New Twist in Case of the Missing Masterpieces : Crime: Artworks were recovered in August. But now brother of the woman who says she owns them has filed suit, saying she stole them from their late socialite sister.

One of the biggest art robberies in Los Angeles history seemed to have ended happily in August when it was announced the FBI and police had recovered $9 million in modern art stolen from a Northridge rental storage unit.

But now Eva Smith Weisager, the 86-year-old woman who told police she had inherited the artworks from her socialite sister, is being accused of stealing them herself in the late 1970s. A spokesman for her denied the charge.

Weisager’s brother, Daniel Greenway, filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday charging that Weisager took the paintings and drawings--including a possible Picasso--from the home of their sister, Rosita Winston, after Winston was debilitated by a stroke.

Greenway further charges that when Winston--who was the widow of highly successful real estate developer Norman Winston--died in 1979, he should have shared in the artworks under the terms of her will.

The nine paintings and drawings include “The Party,” a painting attributed to Pablo Picasso, although leading experts on the artist said they had no knowledge of the work. If authenticated, the signed painting would be worth about $5 million.

Other paintings and drawings in the group were by such well-known artists as Edgar Degas, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani and Eugene Delacroix.

Greenway said in his suit that he is entitled to at least $1 million--one-ninth the value of the paintings, plus punitive damages and costs. He is a resident of Baja California, Mexico, and could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, who is based in Claremont, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Weisager’s son-in-law, Ken Tate, said Weisager was too upset to comment on the matter. Tate also would not comment in detail on the suit, other than to call it groundless.

“There is not one thing in there that is true,” Tate said, speaking from his office in Reseda. “The truth will come out and this will all just go away.”

The artworks were recovered in a raid Aug. 10 on the homes of Chatsworth carpenter Peter MacKenzie and Granada Hills electrician Alan McArthur. Several of the works, police said, were found hidden in the wall of MacKenzie’s bedroom.

The two men and restaurant owner Vasilios Mirmaras, who was accused of trying to sell the paintings, are scheduled to go on trial this month.

*

Weisager reported the artworks missing Feb. 5, 1992, from the rented storage facility where she had kept them for 13 years. She was living in a modest Van Nuys apartment and had no insurance on the works, she told police.

An insurance policy, in addition to protecting her against loss, would probably have bolstered her claim to ownership. Art insurers normally require proof that a valuable work is owned by the person or institution taking out the policy.

Tate would not comment on whether the paintings were now insured, or even if Weisager still had them in her possession.

Detective Bill Martin, who heads the Los Angeles Police Department’s art theft division, said he had no reason at the time of the investigation to doubt Weisager owned the works.

“If anything, it was just the opposite,” Martin said Wednesday. “This was an elderly woman who was very nice, very cooperative, who had never been in trouble with the law.

“She gave us materials to show that the paintings had been in her family for many years.”

The Winstons were well-known in New York art circles for their collection. A photograph of Rosita Winston that appeared in Vogue magazine in the mid-1950s shows “The Party” hanging on the wall of their apartment.

Greenway charges in the suit that Weisager bought a station wagon in 1978 “for the specific purpose of looting Rosita Winston’s plush condominium of valuable works of art.” He further states that Weisager, who is the only defendant in the suit, was assisted in taking the art by her daughter and “a servant.”

*

Greenway further states in the suit that he never knew what had happened to the paintings until he read a Times story in August about their recovery.

Tate said that Weisager and Greenway had stayed in contact over the years and had seen each other as recently as about two weeks ago. He said he did not know if they ever discussed the artworks.