Phone a lawyer.
Posted on 03/03/2007 5:48:33 AM PST by Puppage
LOS ANGELES -- A Norman Rockwell painting stolen from a suburban St. Louis gallery more than three decades ago has turned up in Steven Spielberg's art collection, the FBI announced Friday.
Rockwell's "Russian Schoolroom" was nabbed during a late-night burglary in Clayton, Mo., on June 25, 1973.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker purchased the painting in 1989 from a legitimate dealer and didn't know it was stolen until his staff spotted its image last week on an FBI Web site listing stolen works of art, the bureau said in a statement
After Spielberg's staff brought it to the attention of authorities, an FBI agent and an art expert from the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino inspected the painting at one of Spielberg's offices and confirmed its authenticity Friday morning. Early FBI estimates put the painting's value at $700,000, officials said.
"The second anybody said, 'I think we have that painting,' (our) office got a hold of the FBI," said Spielberg's spokesman, Marvin Levy.
Spielberg is cooperating with the FBI and will retain possession of the Russian Schoolroom until its "disposition can be determined," the bureau said.
The oil-on-canvas painting shows children in a classroom with a bust of communist leader Vladimir Lenin. It was nabbed in a gallery heist and then resurfaced briefly in legitimate art forums before disappearing again. At the time of the theft, the work was 16 inches by 37 inches.
Mary Ellen Shortland, who worked at the long-closed Clayton Art Gallery, recalled Friday that someone from Missouri paid $25,000 for the painting after seeing it during a Rockwell exhibition featuring mostly lithographs.
The client agreed to keep it on display, she said, but a few nights later someone smashed the gallery's glass door and escaped with the painting.
"That was all they took. That's what they wanted, that painting," Shortland recalled.
The gallery refunded the client's money, and there was no sign of the work for years. Then in 1988, it was auctioned in New Orleans.
In 2004, the FBI's newly formed Art Crime Team initiated an investigation to recover the work after determining it had been advertised for sale at a Rockwell exhibit in New York in 1989.
It wasn't immediately known whether Spielberg purchased the painting at that New York exhibit.
Spielberg is a long-time Rockwell collector. He helped found the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass., where he is also on the board of trustees.
"He's certainly one of the collectors of Rockwell," said Levy, who wasn't sure how many of the artist's paintings Spielberg owns. "We have a few in our office on the Universal lot."
Rockwell's work often resonates with people because much of
He did the right thing reporting it to the FBI. I suspect the art dealers has some explaining to do.
Phone a lawyer.
Odd choice of stolen goods... the bust of Lenin must have “sealed-the-deal” for Spielberg.
It is a bizzare cross of Norman Rockwell and Socialist Realism.
The boy in the third row sure doesn't look like he wants to be in that classroom
Art ping!
Let Republicanprofessor, woofie or me know if you want on or off the art ping list.
I was hoping Spielberg would come up with the stolen Picassos!
They refunded the client the $25,000 he paid for it. Which means this $700,000 painting is now theirs.
Good on Spielberg, he did the right thing. At least he didn't blubber the usual, "I bought it from a guy in an alley," after somebody discovered it in his collection.
The dream of any LEFTIST.
It is an interesting painting. The boy in the 3rd row is significant.
Reminds me of me in sixth grade at Christ the King Grammar School.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker purchased the painting in 1989 from a legitimate dealer and didn't know it was stolen until his staff spotted its image last week on an FBI Web site listing stolen works of art, the bureau said in a statement.
His staff spotted it, FBI website, stolen works...
Nevermind, it must be me.
'
LOL, kind of like the Sisters in Christ the King huh???
Your federal tax dollars at work. We have a porous border, with out of control human and drug trafficking, but don't worry, the Art Crime Team is out in full force.
I wondered about that, too. The dealer that sold it to him, too.
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