February 17, 1999

CONTENTS:

Conman is given six years in jail for UKP: 1m art fraud

Antiques dealers in grave thefts inquiry

NEW ORLEANS police have arrested members of a ring suspected of stealing more than 200 cemetery ornaments worth an estimated $1 million (£613,000) from tombs belonging to some of the city's wealthiest families. The investigation began when police traced the owner of a suspicious van spotted by a groundsman at Lake Lawn Metairies Cemetery. At the same time a former New Orleans resident noticed what appeared to be fragments of cemeteries from his home city on sale in Los Angeles shops.
The police investigation has implicated several respected antiques dealers who sold the stolen goods to wealthy collectors of graveyard Gothic in Los Angeles. The police say the theft began with a small group of heroin addicts who stole minor items from the cemeteries. But the dealers to whom they sold items allegedly began ordering more lucrative ornaments, even giving the thieves art history lessons.
At least four prominent antique dealers were arrested after cemetery artefacts were discovered in their homes. All have been released pending a lengthy investigation, and have said they did not know the items had been stolen.

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