[MSN] A Phone Call Leads the F.B.I. to a Stolen Goya

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

November 21, 2006
A Phone Call Leads the F.B.I. to a Stolen Goya 
By RANDY KENNEDY

F.B.I. officials in Newark and Philadelphia said yesterday that they had
recovered a Goya painting that was stolen from a truck this month while it
was being transported from the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art in
Ohio to a major exhibition now on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
in Manhattan.

Officials said the painting was recovered unharmed Saturday in central New
Jersey after a lawyer called the F.B.I. and told investigators where they
could find it while saying that he could not tell them anything else about
the theft.

As of late yesterday, no arrests had been made. Because the investigation
remains active, officials would not say exactly where or how the painting
had been found.

Contrary to earlier law enforcement theories that the theft was carried out
by insiders, they did say it appeared that the thieves probably had no idea
what kind of art-historical loot they had stumbled upon when they broke into
the truck overnight in a parking lot at a Howard Johnson Inn near
Bartonsville, Pa. 

"This time of year, close to Christmas, they probably thought they'd found a
truck filled with PlayStations and broke in and started looking for the
biggest-looking box," said Steve Siegel, an F.B.I. agent who serves as the
spokesman for the bureau's Newark office. "Basically, it's a
target-of-opportunity typical New Jersey cargo theft. There are literally
predators - for lack of a better word - who when they see a tractor-trailer
or a cargo vehicle parked for any length of time start snooping around."

Officials at the Toledo Museum of Art said the painting, which was insured
for $1 million, would not be included as a late entry in the Guggenheim
show, "Spanish Painting From El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth and History,"
a sprawling exhibition of some 135 paintings by Spanish masters that opened
Friday. Instead, the work, painted in 1778 and titled "Children With a
Cart," will be returned to Toledo.

"We are ecstatic that the painting has been recovered, and we look forward
to bringing the Goya home and sharing it again with our community," Don
Bacigalupi, the director of the Toledo Museum of Art, said in a written
statement.

Lisa Dennison, the director of the Guggenheim, said the museum would have
liked to put the painting into the show but added that it was
"understandable that the Toledo Museum would want to bring the stolen
painting back to its home after this nerve-racking experience." She pointed
out that the show includes 21 other works by Goya. 

The crated painting was stolen either late on the night of Nov. 7 or early
on Nov. 8 from a shipping container in the truck while it was parked in an
unlighted lot near the Howard Johnson motel. The two drivers checked around
11 p.m. on Nov. 7, according to the motel manager, Faizal Bhimani. He said
the white midsize truck was left in a lot adjacent to the hotel, out of
sight of the motel's rooms and the main office.

Law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that
when the drivers returned to the truck about 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, the locks
had been broken and the painting was gone. Neither the two museums nor the
investigators have identified the shipping company responsible for
transporting the painting.

Federal investigators had first said they believed that thieves armed with
detailed shipping information were behind the theft. 

While that theory appears to have been wrong, other law enforcement
officials cautioned that it was not yet known definitively that the thief or
thieves had no information about the shipment of the painting.

While Mr. Siegel would not say exactly where the painting was recovered or
provide details about how the agents had found it, he did say that it was
recovered without a search warrant. He added that several people had been
interviewed about the theft, but he provided no details.

Officials declined to identity the lawyer who alerted the investigators and
would not say how he learned of the painting's whereabouts. Nor would they
say whether the lawyer was connected with anyone involved in the theft or
whether he would be paid the $50,000 reward offered by an insurer.

It was not known whether the authorities had learned the identities of the
thieves. 

One law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said
charges in the case could be filed as early as next week in United States
District Court in Newark. Possible crimes could include interstate
transportation of stolen property and theft of major artwork, each carrying
a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

William K. Rashbaum contributed reporting from New York and David Johnston
from Washington.

http://www.nytimes.com/