September 13, 2009

Art thieves net Andy Warhol portraits

ART HISTORY - In L.A. a group of art thieves have gained 15 minutes of fame after stealing a series of Andy Warhol portraits of famed athletes.

The series of Andy Warhol pop art portraits include Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Pele, Dorothy Hamill and other famous athletes were stolen from a collector's home. Andy Warhol was commissioned in 1977 by businessman Richard Weisman to create the portraits.

The collection of 10 silkscreen paintings of famous athletes of the 1970s was taken from Weisman's home sometime between Sept. 2nd and 3rd.

A $1 million reward has been offered for information leading to the return of the paintings.

Art recovery expert Robert Wittman, a former investigator for the FBI's national art crime team, says most rewards are offered for about 10% of a stolen collection's value. That suggests the value of the ten works is about $10 million.

"The real art in an art theft is not the stealing but the selling," he said. "People know what they are. You can't sell it to the industry, it's not going back to the market and you also can't sell it at auction," says Wittman. 95% of stolen artworks, especially famous pieces, are recovered by police.

The paintings were on display in Weisman's dining room and his house was locked. Nevertheless the thieves managed to make a clean get-away.

A neighbour saw a maroon van in the driveway of Weisman's home around the time of the robbery.

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Comments containing links will be marked as spam and not approved. We moderate every comment. If you want to advertise on this blog it is $30 per link.

Affordable Website Design & SEO

Looking for a quality professional website designer? Why not go where the smart money is?! Toronto Website Design and Toronto SEO. Get free SEO advice from people who really know the business.

Featured Posts

The Sarcasm Symbol
Ever had some confusion online or with your cellphone when someone fails to catch the sarcasm? Well now with the SarcMark you can ge...
Behold, the Scorpion Hydrogen Supercar
CARS - To the right is the future of supercars... it is a hydrogen supercar called the Scorpion. The Scorpion from Ronn Motors in Texas is t...
Documents show Stephen Harper misusing public funds
CANADA - According to 950+ pages of documents obtained by the Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act the Privy Coun...
Pink's Rosie the Riveter
ENTERTAINMENT - What I like about this video is how it meshes different social movements like feminism, veganism, anti-capitalism...
California's Dustbowl
ENVIRONMENT - The photo on the right is a farm in California that has been put up for sale. Its just one of thousands of farms that are n...
Is Steampunk the New Goth???
GOTHIC - Watch out what you see on the subway late at night because while in 2001 you might have seen some pretty freakish goths, by 20...
Do you have enough Ice Water in your diet?
HEALTH - A Calorie (large C) is a measurement of the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of a litre of water (1 kg's worth) ...
North Korean timeline towards Inevitable War
POLITICS - The following is timeline of events that have occurred on the Korean Peninsula. 1945 - Japan surrenders to the United States a...
Judgment Day is Tomorrow, so sayeth Cult
RELIGION - According to a cult based in California, Judgement Day is tomorrow (May 21st 2011) and Jesus Christ will return to the Earth a...
Sex in Space Forbidden
SEX/TECHNOLOGY - Sex in outer space is a big no-no according to NASA. Not for professional astronauts at least, but the growing numb...

Popular Posts / Last 30 Days