Art Thief Gone but Not Forgotten--Gets 13-Year Term

Ronald Gerson--the Van Gogh art thief who fled from court minutes before the verdict in his case was to be read last month--was sentenced in absentia Friday to 13 years in state prison.

The 38-year-old ex-convict from Canoga Park was convicted by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury of grand theft, burglary and receiving stolen property in connection with the 1984 heist of the painting “Bridge Over the Seine” from the Holmby Hills mansion of real estate developer Ernest Herman.

Although Gerson--who was free on $50,000 bail when he disappeared--had been curious enough to call the courtroom for the verdict, court officials said they did not hear from the fugitive again Friday morning at the time of his sentencing to the maximum term by Judge Richard C. Hubbell.

Defense counsel Douglas Young said he does not expect to hear from his client either. “He owes me money,” Young explained with a laugh.

Attorney Cited for Contempt

Young himself had been scheduled to be sentenced Friday for contempt for having failed to appear in Hubbell’s courtroom for a portion of the verdict proceedings. But his hearing was continued until Jan. 10.

In seeking the maximum sentence for Gerson, Deputy Dist. Atty. William A. Crisci asserted that the defendant, who is being sought by authorities, is a dangerous fugitive who has nothing “but contempt for the laws of this state.”

Young unsuccessfully countered that although Herman lost possession of his painting for about six weeks, “he often loaned his paintings out to museums anyway.”

The delinquent defendant, who was previously convicted of armed robbery and grand theft, posed as a gas company employee to gain access to Herman’s mansion. He and four accomplices--each of whom pleaded guilty--were arrested at the Century Plaza Hotel in August, 1984, during a sting operation in which police posed as New York drug dealers offering to buy the Van Gogh and a nearly worthless copy of a Monet painting for $125,000 in cash and 20 kilos of cocaine.