THE ARCHIVE BY COUNTRY
Published reports from our archive, newest first.
A country may refer to the theft, recovery, return or legal proceedings. A case can be linked to more than one country.
189 reports · Page 8 / 9
Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup I (Beef), 1968. Image released by the FBI. Image source ↗
The FBI reported that seven of the museum’s ten Campbell’s Soup I screenprints were stolen early on 7 April 2016. Its announcement offered up to $25,000 for information leading to their recovery. This report records the investigation’s status in April 2016.
Christie’s sought $32.1 million from José Mugrabi and Jombihis Corporation, alleging the outstanding balance had not been paid on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s The Field Next to the Other Road. Mugrabi disputed the account.
Counterfeit painting attributed to Mark Tobey in the Ulvi case. Mark Humpal via Oregon Live / Artnet News. Image source ↗
Larry Ulvi received a year and a day in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud. The scheme included forged paintings attributed to Mark Tobey, and investigators found signature-practice sheets. This report records a sentence following a guilty plea.
Collage of forgeries from the Eric Spoutz case. FBI. Image source ↗
Federal prosecutors announced Eric Spoutz’s arrest on a fraud charge over dozens of works allegedly misattributed to American artists. This report records the February 2016 charge, not a conviction. His later sentence is covered separately on the site.
Christie’s withdrew an eighth-century BCE Celtic bronze dagger and scabbard from its New York antiquities auction after an antiquities researcher linked the objects to records in the Becchina archive and raised concerns about possible looting. Photo: the dagger and scabbard in the Becchina archive, via ARCA and Artnet.
N.C. Wyeth, The Encounter on Freshwater Cliff. FBI recovery photograph. Image source ↗
The FBI announced that the last two paintings from a 2013 Maine theft were surrendered on 9 October 2015. Four others had been recovered in December 2014. The investigation remained open at publication.
Canon table by T’oros Roslin. Getty Museum via Google Arts & Culture. Public domain. Image source ↗
The Getty acknowledged the Armenian Apostolic Church’s ownership of eight leaves from the Zeyt’un Gospels. Under the agreement, the Church agreed to donate the leaves to the museum.
A posthumous bronze cast stolen in 1991 resurfaced in London and was recovered in 2015. It was offered back to its rightful owner.
Sotheby’s withdrew a late thirteenth-century Madonna and Child from auction after it was identified as stolen from a Geneva vault in 1986. A settlement resolved the ownership dispute in 2015. The possible attribution to Duccio remained open.
Jasper Johns and James Meyer in the studio. Photograph: Hans Namuth, via the cited source. Image source ↗
James Meyer was sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling 37 works stolen from Jasper Johns’s Connecticut studio. Prosecutors described fabricated documentation used to reassure buyers about the works’ provenance.
Prosecutors sought civil forfeiture of the painting stolen in France and shipped from Belgium under a false declaration. Proceedings were pending.
Investigators recovered nine of twelve works stolen from an Encino home in 2008. The FBI separately published a reward notice for the case. Photo from the FBI presentation of the recovered works, via the Los Angeles Times.
John Re (right) aboard Deep Quest, the submarine linked to the fraud proceeds. Image source ↗
John Re pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme causing approximately $2.5 million in losses. He fabricated provenance for works presented as paintings by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Sentencing was pending at publication.
Detail of the counterfeit Flag in the Ramnarine case. Image reproduced by the Center for Art Law. Image source ↗
Brian Ramnarine received 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud involving bronzes falsely presented as works by Jasper Johns, Robert Indiana and Saint Clair Cemin. The scheme included an attempted sale of a counterfeit Johns Flag.
The Baltimore Museum of Art confirmed the return to its collection of the painting stolen in 1951 and announced The Renoir Returns, opening on 30 March 2014. Archival research supported its identification.
Johann Conrad Seekatz, St. Philip Baptizing a Servant of Queen Kandaki. Image source ↗
US authorities announced the return of St. Philip Baptizing a Servant of Queen Kandaki to Poland. Looted from Warsaw’s museum during the Nazi occupation, it was identified at a London gallery, which cooperated with its recovery.
Sotheby’s withdrew a Khmer warrior statue from a 2011 sale after Cambodia requested its return. The United States then sought forfeiture. Sotheby’s and the consignor agreed to return the statue under a December 2013 settlement, and it was handed over in 2014.
A purported Mark Rothko sourced through Glafira Rosales and Knoedler failed to sell at Christie’s auction in 2009 and was later sold privately through Christie’s. Its claimed provenance was invented, and Rosales later acknowledged that the work was fake. Image: Christie’s New York saleroom, via Wikimedia Commons. Christie’s said it cancelled the sale and reimbursed the buyer.
Glafira Rosales, pictured in the report on her guilty plea. Image source ↗
Glafira Rosales pleaded guilty in a scheme involving forged works attributed to Abstract Expressionist artists. Prosecutors said sales exceeded $80 million. This report records the guilty plea; sentencing had not yet taken place.
Mother and Child, the bronze stolen from Sculpture Tour Eau Claire in 2013. Volume One / organiser photograph. Image source ↗
Sculpture Tour Eau Claire raised its reward from $1,000 to $2,000 for information leading to recovery of the bronze Mother and Child. The sculpture was stolen from the outdoor exhibition on 25 May 2013. Current validity of the offer is unconfirmed.
Steven Brooks sued over a Louis-Michel van Loo painting bought at Sotheby’s. He alleged the auction house should have disclosed that Hermann Göring had owned it and said the possibility of Nazi-era looting affected its resale. Image: Sotheby’s New York premises, via Wikimedia Commons.
