Paintings, stolen during a violent home invasion in 1976, to be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York City

NEW YORK (AP).- Two paintings that resurfaced 31 years after being stolen during a violent home invasion in Massachusetts will be auctioned in New York City next month. "In the Sun" by American impressionist painter Childe Hassam will be sold at Sotheby's on May 17 as part of its American Art sale for an estimated $1.5 million to $2.5 million, the auction house said Thursday. The richly colored canvas, created in 1888, depicts a woman in a flower garden near Paris shielding her face from the sun with a fan. The other work, "The Shore of Lake Geneva" by French artist Gustave Courbet, will be sold at Sotheby's 19th Century European Art sale on May 4. The painting, which has a pre-sale estimate of $200,000 to $300,000, shows an empty lake beach against a stand of trees. They were among three paintings pilfered on July 2, 1976, from a Shrewsbury, Mass., home. Three armed bandits tied up the owner, Mae Persky, and her nurse companion and caretaker before ransacking the house and also stealing the painting, "Lady as Shepherdess" by English artist William Hamilton. The two paintings are being offered for sale by the heirs of the estate, Sotheby's said. Their plans for the Hamilton work were not disclosed The paintings resurfaced in 2007 when a Newport, R.I., art dealer contacted the FBI after a lawyer and developer, Patrick Conley, brought them for an appraisal. Conley said he got the paintings from his brother, an antiques dealer, but didn't know they were stolen. In 2008, a consent agreement in Rhode Island federal court awarded the works to Judith Yoffie, the sole surviving relative of Persky's estate. Persky died in 1979; Yoffie died in March 2008. No one has ever been arrested in the case. The robbers, who also reportedly stole furs, rugs and silverware from the house, fled the scene in the caretaker's car, later found abandoned near the Rhode Island border. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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500-year-old painting back to Jewish family

TALLAHASSEE (AP).- A 500-year-old painting auctioned by the French government during the Nazi occupation in World War II is back in the hands of a Jewish family who proved it was sold illegally. U.S. authorities in Tallahassee on Wednesday signed paperwork to return the 16th century Baroque painting to representatives of the family of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe. He died in 1940 shortly before the Nazis occupied France. The Vichy government sold the painting, but the sale has been deemed illegal. The family plans to auction "Christ Carrying the Cross" later this year. It could fetch up to $3.5 million. U.S. authorities seized the painting from a Florida museum in November after discovering the family had been seeking its return. A federal judge in February ordered that the painting be returned to the family. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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Police find a Paul Cezanne masterpiece that was stolen from a Swiss museum in 2008

BELGRADE (AP).- Police from Serbia and Switzerland have recovered a Paul Cezanne masterpiece that was stolen from a Swiss museum in 2008 and captured four men as they were trying to sell it, officials said Thursday. During a news conference in Belgrade, officials played a video showing how police had arrested one of the four suspects in a Belgrade suburb and found the painting in the roof upholstery of a black van, handcuffed the driver and dragged him away. Clearly proud of the police raids on Wednesday and Thursday, officials displayed "The Boy in the Red Vest" by the French impressionist, with two masked Serbian special policemen armed with machine guns standing alongside of it. A Swiss expert authenticated the oil on canvas painting, which was stolen from E. G. Buhrle Collection in Zurich along with three other masterpieces by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas. Zurich prosecutors also said that the museum certified that the painting is the original by Cezanne. The work was worth 100 million Swiss francs ($110 million, €84 million) when it was stolen by three masked gunmen who witnesses said spoke German with a Slavic accent in what was one of the biggest art thefts in Europe at the time. "I think this is really an impressive action conducted jointly with Swiss police," said Miljko Radisavljevic, Serbia's organized crime prosecutor. He said four men, including the leader of the gang that conducted the robbery, were arrested in raids in Belgrade, the capital, and the central city of Cacak. Soon after the robbery on Feb. 10, 2008, Monet's "Poppy field at Vetheuil" and van Gogh's "Blooming Chestnut Branches" were discovered undamaged in a car parked at a mental hospital in Zurich. About a year later, Degas' "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter," worth about 10 million francs ($11 million, €8 million), was returned to the Swiss museum after a €400,000 reward was paid to and unidentified person, Serbian officials said. Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the police raids, planned since 2010, took place when the suspected robbers decided to take the Cezanne painting to a wealthy Serb who agreed to buy it for €3.5 million ($4.6 million). Dacic said that nearly €1.5 million ($2 million) in cash and firearms were found with the four arrested men. "Of course, they could not sell the painting for its real price," Dacic said. "It's amazing standing besides this masterpiece." He said one of the arrested men was the leader of the gang that conducted the robbery, while the three others are believed to be accomplices in the crime. They will stand trial in Serbia, Dacic said. Art experts have suggested the robbers took advantage of low security at the Swiss museum without knowing about the paintings or how difficult it can be to sell such well-known stolen art works. The robbers took the first four paintings they reached when they raided the museum shortly before closing time on a Sunday. Although the most valuable painting was among the ones they took, they left behind the second most precious picture in the room, Cezanne's "Self Portrait with Palette," insured for 90 million francs ($98 million, €75 million.) Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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Kroeller-Mueller Museum confirms through new X-Ray technique that still life is by Vincent van Gogh

THE HAGUE (AP).- It was, it wasn't, it is: A still life once thought to be by Vincent van Gogh but later downgraded to being the work of an anonymous artist is indeed by the tormented Dutch impressionist himself, researchers announced Tuesday. The process leading to the confirmation of the painting's authenticity reads like a cold case detective story. A new X-ray technique helped experts re-examine what they already knew about "Still life with meadow flowers and roses" and draw on a growing pool of scholarly Van Gogh research. A detailed X-ray of an underlying painting of two wrestlers and knowledge of the painter's period at a Belgian art academy led a team of researchers to conclude that the painting really is by Van Gogh. The painting is owned by the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the central Netherlands and was being hung there Tuesday among its other Van Gogh works. There was no real eureka moment for experts studying the still life, said Louis van Tilborgh, a senior researcher at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum who took part in the confirmation process. "All the pieces just fell into place," he told The Associated Press. The painting, on a 100 cm-by-80 cm (40x31 inch) canvas, was bought by the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in 1974 as a Van Gogh. The work was thought to come from the artist's period living with his brother Theo in Paris from late 1886. "But when they hung it (in the museum), doubts crept in" about its authenticity, said Van Tilborgh. Experts thought the canvas was too large for that period, the depiction of a vase brimming over with flowers and yet more flowers lying on a table in the foreground was too exuberant, too busy. The signature was in an unusual position for Van Gogh — the top right hand corner. With the doubts piling up, the museum in 2003 decided to attribute the painting to an anonymous artist instead of to Van Gogh. But the detective work did not end there. An X-ray taken five years earlier had already revealed an indistinct image of the wrestlers and continued to interest researchers. Now, a new more detailed X-ray has shown the wrestlers in more detail, along with the brush strokes and pigments used. They all pointed back to Van Gogh. "You can see the wrestlers more clearly and the fact that they are wearing loin cloths," said Van Tilborgh. Having models pose half-naked was a defining characteristic of the Antwerp academy where Van Gogh studied in early 1886. So was the size of the canvas, the Kroeller-Mueller Museum said. Vincent wrote to his brother about needing the large canvas, new brushes and paint. Theo helped the penniless artist buy the materials and a week later Van Gogh wrote back that he was delighted with the painting of two wrestlers. Van Tilborgh said the brush strokes and pigments in the wrestlers painting also corresponded with what experts now know about Van Gogh's work in Antwerp. The wrestlers also help explain the "uncharacteristic exuberance" of the floral still life, the Kroeller-Mueller Museum statement said: Van Gogh had to cover up all of the old image with his new work. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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Greek policemen recover ancient illegally excavated marble statue from goat pen

(AP).- Greek police recovered an ancient statue that was illegally excavated and hidden in a goat pen near Athens, and arrested the goat herder and another man who were allegedly trying to sell the work for €500,000 ($667,000). The marble statue of a young woman dates to about 520 B.C. and belongs to the kore type, a police statement said Wednesday. Police photos showed the 1.2-meter (4-foot) work to be largely intact, lacking the left forearm and plinth. Although dozens of examples of the kore statue and its male equivalent, the kouros, are displayed in Greek and foreign museums, the type is considered very important in the development and understanding of Greek art. New discoveries in good condition are uncommon. Archaeologists who inspected the find estimated its market value at €12 million ($16 million), a police official said. "They told us that this is a unique piece," the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to the speak to the media since the investigation is still ongoing. Still bearing traces of soil, the statue has the hint of a smile on its lips, elaborately braided hair and an ankle-length gown. Police said it had been concealed in a goat pen near the village of Fyli, in the foothills of Mount Parnitha on the northwestern fringes of Athens. The 40-year-old goat herder and another Greek man aged 56 were arrested. Detectives are seeking to determine where the statue was excavated, which could potentially lead archaeologists to a previously unknown 6th century B.C. sanctuary or cemetery. The archaeological remains of civilizations stretching back thousands of years are spread all over Greece. By law, all antiquities are state property. But pillaging is a highly lucrative business. The police official said the suspects arrested Tuesday had put out feelers to potential buyers in Greece, and "would have sold it for a relative pittance, €500,000, given its market value." In another major success two years ago, police in southern Greece recovered a pair of twin kouros statues, and arrested two suspected looters. Dozens of illegally exported finds have been returned to Greece over the past few years, including masterpieces from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. (This version corrects grammatical error in headline.) Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

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