Don't let Neal know....

[aragarna]

... Or he'll have a heart attack.

Stolen Picasso Among Paintings ‘Burned’ in a Romanian Stove

"According to her statement to the police, Olga Dogaru said that she was worried for her son after his arrest earlier this year, and decided to move the artworks around her village in Caracliu, burying them in a cemetery. In a bid to get rid of the evidence, she decided to burn the entire package containing the seven paintings in a stove used to heat saunas.

[...]

According to Alice Farren-Bradley, the recoveries case manager at the Art Loss Register, the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art, it is not unusual for artworks to be destroyed or damaged during thefts. “It’s not how it looks in Hollywood films, where thieves pop canvases out of frames and make it look easy. It’s very complicated, you have to know what you are doing.”

Farren-Bradley also says that it is often the case that, compared to the execution of the theft, thieves put little thought into how they can liquidate their stolen assets. “You get a lot of cases where people panic, and that is when they attempt to hide the items by burying them or storing them." "

And according to the article, this is not the only case of a mother destroying "evidence" for her beloved son.... And now I can see the story of how Neal's first high profile theft went wrong when his mother destroyed the precious painting.... ;-)

And I also love this last bits, that could totally be written in White Collar (though more Neal than Peter I think...), for the FBI, art theft is like stealking History.


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Comments

[kanarek13]

Oh, yeah, I read about it a while back, got a link from Nioell... People - IDEK! Seriously...

[treonb.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about Neal in regards to the Cannes heist.

(actually there's barely any theft today that doesn't make me think of White Collar..)

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

I remember hearing about the heist, but I didn't know the mother burned all the paintings...
Yeah... I mean, you don't need Neal to tell you these are priceless, irreplaceable pieces ! /o\

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

LOL yes, I heard it was a single man. So maybe Gordon Taylor. Though the guy was armed, so it might be Keller. Plus a guy broke out of prison in France last month, during his transfer... Very Keller style !

(if he broke out of prison again, they should all keep an eye on Satchmo, the only Burke Keller hasn't kidnapped yet ;-) ).

[lov-pb.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of this case! How tragic ... to burn such artworks. As sad as this is, it would make a great White Collar episode/story.

"The FBI, which describes art theft as 'like stealing history',
estimates the criminal market to be worth $6 billion annually, double what it was a decade ago."

Amazing!!!

[winterstar95.livejournal.com]

Well hollywoood very rarely gets it right.. But this is sad in a way. I'm not telling Neal that's for sure!

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

yes it would make a good story in White Collar... though the last time they mentioned burning priceless art, it was the fans that had a heart attack... LOL

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, this is heart breaking. Because paintings can NOT be reproduced. It's not like other forms of art, films, photography, books... Those you can make copies, and it's still the same. But not paintings. It is the original material that makes its value.
It is really, to me, like stealing History. It's a part of our common heritage that they destroyed.

Yeah, Hollywood rarely gets it right, but that would be depressing to have a realistic White Collar. In real life, the conviction rate is very far from 94%; the recovery of stolen pieces rare and it takes ages. And in real life, there are often casualties. There are more Kellers than Caffreys in the real world, unfortunately.

[lov-pb.livejournal.com]

Excellent point. ;)

[sinfulslasher]

I thought about Neal when I first heard about this! LOL! We're all so focused on WC, everything art-related makes us think of Neal. We're hopeless. *g*

And the Cannes heist yesterday - I also immediately went "Oh, Neal's in France!" until they said the robber had been armed, then I went, "Oh, Keller!" LOLOL!

[aragarna.livejournal.com]

LOL yep, exactly what I thought too. ;-)
Yes,we're hopeless,so they could as well give us our dose, because those long hiatus do nothing to make us quit...