More art lost forever to cover up a crime

Alessandra Kelley · Jul 19, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/w...t-world-fearing-worst.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

How Picassos, Matisses, Monets and other precious masterpieces may have met a fiery fate in a remote Romanian village, population 3,400, is something the police are still trying to understand. The theft has turned into a compelling and convoluted mystery that underscores the intrigues of the international criminal networks lured by high-priced art and the enormous difficulties involved in storing, selling or otherwise disposing of well-known works after they have been stolen.

It's the incineration of the masterpieces that outrages me.

She couldn't have just abandoned them in the town square and twigged the authorities?

Maggie Maxwell · Jul 19, 2013

This article makes my heart hurt. There were so many other things she could have done instead of burning them! I guess she wanted to destroy them to avoid leaving fingerprints (her own or her son's)? And now there are 7 works of art that the world will never see again in their original beauty. It's a travesty.

mirandashell · Jul 19, 2013

I know. It's heartbreaking when this happens.

Alessandra Kelley · Aug 13, 2013

Hmm. It appears maybe ... perhaps ... it didn't happen, or at least not fully:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23678645

Suspects in the theft of seven artworks have offered to return them in exchange for moving their trial from Romania to the Netherlands, their lawyers say.

...

One of the lawyers said their clients had offered to return five of the paintings, with no mention made of the remaining two.

About this I am cautiously hopeful.

More art lost forever to cover up a crime

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

Maggie Maxwell

Making Einstein cry since 1994

mirandashell

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian