Police seize stolen Paul Cezanne masterpiece

Serbian police have recovered a masterpiece by French impressionist Paul Cezanne. 

The Associated Press reports that the painting, "The Boy in the Red Vest," was stolen from a private Swiss museum in 2008, along with three other paintings by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas.

Zurich prosecutors said three men were arrested in Belgrade in connection with the robbery.

Cezanne's painting was worth 100 million Swiss francs (about $107 million), when it was taken from the EG Buhrle Collection.

Monet's "Poppy Field at Vetheuil" and Van Gogh's "Blooming Chestnut Branches" were found undamaged in a car parked at a mental hospital shortly after the heist.

The fourth, Degas’ "Ludovic Lepic and His Daughter,” has not been recovered. The masterpiece is worth 10 million francs ($11 million).

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-- Jamie Wetherbe

Photo: Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic talks to reporters as Serbian policemen stand guard next "The Boy in the Red Vest" by Paul Cezanne in Belgrade.  Credit: Alexa Stanovic/AFP/Getty Images

Violinist Joshua Bell's hotel room in Spain is burglarized

It sounds like a scene right out of “Law & Order.”

Joshua Bell, on tour as soloist with the London Philharmonic, claims that a thief posed as the classical musician in Zaragoza, Spain, and stole his $38,000 watch. 

A Bell lookalike on Thursday was able to impersonate the violinist and convince the front desk at a five-star hotel to give him a key to Bell’s room, a rep for Bell said in a release.

Bell was performing at the time of the burglary with his priceless 1713 Stradivarius.

Once inside the room, Bell says, the man called the front desk and asked for help opening the safe. The thief met security at the door wrapped in a towel as if he’d just gotten out of the shower; without checking ID, the staff opened the safe. 

“I was amazed at how easy it was for this to occur,” Bell said in a release.

The thief also made off with Bell’s laptop, cash and other personal belongings.

Known for his playing on the Oscar-winning soundtrack for “The Red Violin,” Bell has California concerts planned April 25-27 at the Northridge Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Center for the Arts and the Granada Theatre in Santa Barbara. 

Let’s hope SoCal shows him better hospitality.

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-- Jamie Wetherbe

Photo: Joshua Bell. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times.

 

Art thief gets 1 to 3 years in prison in New York

Mark Lugo, 31, was sentenced to prison in New York on Tuesday following a bicoastal series of art thefts, including the theft of a $350,000 drawing by Cubist painter Fernand Leger from a lobby gallery at Manhattan’s Carlyle Hotel. He'd previously served time in California for walking off with a $275,000 Picasso drawing called “Tete de Femme” from San Francisco's Weinstein Gallery.

A judge sentenced him to one to three years behind bars, though he could be released after six months of toiling in a boot camp-style program.

Lugo, a sommelier and waiter in upscale Manhattan  restaurants, apparently didn't steal art to sell it. Instead, according to his lawyer, James Montgomery, "his interest in these things were aesthetic."

Indeed, Lugo sought to satisfy his tastes, which aren't of the shabby-chic variety. Investigators found a $430,000 collection of stolen art hanging in Lugo’s apartment in Hoboken, N.J., authorities said. Lugo has also been accused of taking three bottles of Chateau Petrus Pomerol — together worth $6,000 — from a wine shop last April. That case is pending.

A wine sommelier who steals art not to hawk but simply to satisfy his aesthetic cravings? Sounds like a good movie role for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who looks nothing like Lugo, we'll admit, but that's the magic of cinema for you.

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--Margaret Wappler

Photo: Booking photo from October 2011 of Mark Lugo. Credit: San Francisco district attorney / AP

 

Monster Mash: George Clooney to make movie on art looting

Prestige project: George Clooney said he is planning to make a movie about the art experts who landed at Normandy to rescue art looted by the Nazis. (Los Angeles Times)

Art heist: Burglars broke into the National Art Gallery of Athens and stole Pablo Picasso's "Woman's Head" and Piet Mondrian's "Mill." (AFP)

Acrimonious: New York's City Opera was expected to lock out orchestra and chorus members from rehearsals starting Monday as contract talks broke down. (Associated Press)

National anthem: A bill in the Indiana Senate proposes a $25 fine on anyone who fails to follow certain standards while performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at events sponsored by public schools and universities. (Los Angeles Times)

Curtain: Broadway's "Billy Elliot" closed on Sunday after 1,304 regular performances. The Tony-winning musical opened in New York in November 2008. (Broadway World)

Bizarre: PayPal has come under fire for allegedly forcing a customer to destroy an antique violin in order to receive a refund in a dispute over its authenticity. (Guardian)

Clearing out? Broadway scuttlebutt says that the panned revivial of "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" could close by Presidents Day. (New York Post)

Saved, for now: A regional government is providing emergency funds to Bosnia's National Museum to save the institution from being forced to close due to unpaid utility bills. (Associated Press)

Not over yet: Fisk University's deal to sell a $30-million share in its famed Stieglitz art collection to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art could face a legal challenge. (Tennessean)

Passing: Anne Tyng, a pioneering female architect who was closely associated with Louis Kahn, has died at 91. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Also in the L.A. Times: Angela Lansbury talks about her film and stage career; music critic Mark Swed reviews Marino Formenti and Beethoven's "Diabelli" Variations.

-- David Ng

Photo: George Clooney. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

Getty loses bid to dismiss art-restitution lawsuit

The J. Paul Getty Trust is squaring off against the Armenian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and on Thursday the church won the first important procedural round in its bid to reclaim eight prized medieval manuscripts (a detail is pictured above) it contends were stolen goods when the Getty bought them for $950,000 in 1994.

The Getty tried to have the suit dismissed on statute-of-limitations grounds, arguing that church officials were aware of the manuscripts' whereabouts by 1952 and should have sued at that time, when they were owned by an Armenian-American family in Massachusetts -- the heirs of a man who had brought them out of the province of Cilicia as the Ottoman Turks were expelling the province's Armenian population during the World War I-era Armenian genocide.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Khan denied the Getty’s motion, saying that it was "not clear" that church officials knew what the Getty says they knew when it says they knew it. He said the statute-of-limitations law could come into play in a future hearing but that he would want to hear evidence about the complicated path the 755-year-old pages took starting in 1916, when they were separated from a larger bible known as the Zeyt'un Gospels.

The Getty’s pages are lavishly illustrated Canon Tables -– citations of parallel verses from the four New Testament gospels, which served as a kind of frontispiece for the bible created in 1256 by T’oros Roslin, considered the greatest Armenian manuscript illuminator.

The church aims to make the Zeyt’un Gospels whole again by winning back the missing pages from the Getty and sending them to the Matenadaran, a major manuscript museum in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, which has housed the rest of the Zeyt’un Gospels since the late 1960s.

Here's the full story about the decision. It includes a rarity in the controversy-shy, ultra-cautious art-museum world: Columba Stewart, executive director of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library at  Saint John's University in Minnesota and a Benedictine monk, is openly calling on the Getty to repatriate a contested masterpiece. Stewart says the issue shouldn't be decided by legalities, but by the ethical imperative of turning a fragmented artwork into one that's whole.

Monster Mash: Ai Weiwei tops power list; stolen paintings tossed?

Influential: Ai Weiwei has taken the top spot in the annual art-world power list from the magazine ArtReview. (Reuters)

Rubbish: A suspect in the theft of paintings by such artists as Picasso and Matisse from the Paris Museum of Modern Art claims that in a panic, he threw the paintings into the garbage. (Los Angeles Times)

More trouble: A Washington, D.C. educator has abruptly pulled out of the top job at the troubled downtown L.A. arts high school. (Los Angeles Times)

Unusual: The London Philharmonic is releasing an album called "The Greatest Video Game Music," featuring classically arranged scores from Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft and more. (CNET)

Billionaire: Victor Pinchuk discusses his plans to build a new contemporary art space in Kiev, Ukraine. (The Art Newspaper)

Under the weather: Buckingham Palace said a cold has forced Queen Elizabeth II to cancel a visit to the British Museum in London. (Associated Press, via Washington Post)

Back home: A stolen Jules Breton painting has been returned to France after a century. (Agence France-Presse)

Cameo role: The new Mob Museum in Las Vegas will make an appearance on the CBS series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." (Los Angeles Times)

Famous face: The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory has unveiled a new sculpture of New York Yankee Derek Jeter. (WLKY)

New leader: The Colorado Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that Jim Copenhaver has been named interim chief executive. (Denver Post)

Also in the L.A. Times: Music critic Mark Swed reviews Andreas Scholl with the English Concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

-- David Ng

Photo: Ai Weiwei in 2010. Credit: Andy Wong / Associated Press

Monster Mash: Paris art theft twist; artist to give birth in gallery

Odd twist: A man suspected of hiding artwork stolen from the Paris Museum of Modern Art last year claims that he threw the paintings into the garbage. (Los Angeles Times)

Exhibitionist: A Brooklyn performance artist is planning to give birth in an art gallery. (NBC New York)

Fair is fair: The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has made good on a Super Bowl bet with the Milwaukee Museum of Art. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Blockbuster show: The National Gallery in London is facing the prospect of major strike disruption during next month's Leonardo da Vinci exhibition. (The Guardian)

Recovered: Two stolen Pablo Picasso paintings worth millions of dollars reportedly have been found in Serbia. (CBC News)

Back to normal: The National Air and Space Museum has reopened after demonstrators swarmed the building to protest a drone exhibit. (Associated Press, via Washington Post)

No end in the sight: The protracted contract dispute between the Louisville Orchestra and its musicians appears far from over. (Louisville Courier-Journal)

One for the Gipper: A sculpture of Ronald Reagan has been unveiled in a Newport Beach park. (Corona Del Mar Today)

MLK play: Playwright Katori Hall takes a unique look at Martin Luther King Jr. in "The Mountaintop," which opens this week on Broadway. (Los Angeles Times)

Free-use photos: The Archives of American Art has contributed 285 digitized photographs from the Federal Art Project's Photographic Division Collection to Wikimedia Commons. (Archives of American Art)

Also in the L.A. Times: Charles McNulty reviews “I’ve Never Been So Happy” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and David C. Nichols reviews "Red Noses," which kicks off the 30th anniversary season at the Actors' Gang.

-- David Ng

Photo: A detail of "Woman with a Fan" by Modigliani, one of the works of art stolen from Paris' Museum of Modern Art. Credit: Reuters

Monster Mash: Artworks go home; 'Book of Mormon' creators chat

Heading home 1: The Menil Collection is returning a pair of 13th century Byzantine frescoes to Cyprus. (Houston Chronicle)

Heading home 2: The U.S. has returned a pair of 19th century paintings by Polish Impressionist Julian Falat, which had been looted by the Nazis, to Polish authorities. (Reuters)

Heading home 3: The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has returned a piece of a Hercules statue to Turkey after two decades of negotiations. (Associated Press, via Washington Post)

Jokers: Steve Kroft profiled Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the co-creators of "The Book of Mormon" on Broadway. ("60 Minutes")

For a good cause: Actress Jennifer Aniston purchased a Glenn Ligon painting worth an estimated $450,000 at a recent Haiti benefit auction. (Los Angeles Times)

Mass exodus: Half of the Colorado Symphony's board of directors have resigned in the wake of contentious contract negotiations with musicians. (Denver Post)

Controversy: An exhibit of drawings and paintings by Palestinian children has found a new home after being canceled by the Museum of Children's Art in Oakland. (Oakland Tribune, via San Jose Mercury News)

Career leap: American dancer David Hallberg talks about his decision to join Russia's Bolshoi Ballet. (NPR)

Sacred structure: Architect Renzo Piano has designed a Catholic convent near the site of Le Corbusier's famous chapel in Ronchamp, France. (The Guardian)

Language barriers: Playwright Tom Stoppard is spearheading a petition calling for modern-language teaching to be protected in Scotland's universities. (The Scotsman)

Apply within: The Boston Symphony is launching a search for a new music director to replace conductor James Levine. (Boston Globe)

Also in the L.A. Times: Music critic Mark Swed reviews the Carlsbad Music Festival.

-- David Ng

Photo: A scene from "The Book of Mormon." Credit: Joan Marcus

Monster Mash: No plans yet for 'Book of Mormon' movie

On hold: Trey Parker, one of the creators of "The Book of Mormon," said there were no immediate plans to turn the hit Broadway musical into a movie. (Hollywood Reporter)

Canceled: A Pennsylvania school district has decided not to stage the 1953 musical "Kismet" about a Muslim street poet after community complaints. (Associated Press)

New leader: The downtown L.A. arts high school has found a new principal. (Los Angeles Times)

Saved, for now: The financially imperiled American Folk Art Museum in New York has decided to continue operating at its current location at Lincoln Square with help from trustees and the Ford Foundation. (New York Times)

Missing masterpiece: Police in Houston are looking for a Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting believed stolen from a local home. (Houston Chronicle)

Scholarly trove: Photographer Elliott Erwitt's archive is being housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin for the next five years. (Associated Press)

Commission: Architect Zaha Hadid's firm has won a bid to design a new $12.5-million Miami Beach municipal parking garage. (Miami Herald)

Apply within: The Grand Rapids ArtPrize is expanding its competitive field to include composers. (Detroit Free Press)

Decline: Cultural participation by Californians continues to drop, though less so than at the national level. (Los Angeles Times)

Remembrance: A memorial service for the late artist Cy Twombly was held this week at New York's Museum of Modern Art. (Art Info)

Step right up: The National Pinball Museum is scheduled to open this fall in Baltimore. (Reuters)

Vanished: A popular rooster sculpture has been stolen from Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. (Miami Herald)

Also in the L.A. Times: Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne on the cityscapes in the new movie "Drive."

-- David Ng

Photo: Audiences outside New York's Eugene O'Neill Theatre, home to "The Book of Mormon." Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Minneapolis museum will return looted ancient vase to Italy

   

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts announced Thursday that it will return an ancient Greek vase to Italy after determining that it matched a photo Italian police had seized in a crucial 1995 raid on the Swiss warehouse of Giacomo Medici, an antiquities dealer who subsequently was sentenced to eight years in prison for conspiring to sell looted artworks.

The authorities traced photos and artifacts taken in the raid to museums and collectors worldwide, including L.A.’s J. Paul Getty Museum, which eventually returned 40 artworks to Italy, including some of the most prized pieces in its collection. Italian authorities charged Marion True, the Getty’s chief antiquities curator at the time, with conspiring with Medici and American dealer Robert Hecht to acquire looted works.

True was put on trial after her 2005 indictment, but it was repeatedly halted, and the charges against her were dropped last year when judges in Italy ruled that the statute of limitations had expired. The Getty already had agreed in 2007 to send back the disputed works.

Officials at the Minneapolis museum had told the Times in 2005 that one of its six ancient vases, or kraters, appeared to match a photo seized in the 1995 Medici raid.

The news release announcing the impending return of what’s known as the Volute Krater said only that “the MIA became concerned about the provenance of the krater” it had bought in 1983. After making inquiries along with Italian authorities and experts, as well as investigators from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the museum said it became clear that its vase, dating from about 450 BC, was in fact the one pictured in photos seized from Medici.

Evidence showed that the vase, which depicts a procession of Dionysus, the god of wine, and his devotees, probably had been dug from an archaelogical site near Rutigliano in Southern Italy. Parts of ancient Italy were colonized by Greeks.

The museum said no date has been set yet for its return.

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-- Mike Boehm

Photo: detail from Volute Krater to be returned from Minneapolis to Italy. Credit: Minneapolis Institute of Arts