Art Crimes: Does any of this Look Familiar?

This has all the elements of a great story: In 2006, the secretive William MV Kingsland (nee Melvyn Kohn) died and left no will. When the NY Public Administrator discovered 300+ paintings, drawings, and sculptures in his one bedroom apartment, Christie's and Stair Galleries were nominated to sort out the provenance and auction off the works. In the process, a mover stole two Picasso sketches that turned out to have been reported missing for the first time in 1967. In the course of research, Christies discovered many of the other pieces had been stolen from New York galleries in the 60's and 70's.

These are just a handful of paintings that caught my eye, from the top: Picasso's "Tete de femme", Ron Gorchov's "Study #1 in blue and orange" (I find it incredibly sexy), Odilon Reden's "Jeune fille et fleurs", Kenneth Rush's "Sweeny's mfg co below Brooklyn Bridge", and Henry Baskerville's "Still life with two glasses and lemon". Read the official FBI report and view the complete galleries.

Art Crimes: the Taking of Christ

On August 2nd, Reuters reported the theft of Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ from the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odessa, Ukraine. Thieves broke in through a window and cut the painting from its frame during the night. Vitaly Abramov of the Odessa Museum of Art called it a cultural catastrophe and a national tragedy because, "There is so little art of such level in the former Soviet Union." Another version of the painting is on display in Dublin at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Art Crimes: Lowry Robbery

LS Lowry's "The Viaduct", a pencil sketch of "The Surgery", and the artist's palette and brushes were taken among other works in a morning home invasion robbery on May 2nd of last year, in which three men held a couple and their two year old daughter at knifepoint. Greater Manchester Police have now charged Casey Miller, and questioned three other men about the crime, according to the BBC. When the robbery occurred, DS Tony Cook said, "These burglars appear to have known exactly what they were looking for. They must have known Mr. Aird was an art collector and that he would have the paintings in the house." The stolen works are still at large.