South County : Rash of Art Thefts Has the Ex-Owners Guessing

They may be stashed away in a vault, the prize of someone’s private collection. Or, they may surface years from now on the walls of an art lover in a distant city or country. Hit by a rash of recent unsolved thefts from South Orange County galleries, artists and gallery owners can only guess where their valuable works may end up.

“Art work is disappearing, that’s a fact,” said David Brooks of Martin Lawrence Gallery referring to three recent Newport Beach art thefts, the latest Thursday afternoon.

“The paintings are probably going to end up in someone’s little treasure trove,” Brooks speculated. “He won’t be able to show it to a lot of people, but he’ll enjoy it and he got it for a steal.”

Brooks said detectives came around this week giving gallery employees tips on what to be on guard for while the shop is open and suggesting alarm systems and monitoring devices for times when the gallery is closed.

Maria Ptolemy, curator of the newly opened gallery Verdult on Lido Isle, said she stepped out of her main showroom momentarily Thursday afternoon and returned to find an oil painting missing.

The experience left her “so in shock I could not believe my eyes,” she recalled. The painting, by Dutch artist and gallery owner William Verdult, was entitled “Natasha.”

“It’s a very unusual painting,” said Ptolemy, musing aloud that the thief must have liked it for himself. “I don’t believe the painting would stay in the area, but where it would go, I don’t know.”

Added the artist, “There is a market throughout the world for paintings, like anything. Good thieves know that. If they can get them for nothing, they have sources to get rid of them.”

Verdult said he thinks stolen artwork is either stashed someplace or is smuggled out of the country.

“It makes me angry they disappear like that,” said Verdult, who valued his stolen painting at $15,000. “To think that people come in and steal from artists--good grief, how low can you get? Our work is part of us. It’s like taking our arm off.”

At the Diane Sassone Gallery in Laguna Beach, where two Marco Sassone oil paintings framed in 14-carat gold were recently stolen, an employee said: “It’s my personal opinion that someone would hold them or they have a client for them in Carmel or San Francisco. Obviously it was taken by someone who knew what they wanted. They were in (Diane) Sassone’s office.”

Gloria Grant, a volunteer at the Laguna Art Museum ventured that most stolen paintings are either fenced or sold to collectors who keep them under wraps.

Brooks of Newport Beach’s Lawrence gallery agrees.

“Thieves end up with some numbered limited editions which are difficult to trace,” said Brooks. “They end up in someone’s little vault, and they alone can look at them.”

Putting himself in the thief’s place for a moment, Brooks added, “If I could offer you your own personal, little treasure for very little (money) compared with what you would buy it for in a gallery . . .”