Fascinating ending to a local art theft story in today's Boston Globe, but I'm still a little fuzzy on the reasoning of one of the players...
Back in 1978, seven paintings, including a Cezanne, were stolen from a Stockbridge home. One thing that made the case news at the time was how careless the owners had been. The paintings had been left on the walls inside the unlocked, un-alarmed house while the owners went on vacation. Now I'm not one to be paranoid, but there's "easygoing" and then there's "stupid"...
The thief, we learned this past weekend, was the local man who had always been the prime suspect in the case. After stealing them he had taken them to his lawyer, who advised him that fencing the stolen artwork in Florida would just get him into bigger trouble if he got caught. So far, so good. The lawyer says that the thief then left the paintings in the lawyer's attic without his knowledge, and he did not find them until a year later, when his client was shot dead over another matter.
At that point the lawyer decided to return the paintings in order to collect the reward from the insurance company, but found out that the paintings had not been insured (see note above re: "stupid"). He then moved them to Switzerland, formed a dummy corporation and spent twenty years trying to either sell them or ransom them back to the original owners. The Cezanne was finally returned, on condition that the owner sign a contract giving the dummy corporation title to the other stolen paintings. "Title" in hand, the lawyer then attempted to sell the paintings through a major auction house, but the sale was blocked by the owners. The lawyer is now considering suing the owner for "breach of contract".
Now I'm not a lawyer, but excuse me a moment while I go look up the word "extortion" in my dictionary...
Moral of the story- I keep looking for one. It's an odd world.
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