Some Stolen Works Found, Gallery Says

Some of the $6-million worth of paintings stolen in what police called the city’s largest art theft have been recovered, the gallery director said Friday.

Nicholas Hall, director of Colnaghi USA Ltd. on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, confirmed that some of the stolen paintings and eight drawings have been found. A Police Department spokesman, Fred Weiner, said he couldn’t confirm the recovery.

Hall said no one had been arrested in the theft. He would not say which works were recovered and refused to provide details, citing an ongoing police investigation.

The most valuable pieces stolen were two 15-by-7-inch wood panels by the 15th-Century Italian Renaissance master, Fra Angelico. The panels, depicting saints, were worth a combined $4 million.

Works by Lodovico Carracci, Pacino Da Bonaguida, Paolo Catamara, Gasper Duguet and Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin also were taken in the 1988 theft. The thieves broke in through a skylight and climbed down a rope into the gallery.