Westside : Stolen Artwork Was a Hot Bargain

Sometimes, even for a thief, it’s hard to know what you’ve got till it’s pawned.

Last month Santa Monica pawnbroker Angelo Garzieri gave a customer $50 for an 18-inch bronze sculpture of a nude African woman. Garzieri then put the piece up for sale for $300.

What Garzieri didn’t know was that the objet d’art had been stolen in early May from the Venice gallery of Robert Graham, a famous sculptor who is married to actress Anjelica Huston and whose pieces often sell for more than most people make in a year. Graham’s asking price for the untitled work? $35,000.

Los Angeles Police Detective Jay Varga, who had been assigned to the theft, recovered the artwork this week after an anonymous informant reported seeing it in a Santa Monica pawnshop. The suspected thief, whose name was not released, was already in custody for an unrelated robbery charge, Varga said.

In flyers, Varga had described the piece as “extremely unique,” but Garzieri was never all that impressed.

“There was no name signed, and if you see it up close, you say, ‘OK, it’s a creative work someone did in a garage or a gallery,’ ” Garzieri said. A spokeswoman for Graham said the artist does not always sign his work, and in this case there “was no appropriate place for him to sign it.”

Not that a signature would have made any difference--Garzieri says he’s never heard of Graham anyway.