Art Valued at Up to $9 Million Stolen From Public Warehouse

Nine works by masters of modern art--including Picasso, Modigliani, Degas and Chagall--valued at up to $9 million were stolen from a Northridge warehouse where their 84-year-old owner left them because of lack of space in her apartment, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

The missing paintings and drawings, which were not insured, were stored in a nondescript 10-by-12-foot room in a Public Storage warehouse in the 9300 block of Shirley Avenue, across from the Northridge Fashion Center mall, police said.

Police are investigating the theft as an inside job because there was no sign of a forced entry when the owner, Eve Weisager of Van Nuys, discovered her collection missing Wednesday afternoon, said Detective Barbara Bella.

Bella said police believe that the paintings and drawings are originals because Weisager, who told police she inherited them from her sister, produced a document that appears to certify their authenticity. Bella said the record was examined by her partner, Detective Bill Martin, an internationally recognized specialist in art theft and fraud.

Insurance fraud is unlikely because the collection is uninsured, Bella added.

Corella and Bella gave estimates of the collection’s worth at $7 million to $9 million, based on the owner’s records.

Martin was out of town and could not be reached Thursday.

The nine works were described as “The Party” by Pablo Picasso, oil on a wood panel, 22 1/2 by 31 inches; “Woman’s Head” by Amedeo Modigliani, blue crayon; “Balleteuse Fixing Her Shoe,” by Edgar Degas, pastel, 12 1/4 by 9 3/4 inches; “The Moroccan Chief” by Eugene Delacroix, oil on canvas, 13 1/2 by 10 inches; and “Flowers on a Windowsill,” by Marc Chagall, watercolor, 25 by 19 3/4 inches.

They also included an untitled oil by Louis Valtat of a woman standing by a window overlooking a garden; “Tonton, le Chien de Rajane,” an oil portrait of a dog by Jean Baldini; an untitled, oil circus scene by Chaim Soutine, and “Well in a Spanish Courtyard” by Andre Derain.

“If they are real, they are worth millions,” although perhaps not as much as $9 million, said Beverly Hills art dealer Louis Stern, who has testified in cases involving thefts of masterworks.

“A Delacroix is very scarce, also a Modigliani, although fake Modigliani paintings have been known to show up from time to time,” Stern said.

Valtat, Baldini, Soutine and Derain, although they do not have the standing of Picasso and Chagall, also produced works valued in the tens of thousands of dollars, Stern said.

He added: “These are works that would be hard to fence without documentation. Anyone who would be paying high prices for these paintings would be crazy if they did not call a dealer or a museum to verify their authenticity or to try to determine where they came from.”

Weisager had not seen the paintings since last May, the last time she visited the facility to pay the storage fee and check on her belongings, Bella said.

The detective said that when Weisager unlocked the door Wednesday afternoon, she entered the storage room to find the nine artworks gone. One undistinguished painting of no value was left behind, as was the frame that had held the Picasso. Also untouched were some antique chairs and tables.

The theft could have occurred anytime in the last eight months, police said. Bella declined to discuss who besides Weisager possesses a key to the storage room.

Bella described Weisager as a widow who had worked as a model in Paris and New York, and lives modestly but comfortably in a rented apartment in Van Nuys.

She inherited the paintings in the 1960s from a sister, did not have room for them at her home, and has been storing them at the Public Storage facility in Northridge since 1979. She apparently could not afford to insure them, Bella said.

Stern noted that no insurer would have allowed such works to be kept in a public storage facility.

Stern speculated that the Picasso, Delacroix and Degas works could be the most valuable of the collection.

Of “The Party,” he said it was unusual for Picasso to paint on wood and that the work could be very valuable if complete.

Degas was well known for his pastels, Stern added, so the missing ballerina piece could be worth $1 million, depending on its execution.

Delacroix “did spend time in Morocco,” he said, in reference to “The Moroccan Chief.” “His oil paintings are rare. It could in fact be quite valuable.”