Motive for Art Theft Baffles Investigators

Five days after more than $1 million in artworks were stolen in Van Nuys, Los Angeles police remained puzzled Friday over who took them and why.

Detectives assigned to the robbery, which happened late Monday at Eagle Limited’s art warehouse near the Van Nuys Airport, say there are no suspects in the case and no clear motive. All but three of the more than 3,700 artworks stolen were lithographs or serigraphs that would be difficult for the thieves to sell profitably, police said.

“This was not what you call a classic art theft,” Detective Lou Boozell said. “Somebody went in and stole three original paintings that were valuable. But the prints that were taken--which make up the main value of the theft--don’t have a lot of value as stolen property. I am having trouble determining the motivations for this.

“I haven’t decided whether we are dealing with professionals or someone who just came in off the street.”

About 8 p.m. Monday, a masked gunman tied up Robert Silver, part-owner of Eagle Limited, took his watch and wallet and then loaded the artworks into the company van and escaped. Though he only saw the one man, Silver reported that he heard voices indicating there was more than one robber.

The three original paintings taken were by Spanish painter Ramon Lombarte and had a total retail price of $78,000.

The robbers also took 3,740 lithographs and serigraphs by three little known artists, including Lombarte, Sonya Fe of Los Angeles and Roberto Chichorro of Portugal. It is the theft of these prints that is most puzzling to detectives.

Though the three original works might be profitably sold by the thieves without much difficulty, it is not likely that the prints could be sold by the thieves at a price near their wholesale value of $400 to $1,200 each, police said.

“Why would anybody want to spend $400 for a stolen print?” Boozell asked.

The other impediment to selling the prints is that most are sold through galleries and dealers that generally carry only a handful of an artist’s works, Boozell said.

It would seem to be too risky for the thieves to attempt to parcel out 3,740 stolen prints to numerous dealers. Police have already begun notifying galleries and art distributors across the country about the stolen artworks.

Boozell said that leaves less lucrative markets for the thieves to sell the prints.

“It seems to me someone has gone through a lot of trouble if they are just going to try to sell these at a swap meet,” Boozell said.

But Boozell said there are still other possibilities. He said the entire cache of prints could have been stolen to be taken out of the country and then sold after a waiting period. Eagle Limited officials have said that Lombarte and Chichorro are more popular in Europe, and their works may be easier to sell there.

The detective said he is also exploring the possibility that the robbers were professional thieves but had acted on wrong information. About a dozen other original paintings by Fe and Lombarte, a few valued as high as $60,000 each, were not at Eagle Limited at the time of the robbery because they were on display at galleries.

Company officials said half of those paintings were due to be returned to Eagle Limited the morning after the robbery, meaning the thieves had missed a more valuable haul by about 12 hours.

“Luckily, those were not lost,” said Janet Klein, director of marketing for Eagle Limited.

Boozell said that the Eagle Limited van stolen in the robbery has not turned up. And neither has Silver’s wallet or Rolex watch, two items that add another unusual angle to the investigation.