4th Man Held in $9-Million Theft of Art : Crime: Authorities say the Sylmar mechanic tried to sell the famous paintings stolen from a storage locker. He will be arraigned Sept. 15.

A Sylmar auto mechanic has become the fourth suspect arrested in the theft of $9 million in paintings from a storage locker in Northridge, police said Wednesday.

According to Detective Barbara Bella, 37-year-old Matthew Gibbs was arrested about 8 a.m. Tuesday at his Hubbard Street home by Los Angeles police detectives.

“It took us a little while to get him so maybe he thought we had forgotten about him,” Bella said. “But when we were standing at his door, I don’t think he was all that surprised to see us.”

Gibbs, who is free on $10,000 bail, will be arraigned Sept. 15 on charges of receiving stolen property. Authorities said Gibbs allegedly tried to sell the paintings after they had been stolen.

Earlier this month, police arrested Peter Wilson MacKenzie, 43, a Chatsworth carpenter, and Alan McArthur, 38, an electrician from Granada Hills, in the theft of the nine paintings, which were recovered by FBI agents and police. The paintings included works by Picasso, Chagall and Degas.

Three days after the first arrests, police arrested Vasilios Mirmaras, 36, owner of Pancake Heaven restaurant in San Fernando. Police charged that he attempted to sell the nine paintings for $3.5 million.

The paintings had been reported stolen Feb. 5, 1992, from a locker at a Northridge storage company where MacKenzie worked part time. Eve Weisager, the 85-year-old owner of the paintings, had stored them there for 13 years because, she told police, she had no room for them and believed that they would be secure there.

Weisager told police that she could not afford to insure them or store them in an art vault.

Eight of the stolen paintings were found hidden in a wall in MacKenzie’s house. The ninth was found wrapped in a pillowcase in McArthur’s bedroom.