Gallery owners stunned by theft of work by Canadian artist

TP, Headphones, Laptop, Brushes by Ontario artist Mike Bayne was stolen from a Calgary art gallery

A Calgary art gallery hopes surveillance video will help catch culprits behind a bold noon hour theft. Ina Sidhu explains.



Owners of a downtown Calgary art gallery believe a recent noon hour robbery is the work of a smooth criminal. They hope security video will help catch the culprit who swiped a $12,000.00 painting from the Trepanier Baer Gallery. The oil painting by Kingston, Ontario artist Mike Bayne is of his own workspace and is titled TP, Headphones, Laptop, Brushes.

“It was a small little intimate painting measuring 4x6 in black and white an absolutely wonderful little thing,” says Yves Trepanier the co-owner of Trepanier Baer Gallery. He says Bayne is a well collected artist in both Canada and the United States.

Trenpanier says a man walked into the gallery and several people in the gallery spoke to him, explained the exhibit to him and asked if he needed help but the man said no he was just wandering around. “We’d never seen him before and he was well dressed and seemed like a reasonable person so he wandered around,” says Trepanier.

It’s believed the painting went missing sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. Wednesday and everyone was stunned when they realized it was gone. “It’s very bold. I mean this is broad daylight this is over the lunch hour. This is three people talking to the person the suspect and he somehow managed to fool us. It was quite a thing so just from that point of view we were shocked and disappointed that we weren't able to do anything and didn’t see anything happen,” says Trepanier.

Trenpanier says they called police immediately and handed over the surveillance video and also notified the Art Dealers Association of Canada which alerted the art community including sellers, appraisers and auction houses. “We're hoping it will be harder for this person to sell the painting if that’s the intent,” says Trepanier. “Selling artwork, stolen artwork is not an easy thing to do and what was the motive this person had I have no idea.”

Trepanier has been in business for 30 years and says nothing like this has ever happened to him. He also says art thefts in Canada are quite rare with less than a dozen thefts from Canadian art galleries in a year. The gallery does have insurance on the piece and has informed artist Mike Bayne of the theft.

Amy Stalker, Senior News Producer
@CTVAStalker
Published Friday, July 27, 2018 5:49PM MDT
Last Updated Friday, July 27, 2018 7:18PM MDT

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/gallery-owners-stunned-by-theft-of-work-by-canadian-artist-1.4031446

European police seize 25,000 trafficked ancient finds

Some 25 000 archeological goods seized worth a total of EUR 40 million. Photo: Europol.

THE HAGUE (AFP).- Police forces in four countries on Wednesday seized some 25,000 Greek and Roman archaeological items worth over 40 million euros ($46 million) in pre-dawn raids, cracking down on illegal trafficking in cultural goods. Some 250 officers in Italy, Spain, Britain and Germany simultaneously swooped on 40 houses -- the culmination of a four-year investigation led by the Italians, the European police agency said.

In Italy, the raids were focused on the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Piedmont, Apulia, in what is considered one of the biggest crackdowns in such crimes "in Italian history". In the Sicilian Caltanissetta area "which is rich in archaeological sites from the Greek and Roman epochs, local members of the organised crime group illegally excavated artefacts," Europol said.

The items were then smuggled out of Italy, "equipped with false provenances and sold via German auction houses." Facilitators in Barcelona and London helped organise the "supply chain" and provided technical support. Police also seized 1,500 tools including metal detectors in the early morning raids. "International cooperation is key to the success of such investigations in the field of trafficking of cultural goods, in which artefacts are moved through several EU countries and levels before they are brought to the legal market," Europol added.

© Agence France-Presse

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Art dynasty heir Wildenstein cleared at Paris fraud trial

In this file photo taken on September 22, 2016 French American art dealer Guy Wildenstein arrives for his trial over tax fraud at the courthouse in Paris. A Paris court will rule on June 29, 2018 on the Wildenstein case appeal trial. Eric FEFERBERG / AFP. by Sofia Bouderbala

PARIS (AFP).- Guy Wildenstein, the Franco-American patriarch of an art-dealing dynasty, was cleared Friday of tax fraud after being accused of hiding hundreds of millions of euros from French authorities. A first trial for him and other family members collapsed in January 2017, but French prosecutors successfully appealed for a re-trial, only to suffer a second setback on Friday when the Wildensteins were acquitted again.

The appeal court "finds that the crime of tax fraud is outside the statute of limitations... and confirms the judgement" of the first trial, the presiding judge told a packed courtroom in Paris during a five-minute judgement. Prosecutors had called for a four-year prison sentence and a fine of 250 million euros for Wildenstein during the trial, which stems from a multi-generational inheritance squabble worthy of a soap opera. The case revolved around tax declarations filed in 2002 and 2008. Wildenstein's nephew Alec Junior and his ex-stepsister Liouba Stoupakova were also cleared, as well as trust fund managers and lawyers who were put on trial.

In January 2017, a court found evidence of a "clear attempt" by Wildenstein and seven co-defendants to hide art treasures and properties worth hundreds of millions of euros from tax authorities. Most of the dynasty's billions are held by a web of trusts and holding companies stretching from the Channel Island of Guernsey to the Bahamas. But the presiding judge said lapses in the investigation and in French law made it impossible to return a guilty verdict, a decision that led to the appeal by prosecutors for a re-trial.

'Load of rubbish'
Wildenstein's lawyers had always contested the legal grounds for the prosecution, arguing that there was "no legal nor moral grounds to accuse Guy Wildenstein of anything." His lawyer Herve Temime called the verdict on Friday "the only decision possible" and sharply criticised French prosecutors. "It's very easy to make up figures, to sully a name, a family, and explain in every way possible that there was massive tax evasion that must be judged. Except that it was false and a load of rubbish," he said.

Wildenstein is the heir of three generations of wealthy art dealers and thoroughbred racehorse breeders. French tax authorities claimed that family money was hidden after the death of Guy's father Daniel in 2001 and his brother Alec in 2008, both of whom died in Paris.

Alec became famous during his messy divorce from Swiss socialite Jocelyne Perisse, nicknamed "Bride of Wildenstein" for her extreme cosmetic surgery, reportedly to make her look more cat-like. The second wives and widows of Daniel and Alec rose up against the family over their slice of the inheritance, accusing Guy of hiding much of his inherited fortune via a web of opaque trusts in tax havens.

This piqued the interest of French investigators, who began probing the case in 2010 and demanded in 2014 a tax adjustment payment of 550 million euros. Family assets include a host of works by Rococo painter Fragonard and post-Impressionist Bonnard, and a stable of thoroughbred horses including Ascot Gold Cup winner Westerner. Other assets included a vast real estate portfolio, with the jewel in the crown a luxurious Kenyan ranch which provided the backdrop for the film "Out of Africa".

In Friday's court ruling, the presiding judge said Guy Wildenstein could not be prosecuted over a 2002 tax declaration after his father's death because too much time had elapsed since. The statute of limitations for prosecutions at the time was only three years. For the second tax declaration in 2008 after Alec's death, the judge found there was no legal basis for prosecuting the Wildensteins.

France changed its law on trust funds in 2011 -- known as the "Wildenstein law" -- to give tax authorities greater power to pursue individuals who shift assets to offshore investment funds to avoid tax.

© Agence France-Presse
http://artdaily.com/news/105788/Art-dynasty-heir-Wildenstein-cleared-at-Paris-fraud-trial-#.WzuzKtJKiUk