Art That’s Alluring--to Thieves

Sculptor Michael Wilkinson is hot. Or at least his work is, but not the way he would prefer.

Thieves have been spiriting acrylic sculptures by Wilkinson and works by other artists out of mall galleries and other commercial outlets from Denver to California, with 14 heists on the West Coast alone, authorities said.

And while critics are reserved, authorities say there appears to be a ready market for the sculptures.

The thieves “may be linked to a large national ring,” Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino said. “It’s probably a loose-knit group of thieves working together. Their methods are very similar.”

The modus operandi sounds like two kids shoplifting candy. One thief distracts the gallery attendant while the other drapes a jacket over the artwork and heads for the door, police said.

“They’re very fast,” Amormino said. “They want to get in and out real quick.”

Last week, thieves took a $3,200 Wilkinson sculpture--”Crystal Fire”--from the Henken Gallery in the New Otani Hotel in Los Angeles. Two days later, a $10,000 Wilkinson piece titled “Moonscape II: Aria” was stolen from Mission Viejo’s Kaleidoscope Gallery. It was the second theft from the mall gallery in Mission Viejo. On Dec. 20, two men rustled a 19-inch Jiang bronze horse valued at $12,500 out of the shop.

“I couldn’t afford it anymore and I put in a security system,” said owner Ed Bolin, who opened the gallery in 1998 and had been victimized only twice before the Wilkinson thefts.

Thieves, who were captured on videotape in the second Kaleidoscope theft, also have struck in Long Beach and Beverly Hills, and as far north as San Francisco.

“Moonscape II: Aria” is a 21-inch, see-through acrylic nude that resembles an ice sculpture. Part of a limited edition of 500, the gallery valued the piece at $10,000, although another dealer listed a copy for $6,800.

“They’ve taken stuff they can sell, and these sculptures are on the high end of sculpture art,” Bolin said. “So they have a good eye. They must either have buyers in the business who are telling them what to steal, or they know what art they can move and sell quickly.”

Thieves also have been targeting acrylic works by the late Fredrick Hart, best-known for his bronze “Three Servicemen” statue at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

The stolen art generally is dismissed by serious art critics. Wilkinson’s work is in the Romantic Realism style and influenced by Ayn Rand.

“Romantic Realism has an emotional, sublime quality to it,” said Martin Kersels, a sculptor, art instructor and California Institute of the Arts art program director. “It can be nostalgic. In the contemporary art world, Romantic Realism is not something people are aspiring to.”

The style was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but it has fallen into insignificance because “it doesn’t push the boundaries,” he said.

“I think the majority of this style of art has no cultural currency,” Kersels said. “It’s popular and commercially profitable because people recognize the images, it’s nostalgic, and it’s not offensive.”

On his Web site, Wilkinson, a New York artist, describes his work as “rooted firmly in realism that portrays the good and the beautiful in the human spirit--and points to the glorious possibilities of our existence.” The site describes Wilkinson as being influenced by European classics and Japanese architecture he saw as an Air Force illustrator.

The pieces have an audience among people drawn to mystical overtones the artists place on realistic--if idealized--human forms.

“Wilkinson’s work is sculpture--it’s clear acrylic so when you look at it from different angles, there’s a lot of different dimensions to it,” Bolin said. “It’s men and women intertwined . . . in love and with a child.”

While the critics might sniff, the pieces wouldn’t get stolen if there weren’t demand, Amormino said. Investigators believe the art might be destined for Mexico.

“There tends to be a ready market for this,” he said.

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Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this report.