[MSN] Mexican police detain antique dealer with stolen painting

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Mexican police detain antique dealer with stolen painting 
 
30.03.2006 Source:  URL:
http://english.pravda.ru/world/78059-Mexican_police-0 

Police in the western city of Guadalajara arrested an antiques dealer for
alleged possession and attempted sale of an 18th-century religious painting
stolen two years ago from a museum in neighboring Guatemala. 

Suspect Francisco Gutierrez Castaneda from the upscale Guadalajara suburb of
Zapopan was detained Wednesday after police recovered the painting "The
Dream of Pope Gregory IX," by Mexican Baroque painter Cristobal de
Villalpando. 

The painting was reported stolen in May 2004 from the Colonial Art Museum in
the tourist city of Antigua, Guatemala. 

Police were acting on a tip from an art dealer in the nearby city of
Chapala, who said Gutierrez Castaneda had offered to sell him the painting
for US$30,000 ( Ђ 24,975). The second dealer checked the painting on the
Internet, discovered it was stolen and called authorities. 

Gutierrez Castaneda, 56, has said he acquired the painting for the
equivalent of about US$4,500 ( Ђ 3,745) in 2004, and was unaware that it was
stolen. He was remanded to a judge in Guadalajara, who will determine
whether sufficient evidence exists to hold him over for trial. 

Born around 1645, Villalpando died in 1714, and was known as the master of
the Baroque style in Spain's American colonies, reports the AP.