[MSN] Canada. Theft of painting by Group of Seven contemporary has investigators flabbergasted.

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Theft of painting by Group of Seven contemporary has investigators
flabbergasted
 
Katie Rook
CanWest News Service; National Post

Thursday, January 11, 2007

TORONTO - The theft of a historic $25,000 painting from a locked office at
Toronto's Ontario College of Art and Design has stumped investigators, who
wonder how a burglar carried the ornately framed oil canvas out of the
school without being spotted.

The J.W. Beatty painting and a student diptych were stolen over the weekend
from a locked union office. It was discovered Monday by a security guard who
spotted a broken lock.

''It's not the dollar value of this that is upsetting us so much, although
that obviously does, it's the heritage value,'' Peter Caldwell, a
vice-president of the college said Wednesday.

The work, entitled Winter Sunshine, Bellefountain (Cabin at Rover's Edge in
Winter) is one of two J.W. Beatty paintings in the college's collection of
about 3,500 items.

John William Beatty, who died in 1941 and was a contemporary of the Group of
Seven, was a teacher at the Ontario College of Art (as it was then known.)
The stolen painting  -  50.8 x 61 centimetres and larger than many of his
works circulating among galleries and collectors  -  was appraised in 2000
for $25,000, but is believed to be worth more, Caldwell said.

Shelley Falconer, a curator at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg, Ont.,
described J.W. Beatty as an ''accessible'' artist.

''One of the reasons he was an important contributor and important Canadian
artist is that he was part of a generation of artists at the beginning of
the century who were not only contemporaries with the Group of Seven, but
whom I think inspired a very important change in Canadian art: this idea
that we would focus on Canadian subjects and the Canadian landscape,'' she
said. ''I think people tend to think that is just something the Group did.''

Caldwell hopes publicity about the theft may help police locate the item,
recalling the successful recovery of bejewelled slippers from the Bata Shoe
Museum last January after staff at a photo lab developed pictures of the
stolen artifacts and secretly snapped a picture of the man who came to pick
them up.

As well, five ivory 18th-century portrait carvings by French artist David Le
Marchand, stolen from a locked display case at the Art Gallery of Ontario,
were dropped off at the office of a Toronto criminal lawyer in January 2004,
just 45 minutes after television networks aired the surveillance images.

The Toronto police major crime unit has not named any suspects.

Ontario College of Art and Design security guards checked the office door
lock every day during the Christmas break and noted it was still locked last
Friday, Caldwell said.

By 7:30 a.m. Monday, the door handle was loose and the windowless room used
by union employees including administration staff, student workers and
models was without wall-hangings, leaving officials to surmise entry had
been gained over the weekend, he said. The office is not used regularly and
the painting was not identified with a plaque, he added. All other valuable
Ontario College of Art and Design paintings have been moved to alarmed
offices.

Alain Lacoursiere, a Montreal police detective who specializes in art theft
investigations is not involved in the case, but said art is often stolen
over holidays and on weekends when fewer people may be watching.

The Mafia and biker gangs use stolen art to launder money, he said, noting
the 2004 arrest of a biker in connection with the sale of a fraudulent
painting by Paul Cezanne for $14 million.

A smaller J.W. Beatty painting (15.9 x 23.5 cm) entitled, Luxembourg
Gardens, Paris, was sold in British Columbia in November 2004, for about
$13,000, he said.

While J.W. Beatty's works are not rare, they are sought after, Falconer
said.

''I think if you are knowledgeable about Canadian art history or if you are
a Canadian art collector he is certainly one of those artists that you would
have represented in your collection and significant for that period, the
turn of the century.''

National Post

krook at nationalpost.com

http://www.canada.com/