A reciprocating saw forced open the doors of a Calgary Art Gallery, stealing $500,000 worth of art

Police released these images of the suspects and a truck that might have been involved in the break and enter. (Calgary Police Service)

CBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2018 1:24 PM MT | Last Updated: September 19
Suspects used a reciprocating saw to force open the doors and made off with dozens of works. Approximately $500,000 worth of art was stolen from a Calgary gallery in May and now police are reaching out to the public for help in the investigation. Between 60 and 70 pieces of art were taken from the Gerry Thomas Gallery on 11th Avenue S.W. around 11:50 p.m. on May 20, according to police.

In a news release, police say the suspects entered a commercial building and then broke into the gallery using a reciprocating saw to cut open the main door. "Once inside, offenders took approximately 30 pieces of artwork, including various sculptures and paintings," reads the release.

The inside of the Gerry Thomas Gallery before the art was stolen. (Calgary Police Service)

"The offenders then entered the parkade of the building and forced open a storage room door where they took an additional 30 to 40 pieces of art."

Police say the suspects also broke into an adjacent cafe and stole $10,000 worth of "various property and cash." "It is believed that one of the suspects attended the building earlier in the day, at approximately 5 p.m., and repositioned security cameras in preparation for the break and enter," said police.

Thomas, who owns the gallery bearing his name, said the theft came shortly after the gallery re-opened after undergoing renovations from water damage in January.

The inside of the Gerry Thomas Gallery after the theft. (Calgary Police Service)

"It was pretty much stripped bare completely," he said of the gallery walls after the theft. Among the missing items, according to Thomas, was over 30 years of his professional sports photography and memorabilia. Anyone with information is asked to contact the police by calling 403-266-1234 or provide tips anonymously through Crime Stoppers.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-police-gallery-theft-1.4830132

Nazi looted painting by Renoir returned to owner's granddaughter

A Pierre Auguste Renoir painting "Femmes Dans Un Jardin" stolen by the Nazis, unveiled by US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman was returned to the heir of its rightful owner, Sylvie Sulitzer during a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York on September 12, 2018. The painting was taken by the Nazis during World War II. The 1919 painting was stolen from a bank vault in Paris in 1941 from art collector Alfred Weinberger. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP.

NEW YORK (AFP).- A Renoir painting stolen by the Nazis from a Paris bank vault was returned to its rightful owner Wednesday after a more than 70-year odyssey from South Africa to London, Switzerland and New York. "Deux Femmes Dans Un Jardin," painted in 1919 in the last year of French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir's life, is finally back in the hands of the granddaughter of the Jewish owner who spent decades trying to get it back.

Sylvie Sulitzer, the last remaining heir of her grandfather Alfred Weinberger, a prominent art collector in pre-war Paris, received the work from US authorities during a ceremony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. Although Sulitzer knew her grandfather, she had no idea about the missing Renoir until a German law firm, specialists in recovering art looted by the Nazis from Jewish families, contacted her in the early 2010s. "I'm very thankful to be able to show my beloved family wherever they are that after all they've been through, there is a justice," Sulitzer said. Four other Renoirs and a Delacroix, which her grandfather also owned, have yet to be recovered, she told AFP.

The Nazis stole the art in December 1941 from the bank vault where Weinberger stored his collection when he fled Paris at the outset of World War II. After peace returned to Europe, Weinberger spent decades trying to recover his property, registering his claim with French authorities in 1947 and with the Germans in 1958. US officials said the Renoir first resurfaced at an art sale in Johannesburg in 1975, before finding its way to London, where it was sold again in 1977. It was put up for sale again in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1999. But it was only when it was put up for auction by a private collector at Christie's in New York that the auction house called in the FBI. Its previous "owner" eventually agreed to relinquish the picture.

It is thought that up to 100,000 works of art, and millions of books, were stolen from French Jews, or Jews who had fled to France before the Nazi occupation began in 1940. The Allies found around 60,000 of the missing artworks after the war in Germany and returned them to France. Two-thirds were returned to their original owners by 1950, according to a French government report seen by AFP earlier this year that criticized French authorities' inefficiency in returning the rest.

© Agence France-Presse http://artdaily.com/news/107521/Nazi-looted-painting-by-Renoir-returned-to-owner-s-granddaughter#.W5qBXehKiUk

Spanish sculptures get kitschy colours in another botched restoration

The previously plain wooden carving also features a young Jesus in a bright green robe, while a third statue of Saint Peter now has him in blood red garments.

MADRID (AFP).- A Spanish parishioner has painted three 15th century sculptures in garish colours, giving Jesus a bright green robe in the latest botched amateur art restoration to make headlines in the country. A wooden statue of the Virgin Mary at the chapel in El Ranadoiro, a hamlet in the northern Asturias region that is home to just 28 people, was given a bright pink headscarf, sky blue robe and eyeliner. The previously plain wooden carving also features a young Jesus in a bright green robe, while a third statue of Saint Peter now has him in blood red garments.

The makeover has led to comparisons with the botched 2012 restoration by an elderly parishioner of the "Ecce Homo" fresco of Jesus Christ in Borja which resembled a pale-faced ape with cartoon-style eyes. "It's crazy," said Luis Suarez Saro, who had previously restored the three El Ranadoiro sculptures in 2002-2003 with the regional government's approval.

The woman who carried out the latest restoration, local resident Maria Luisa Menendez, received permission from the parish priest to give them a fresh lick of paint, local newspaper El Comercio reported. "I'm not a professional, but I always liked to do it, and the figures really needed to be painted. So I painted them as I could, with the colours that looked good to me, and the neighbours liked it," she told the daily. Suarez Saro remarked to AFP that Menendez "likes to draw and paint, she did some courses... and she felt the sculptures looked better this way."

While the paint job sparked hilarity online, Spanish art conservation association ACRE sounded the alarm. "Does no one care about this continued pillaging in our country? What kind of society stands by as its ancestor's legacy is destroyed before its eyes," it asked on Twitter.

A church in the northern town of Estella came under fire in June for an amateur restoration of a 16th century wooden sculpture of Saint George which some Twitter users said made it look like comic-book character Tintin. The botched restoration of the "Ecce Homo" fresco has become famous meanwhile, with thousands of tourists now visiting Borja to see it. It also inspired a comic opera that was staged in the 16th-century Sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy where the painting is encased on a wall.

© Agence France-Presse
http://artdaily.com/news/107415/Spanish-sculptures-get-kitschy-colours-in-another-botched-restoration

Sweden returns Nazi-looted Kokoschka painting to Jewish heir

This undated handout photo made available by the Swedish state museum for modern art in Stockholm on September 4, 2018 shows the painting by Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka from 1910 titled Marquis Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac AFP Photo/Prallan Allsten.

STOCKHOLM (AFP).- Sweden's modern museum on Tuesday said it had returned a Nazi-confiscated painting by Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka to the heir of a persecuted Jewish art collector. "It is with joy and relief that we see the Kokoschka painting return to its rightful owner," the state-owned Moderna Museet in Stockholm said in a statement.

Known for his expressionist portraits and paintings of landscapes, Kokoschka's portrait of "Marquis Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac" (1910) initially belonged to Alfred Flechtheim, a well-known art collector and gallery owner who was forced to flee Nazi Germany in 1933.

"The painting was taken from him because he was Jewish," the Moderna Museet in Stockholm said in a statement, adding it had therefore "decided to return the work to (his) heir". Flechtheim's employee Alex Vomel sold the painting when the Nazis expropriated the gallery and artwork between 1933 and 1934. "Vomel, who joined the Nazi party early on, took advantage of his former employer's tragic situation," the museum said.

A self-taught painter in the German Expressionism movement, Kokoschka was in the league of artists deemed "degenerate" by the Nazis. The painting has been sent to the United States where Flechtheim's heir Michael Hulton lives. Daniel Birnbaum, the head of the museum, said it took two years to exclude other possible owners. "And in the shadow of a genocide ... you cannot demand receipts and invoices," he told AFP, adding it's unclear how the painting was first sold to Sweden's Nationalmuseum in 1934 before it was exhibited at Moderna Museet. "It's immensely important for both Sweden's government and our museum to not have any work with problematic origins in the collection," Moderna Museet said.

Birnbaum said the portrait of the Marquis, painted in black, brown, grey and violet-grey with sketchy brush strokes, raises questions about similar cases. In 2009, the Moderna Museet returned another artwork to a Jewish family.

© Agence France-Presse
http://artdaily.com/news/107344/Sweden-returns-Nazi-looted-Kokoschka-painting-to-Jewish-heir#.W5KaN-hKiUk

Bavarian authorities return priceless eighth century gold Sican mask to Peru

Peru spent 20 years trying to secure the return of this gold funerary mask from the pre-Columbian Sican culture (AFP Photo/HO)

LIMA (AFP).- Germany has returned a pre-Columbian gold funerary mask to Peru following a 20-year legal and diplomatic battle, the South American country's culture minister said on Thursday.

Peru had reported the eighth century Sican mask's disappearance in 1999, after which it was confiscated by Interpol from the German city of Wiesbaden. "I'm happy to receive one of the most emblematic assets from the north Peruvian cultures, the Sican Mask," said Patricia Balbuena in a statement. The mask was handed over to the Peruvian embassy in Berlin by Bavarian authorities.

The Munich regional court ordered the mask be returned to Peru in December 2016 after it had been confiscated by the public prosecutor. It is due to arrive in Peru in the coming weeks.

Like neighboring Ecuador, which secured the return of 13 pre-Columbian artifacts from a private German collection in July after a six-year legal battle, the South American country has been eager to recover priceless pieces from its cultural heritage. The Sican culture inhabited the north coast of Peru between the eighth and 14th centuries.

© Agence France-Presse
http://artdaily.com/news/107397/Bavarian-authorities-return-priceless-eighth-century-gold-Sican-mask-to-Peru-#.W5KZZ-hKiUl