay Colony have lead FBI agents and local police to
question William Youngworth III, a Randolph, Massachusetts, antiques
dealer and convicted check forger about the Gardner thefts.
Youngworth, 38, is out on bail awaiting trial on charges of
receiving stolen property and illegal possession of ammunition and
faces further charges in connecton with antique firearms and drugs.
He has been trying to work out a settlement with the FBI: in return
for dropping all charges, a share of the reward being offered by the
Gardner and the release of his longtime friend and teacher, the works
would be returned. On Wednesday, FBI agents expect to meet
Youngworth's friend and former karate teacher, Myles Connor Jr., a
54-year-old antiques dealer and art thief who was in federal prison
when the Gardner theft occurred. Connor, who has three years left to
serve of a 10-year sentence in connection with a federal drug and art
theft conviction, has brokered other deals. The stakes were raised
last week when a Boston Herald reporter in a front page story said he
was shown what might have been one of the missing Rembrandts, ``The
Storm on the Sea of Galillee,'' in a secret warehouse. The Gardner's
executive director Joan Norris said after a meeting with the
reporter, the work may very well be one of the missing paintings.
But U.S. Attorney Donald Stern told reporters, ``We never cut a deal
in the dark. We're not going to do anything blind without knowing
what the facts are.'' Connie Lowenthal, executive director of the
International Foundation for Art Research in New York, which tracks
art thefts, said while most succeed, ``it is very difficult to sell
stolen masterpieces. The works are too well known and no honest
person would touch them.'' The Gardner, which had no insurance on its
collection, raised the reward for the artworks' return in good
condition to $5 million from $1 million six months ago.
Criminal defense lawyer Howard Lewis, who also represents
Youngworth, said his client was in prison at the time of the robbery
and added, ``had no part in the theft or the planning of it.''
Youngworth, himself, feels federal authorities are harassing him and
his family in an attempt to get the information. ``The harassment
really began to get hot and heavy in July,'' he said. ``They raided
my home; they tore up my business. They really trashed it. I'm an
antiques dealer. They'd be picking something up and just smash it.''
``My 6-year-old son has been traumatized by all this,'' Youngworth
said, describing how police burst into his Randolph home on the
child's birthday and have followed his wife and son in the family car
as they drove through the small town south of Boston. ^REUTER@
Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
----------------------------------
Museum canvasses latest tip on stolen art
Reporter says he saw missing Rembrandt
By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press
BOSTON -- The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum staff at first didn't
get too excited when a newspaper reporter wrote that he had glimpsed
Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee by flashlight in a warehouse
nearly two weeks ago. After all, the museum had followed up on
hundreds of false leads since the masterpiece and 12 other works,
including a Manet and two other Rembrandts, were stolen in one of the
world's biggest art heists seven years ago. The Gardner's chief
conservator sat down with Boston Herald reporter Tom Mashberg
on Friday to ask him what, exactly, he'd seen. Now, officials say
it's possible he may have viewed the real thing. "It was clear from
his answers you cannot rule it out," Joan Norris, the Gardner's
marketing director, said Saturday. But it's impossible to tell
whether the painting is the original pilfered masterpiece without
examining it, she said. "We're talking about someone holding a
masterpiece in a warehouse with a flashlight in the pitch dark and
then (the Gardner's chief conservator) asking someone who has an
untrained eye ... specific questions," Norris said. The unidentified
museum conservator listened somberly as reporter Tom Mashberg
described the flaking, cracked seascape and the artists' signature on
the churning vessel's exposed rudder, Mashberg reported in Saturday's
Herald. His account convinced the Gardner to issue a plea to those
holding the painting hostage: Keep it in its cardboard poster tube to
prevent further damage. The museum also stressed the $5 million
reward for the return of the paintings hinges on the works being in
good condition. "From the description provided by Herald reporter Tom
Mashberg, this painting appears to be either a good copy or perhaps
the original," the conservator said in a statement. Mashberg won't
reveal who took him to the warehouse.
--------------------------
Gardner officials encouraged by reporter's recall of painting
After meeting, conservator asks 'to hear more'
By Judy Rakowsky, Globe Staff, 08/31/97
Officials from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum said yesterday the
painting that a Boston Herald reporter said he saw in a warehouse by
flashlight ''appears to be either a good copy or perhaps the
original'' of a Rembrandt stolen from the museum in 1990. In a
90-minute meeting with a museum conservator on Friday, the reporter,
Tom Mashberg, described the painting shown to him by an unidentified
informant on Aug. 18 as what may be Rembrandt's only seascape,
''The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.'' An unnamed conservator for the
Gardner said in a prepared statement that Mashberg's account ''is
exciting, and it makes us want to hear more.'' Joan Norris, the
museum's marketing director, said the artwork's significance ''is so
great that the Gardner must do everything we can to recover those
works of art.'' Though Norris said Mashberg is not an art expert,
he gave detailed observations of what he saw during the 15-minute
visit to a warehouse he described only as being somewhere in the
Northeast. Mashberg did not write about the trip to the warehouse
until the Boston Herald published a front-page story on Wednesday -
10 days after it occurred. The Herald set the ground rules for
Friday's meeting with museum officials and did not invite the FBI or
federal prosecutors, according to sources. The bureau and the US
Attorney's office were notified, however, that the meeting occurred.
Stolen in an early-morning heist on March 18, 1990, was artwork worth
$200 million, 11 paintings that included a Vermeer, three Rembrandts,
five Degas, and one Manet. The FBI has conducted a worldwide search
for the paintings ever since, and has posted information on the
Internet hoping to spur the return of the prized works. Meanwhile,
Randolph antiques dealer William P. Youngworth III, who says he can
arrange the return of the stolen artworks, checked into an
undisclosed Manhattan hotel last week, after an interview with the
ABC News program ''Nightline.'' The interview is scheduled for
broadcast this week. Youngworth says he does not know any of the
suspected art thieves who are still alive, and recently acquired
information about where the stolen artwork was being stored.
Youngworth, 38, is free on $5,000 cash bail from Norfolk Superior
Court on weapon and drug charges. In today's editions, The Boston
Herald reported that Norfolk County prosecutors have served
Youngworth with a subpoena ordering him to appear before a Superior
Court judge this Wednesday. Youngworth told the Herald the ''absurd''
subpoena had been improperly served and he had no intention of
returning to the Boston area before Thursday. He has previously told
the Globe he will not meet with investigators until they release his
friend, convicted art thief and drug dealer Myles Connor Jr., pay him
the $5 million reward, and dismiss pending criminal charges against
him. In yesterday's Herald, Youngworth was quoted as denying that he
had ever said Connor's release was a precondition of meeting with
investigators. For his part, the federal prosecutor on the Gardner
case said his door is open to anyone who knows about the theft. ''Our
position is we will meet with Youngworth and anyone else who has
information,'' said Assistant US Attorney Brien T. O'Connor. ''It's
an absolutely open door to discussion with him and those discussions
we'll take one step at a time.'' ''We will be reasonable, we will be
listening,'' O'Connor added. ''All we need to know is when and
where.'' This story ran on page A25 of the Boston Globe on 08/31/97.
c Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
---------------------------------
Two `art lovers' offer FBI a deal for return of stolen masterpieces
One, who is awaiting trial, wants all charges dropped, a share of the
reward, and a jailed friend's freedom.
By Leslie Gevirtz
REUTERS
BOSTON -- Two self-described art lovers are trying to put the
finishing strokes on a deal to guarantee their freedom and a $5
million reward in exchange for 13 masterpieces stolen from a Boston
museum.
Thieves posing as police looted the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
more than seven years ago, making off with works by Vermeer,
Rembrandt, Manet and Degas. None of the works, now valued at $300
million, has ever surfaced.
Tantalizing leads stemming from the return in July of a 17th-century
royal seal that created the Massachusetts Bay Colony have led FBI
agents and local police to question William Youngworth 3d, a Randolph,
Mass., antiques dealer and convicted check forger, about the Gardner
thefts.
Youngworth, 38, is out on bail awaiting trial on charges of receiving
stolen property and illegal possession of ammunition, and faces
further charges involving antique firearms and drugs.
He has been trying to work out a settlement with the FBI: In return
for dropping all charges, a share of the reward being offered by the
Gardner and the release of a friend, the works would be returned.
On Wednesday, FBI agents expect to meet Youngworth's friend and
former karate teacher, Myles Connor Jr., 54, an antiques dealer and
art thief who was in federal prison when the Gardner theft occurred.
``Anytime there's an art theft, they question Mr. Connor. They've
talked to him before about this,'' his lawyer, Martin Leppo, said.
``He's an art lover.''
Connor, who has three years left on a 10-year sentence in connection
with a federal drug and art-theft conviction, has brokered other
deals. In the mid-1970s, he pleaded guilty to stealing Andrew Wyeth
paintings from an estate in Ellsworth, Maine. He avoided a prison
sentence by arranging the return of a Rembrandt stolen from Boston's
Museum of Fine Arts.
``We are going to meet with Mr. Connor,'' FBI spokesman Peter
Ginieres said. ``We are interested in meeting with anyone who might
have information on the stolen art.''
The stakes were raised last week when a Boston Herald reporter, in a
front-page story, said he was shown what might have been one of the
missing Rembrandts, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, in a secret
warehouse. The Gardner's executive director, Joan Norris, said after a
meeting with the reporter that the work may very well be one of the
missing paintings.
The viewing ``was a message to the authorities that doubt Mr.
Youngworth's veracity,'' said one of his lawyers, Richard Klein.
But U.S. Attorney Donald Stern told reporters: ``We never cut a deal
in the dark. We're not going to do anything blind without knowing what
the facts are.''
Connie Lowenthal, executive director of the International Foundation
for Art Research in New York, which tracks art thefts, said that ``it
is very difficult to sell stolen masterpieces. The works are too
well-known and no honest person would touch them.''
``What then can happen is that they're unable to sell them on the
black market and they go back to the original owners with a kind of
art-napping attempt,'' she said.
Defense lawyer Howard Lewis, who also represents Youngworth, said his
client was in prison at the time of the robbery and ``had no part in
the theft or the planning of it.''
--------------------------------
Manassas, Late Bids to Keep Artifacts
Rohr's Museum to Put History on Auction Block
By Tara Mack
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 31, 1997; Page V01
The Washington Post
With Rohr's Museum collection headed for auction, some Manassas
residents are concerned that the city will lose a treasure trove of
Manassas memorabilia. Scott Harris, director of the Manassas Museum,
said he doesn't know exactly what historic items the city might lose
and is awaiting an inventory from owner Chip Rohr. Rohr's parents,
Walser and Edgar, spent decades gathering the antiques in that
collection from around Northern Virginia and across the country --
part of what made Rohr's, the store and museum, an Old Town Manassas
institution. Walser Rohr, who died in October, willed her antique
dolls to the Manassas Museum, which she helped found. And Chip Rohr
said he plans to donate several items to the Manassas Volunteer
Company Museum and the Manassas Museum. But most of the rest of it
will be auctioned, he said. City Council member Harry J. "Hal"
Parrish II urged the appointment of a committee to look into buying
some artifacts. Harris said he plans to recommend to the council at
its next meeting on Sept. 8 that the Historical Committee, which
advises the museum system, take on that responsibility. "I'm trying
to bring it up and make sure we talk about it and not five years from
now wish we had," Parrish said. In 1996, Chip Rohr closed most of
Rohr's 5 Cents to $1 Store and rented the space to Manassas Clay, a
shop specializing in handmade ceramics. With competition from chain
stores, Rohr said the store was losing money even before his father
died in 1988. Manassas Clay was the kind of store that Old Town
merchants were trying to attract to the area. Where the five-and-dime
was at home among the utilitarian shops that formed the core of the
city in the '40s and '50s, the upscale pottery store fit right in
with the "new Old Town," which offers quirkier specialty shops,
offering merchandise not found in a mall. Rohr kept open a small
piece of the store with the hopes that it could provide financial
support for the museum. But on Aug. 2, Chip Rohr closed what remained
of Rohr's store, along with the museum his parents opened in the
1960s. Now Manassas Clay is moving into the rest of the building.
Rohr said he can't afford to give away all of the museum items. And,
he added, it's a little late for residents to be concerned about the
fate of the Rohr collection. "The store has closed and the museum has
closed because the community has failed to support the store and the
museum," Rohr said. "If the community had supported Rohr's store,
Rohr's store would be open, and the same thing is true for the
museum." Jerry Gregory, owner of Gregory's Flowers & Gifts in Old
Town Manassas, said the City Council should spearhead a campaign to
raise donations from local businesses and civic groups to buy some
items in the collection. "The collection doesn't have any Hope
Diamonds or anything like that, but it does have a lot of memories
and memorabilia of people who lived and worked in the community
and made Manassas what it is today," said Gregory, a Manassas native.
Gregory said the museum has a pair of shoes belonging to Harry P.
Davis, who was mayor of the city from 1921 to 1965, along with the
toy wagon of William Jameson, a Manassas surgeon who invented an
early heart-and-lung machine. Rohr said he didn't know whether those
items were in the museum. John Pauswinski, a Manassas family
practitioner, said he thought the city should consider buying the
entire collection, minus the antique cars, which he said are both too
expensive and not directly related to Manassas history. "If cool
heads just prevailed here, [they would] realize . . . the collection
has more value in toto than it does by breaking it up," he said.
Wendy Monroe, who was shopping at the farmers market Thursday, said
she thinks the city has higher priorities, such as roads and
schools, and shouldn't spend its money on expensive museum pieces.
"That's why we have the Smithsonian," she said. Rohr said he does
plan to donate a few items to the Manassas Museum, including a wooden
toilet and a Victrola, each of which is reputed to be the first of
its kind in the city. Rita Beck, who also was shopping at the farmers
market, said it is important for the city to preserve its history.
"It just helps keep a sense of community in a small town that's
starting to sprawl so badly," Beck said. "It gives it a sense of
identity."
Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
---------------------------
Herzog agrees to return Amber Room furniture
By Andrew Gimson in Berlin
PRESIDENT Roman Herzog of Germany has promised to
return stolen fragments of the Amber Room to Russia
in an attempt to settle the dispute between the
countries over looted art.
He said in Moscow that if a mosaic and a chest of
drawers that turned up in Germany in May proved to
be parts of the room, they were Russian property and
would be sent back. The room, lined in amber, was
given by the King of Prussia to Peter the Great in
1716. It was installed in a palace at St Petersburg,
but removed by German soldiers in 1941.
Many people still believe it to be hidden in
Germany, although others say it was destroyed by
fire when the Russians sacked Konigsberg in 1945.
The Russians have refused to return art treasures
taken from Germany in 1945.
----------------------------