Laguna Beach : Paintings Worth $12,800 Stolen From Art Gallery
Two oil paintings worth $12,800 were stolen last week from an art gallery specializing in contemporary art, police said Monday.
The impressionist-style artworks by Marco M. Sassone apparently were stolen sometime Jan. 11 or 12 from the Diane Sassone Art Gallery in Laguna Beach, but were not reported missing until Monday, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Ray Lardie said.
Barbara Erikson, sales consultant at the gallery, explained that the theft was not discovered earlier because gallery personnel had thought the two paintings were merely misplaced.
“The owner (Diane Sassone) noticed them missing when she saw empty nails on the wall and said something should be hanging on them,” Erikson said Monday. The artist, Marco Sassone, the former husband of the owner, is a founding member of the Laguna Arts Commission.
The missing paintings are “Carmel,” depicting a house and a picket fence, valued at $5,900, and “Laguna Landscape,” a landscape of trees and a house deck painted in various shades of green, valued at $6,900.
Erikson said the gallery has offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the recovery of the paintings.
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