September 18, 1999

CONTENTS:

Looted Art : "Art, Law and the Holocaust"

"Art, Law and the Holocaust"

PLEASE BOOKMARK NEW INSTITUTE OF ART AND LAW URL:

RE: re: Interpol Database (Virginia M. Curry)

Police Question Man after a Stolen Gold Wreath Found Hidden in Garden

7 charged in thefts from cemeteries

3 antiques dealers among suspects

• * Peter Patout, 43, 1111 Bourbon St., one count of conspiracy to commit theft and six counts of possession of stolen cemetery artifacts.
• * Roy Boucvalt, 55, 1025 St. Louis St., one count of conspiracy to commit theft and two counts of possession of stolen cemetery artifacts.
• * Aaron Jarabica, 41, 123 Barry St., one count of conspiracy to commit theft and one count of possession of stolen cemetery artifacts.
• * David Dominici, 40, 1946 Benjamin St., one count of conspiracy to commit theft and 13 counts of theft of cemetery artifacts.
• * Warren Angelo, 31, 2912 Lloyds Ave., one count of conspiracy to commit theft and three counts of theft of cemetery artifacts.
• * Carl Campo, 27, 4024 Evangeline Drive, eight counts of theft of cemetery artifacts.
• * Jamie Donaldson, 21, 1946 Benjamin St., seven counts of theft of cemetery artifacts.

Killer Punished After eBay Sales

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A serial killer whose paintings were sold on the Internet auction site eBay has been punished with two years in solitary confinement and lost his art privileges for five years.
Arthur Shawcross, who killed 11 Rochester-area women, will be confined to a cell for 23 hours a day at Fallsburg's Sullivan Correctional Facility in the Catskills, Department of Corrections Commissioner Glenn Goord said Friday. He will only be brought out for one hour of court-mandated exercise. During those two years, he also will not be able to receive packages, visit the prison commissary or use the prison telephones for nonlegal business, prison officials said. Shawcross also will not be able to participate in any arts or crafts programs or be allow to buy or sell any arts or crafts items for five years, Goord said. Shawcross, 54, is serving a lifetime prison sentence. Officials say he has been mailing drawings, oil paintings and portraits - notably of Marilyn Monroe and stock-car driver Dale Earnhardt - as well as autographs to dealers. His work would then show up on the Internet for public auction.
In return, Shawcross would occasionally get gifts such as clothes and shoes instead of cash, officials said. It is illegal for inmates to run any kind of business in prison, Goord said.

Three Charged in '94 Museum Heist

A Fayette County grand jury indicted the three men this week in connection with the July 17, 1994, break-in at the Headley-Whitney Museum in Lexington. Two of the men -- Samuel Fossesca, 59, and James P. Quinn, 34, both of Youngstown, Ohio -- are in Ohio prisons on unrelated theft charges, said Fayette County Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Malone. The third suspect -- James Napolitano, 38, of Canfield, Ohio-- was arrested Wednesday in Ohio and is being held in the Youngstown jail pending an extradition hearing Monday, Malone said. The three men are accused of stealing 103 objects insured for nearly $1.6 million, museum officials said. The items stolen from the museum's Jewel Room included jewelry, jeweled boxes, and bibelots, which are small sculptural objects embellished with precious and semi-precious materials, according to museum officials. Many of the pieces were designed by the museum's founder, the late George W. Headley III, whose wife, Barbara, was the sister of philanthropist and sportsman Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney. Headley, who operated a jewelry store in California and whose clientele included Hollywood stars Mae West and Joan Crawford, returned to the family farm, La Belle in Lexington, in the 1950s to continue designing jewelry and bibelots, the museum said. Authorities will not comment on whether the stolen artworks have been recovered, but museum officials say they are unaware of the location or the condition of the stolen objects. The break in the case came last year when the Ohio Organized Crime Commission Task Force in Akron arrested Fossesca and Quinn in connection with several high-end, professionally done burglaries, said Lexington police Detective Don Evans. Ohio investigators learned through these arrests that the trio might have been involved in the Kentucky museum heist, and they shared that information with Lexington police and the FBI, Evans said. "This all started from them making that pop in Ohio and turning us onto these guys," Evans told APBnews.com today. "We made several trips to Youngstown and developed the case from there." The alleged crooks left behind no clues after they stole the artworks from the Headley-Whitney Museum, he said. "They came in and disabled the alarm system," Evans said. "They appeared to know what they were going after, and they got out despite the alarm system and the [security] efforts the museum had taken. They went right through them." The theft was not discovered until the following morning when the museum reopened, he said. Fossesca, Quinn and Napolitano are charged with third-degree burglary and theft, the Fayette County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office said. Quinn also is charged with being a persistent felony offender. Fossesca and Quinn have been in Ohio prisons since earlier this year. Fossesca is serving an eight-year sentence in the Lorain Correctional Institution for breaking and entering and engaging in corrupt acts, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections said. Quinn is serving a seven-year sentence in the Richland Correctional Institution for theft and engaging in corrupt acts.
By Richard Zitrin, an APBnews.com national correspondent.