The Purloined Rockwell - Stolen in St. Louis in '73. Found today -- on Steven Spielberg's wall

riverfronttimes.com ^ | February 28, 2007 | Kristen Hinman

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Academy Award-winning director and producer Steven Spielberg has turned over to federal authorities Russian Schoolroom, a 1967 oil on canvas by Norman Rockwell that was filched from a Clayton art gallery in 1973, according to the FBI.

No charges have been filed in the case, and federal officials say they have no evidence that Spielberg knew the painting had been stolen when he purchased it in 1989.

"It appears that he is an innocent buyer," says St. Louis-based FBI agent Frank Brostrom, a member of the agency's Art Crime Team, who initiated the investigation. Spielberg is an avid Rockwell collector who helped fund the construction in 1993 of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and who joined its board of directors this past September. According to a December 3 article in the Washington Post, Rockwells from Spielberg's collection adorn numerous rooms in his office compound at Universal Studios in Hollywood.

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[msnimje]

Did they have insurance in 1989? Is there a serious art collector anywhere who does not insure his collection?

[pepsionice]

There are only X number of Rockwells...so when a dealer gets ready to put it on the market...you would absolutely expect him to provide information on the item...who owned it...the history...etc. This whole story smells bogus. How did Spielberg acquire it in the first place? I'm betting he knew more about the story. Alot of Hollywood types buy stolen art and just keep it for private showings.

[Brad from Tennessee]

Spielberg is pushing 60. He grew up surrounded by Norman Rockwell--on magazine covers, calenders, posters, prints hanging in the classroom, in public buildings and later mugs, placematts, lunchboxes with Norman Rockwell art on them.

Both men aim their work at the largest mass audience they can reach which they call the ordinary man. Though Rockwell worked in a completely different medium I can imagine Spielberg may identify him as some kind of historic mentor.

[The Duke]

Surely you're not suggestion that ol' Stephen "penis breath" Spielberg would himself steal a painting(?)

[martin_fierro]

lolz

[Lockbar]

"Hey, he's a liberal elite. He don't have to follow no friggin laws. Laws is for da little people."

Also somebody should ask this putz Spielberg about his huge and secret gun collection. I guess if guns are banned, his buddies in Sacramento will let him keep his.

[Lockbar]

LOL, you guys are killing me with your photoshops! :-)

[Howlin]

To say nothing of whoever carries the insurance on his art collection, eh?

Oh, you are so right.

It would be interesting to know WHERE this picture was hung, wouldn't it?

[ko_kyi]

"Laws are for the "little people" anyway."

Which also should explain his gun control support while in possession of a private arsenal that would suit a medium sized police force.

[BigSkyFreeper]

"It appears that he is an innocent buyer," says St. Louis-based FBI agent Frank Brostrom, a member of the agency's Art Crime Team, who initiated the investigation.

I call bulls***. I remember this story (stolen Rockwell painting) from last year. Spielberg is playing victim. All liberals do it.

[spectre]

Show Off! :)

He's going to get away with it, you know..

sw

[Calvin Locke]

Spielberg is Hollywood. Hollywood types think that they're are above the masses.

Rockwell is too normal to appeal to someone in Hollywood, other than to mock.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

Spielberg purchased the painting in 1989 BG (before Google).

Anybody who knowingly buys a famous stolen painting is not going to publicly display it. It will be locked in a vault somewhere.

[rabidralph]

I guess it was payback for all the art the Nazis stole from the Jews.

[ryan71]

1. If he's an avid collector, he'd have known of pieces that had been stolen.

2. Surely, he did not buy it at a public auction. He'd have bought it privately, which is suspicious.

3. He thinks so little of the public that he was confident no one would recognize it displayed in plain sight.

He knew it was stolen.

[Redbob]

And now the picture of the painting has ALREADY been removed from the FBI.gov website!

[Redbob]

"He knew it was stolen."

I agree with you; just read the newspaper story linked: it's been widely known at least among Rockwell collectors that this piece was stolen.

[spanalot]

HA!!

[Borges]

Rockwell is too normal to appeal to someone in Hollywood, other than to mock

Give me a break. The feeling in Spileberg's best films can only be described as Rockwellian.

[Calvin Locke]

I didn't say he hasn't made good films, or that he knows what sells.

But I'm still surprised that he's a Rockwell fan. Rockwell painted life at the moment. Spielberg digitized guns into cellphones, succumbing to avant-garde Hollywood think (via his goddaughter, so the story goes).