IFARreports

Volume 12, No. 12

December 1991

A Passion for Porcelain: John Feller, Robin Hood of Chinese Export Ware, to Serve Jail Term
— Caroline Goeser
18 months in prison and $30,000 fine in thefts of museum art objects

Police Recover Tiffany Window and Arrest 2 Suspects
— Anna J. Kisluk
John A. Rodriquez and Beverly A. Tomasso charged in New London, CT, mausoleum break-in.

10 Important Thefts Reported in 1991
— Constance Lowenthal
Frank Lloyd Wright chair, Darwin D. Martin House; Maurice de Vlaminck, Environs of Le Havre, among more than 100 works, warehoused private collection; Tom Codrich attribution, Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice, one of five original Fantasia watercolors lent to Museum of Cartoon Art, Rye Brook, N.Y.; Louis Bertin Parant, Emperor Napoleon I cameo and 49 other miniatures, Cincinnati private collection; Chaim Soutine, L'Apprenti, hijacked in Manhattan; Georges Seurat, Le Cocher de Fiacre, private collection; Jacob Maentel, Portrait of The Wiestling Family, Maryland Historical Society, Frederick; Jean Honoré Fragonard, Royal Ladies at St. Denis, and Duccio di Buoninsegna attribution, New Madonna, Geneva, Switzerland, bank vault; René Lalique, bracelet.

Missing Art Index, 1991
Index

Major Recoveries Reported in 1991
— Constance Lowenthal
Rudolf von Alt, Odessa; Jupiter Capitolinus, Daedalus Gallery, New York; Peter Paul Rubens, Perseus and Andromeda, and Hans Baldung, The Virgin feeding the Child, recovered by The Netherlands from Ian Woodner collection and Dorotheum auction house; van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, and 19 other important van Gogh oils, Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, four arrests; Lee Krasner, The Eye is the First Circle, and David Salle, Sales Girls, Robert Miller Gallery; Picasso, Head of a Woman with Gold Earrings (Portrait of Dora Maar), and René Magritte, Sans Famille, Emily Staempfli collection; Mexican Olmec were-jaguar axe, Guatemalan Mayan cylinder vase, Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art, La Jolla, Calif., loan exhibition, one arrest; Peter Paul Rubens, Aurora, museum in La Coruña, Spain; Picasso, Absinthe and Cards, among four Picassos, Prague National Gallery; some arrests.

Museum Volunteer Spots Stolen Sculpture. Sighting Leads to Recovery of Two Art Objects Stolen from the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 1988
— Caroline Goeser
Jes Camby finds Osiris statuette in antiques shop; refuses reward; FBI investigation leads to Chinese rock crystal sphere.

Chamberlain Stolen in Germany: From the Whitney Museum's Permanent Collection
— Paloma Botin
Reward offered for return of John Chamberlain work on paper, Saint Bub (1961), stolen in transit from Dresden to Cologne.

Recoveries
Paintings, Pastels, Mixed Media Works, Watercolors: Alt, van Gogh, Goya y Lucientes, Krieghoff, Stewern, Vlaminck. Sculpture: Andino. Liturgical Objects: Casket. Mosaics landscapes. Silver Cinerary urn. Tapestries, Textiles: Flemish, French tapestries. Chinese: sphere. Egyptian: Osiris bronze.

Cumulative Index, 1991
Index

Just In…
16th-century miniature altar stolen from Victoria and Albert Museum, London; pair of Louis XV ormolu andirons stolen from car in New York.