Report: Andy Warhol prints stolen from private Los Angeles collection
LOS ANGELES - Police are investigating the theft of nine Andy Warhol prints worth an estimated $350,000, according to the Los Angeles Times.
According to an affidavit obtained by the newspaper, police believe six prints from the artist's 1980 series Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, and three prints from his 1983 Endangered Species series, were stolen from a private business and replaced with forgeries several years ago.
The owners reportedly only recognized they'd been robbed when they took one of the prints in for re-framing and the framing firm noticed the prints were missing signatures and had fuzzy lines.
In October 2011, one of the paintings believed to have been stolen - "Bald Eagle" from the Endangered Species series - was sold by Bonhams auction house. At the time, according to a Bonhams spokesperson, the print had not been flagged by the theft reporting services they and other auction houses use. Bonhams is cooperating with a Los Angeles Police Department investigation into the theft and says that before October 2011 they undertook their standard due diligence in determining the print's provenance.
The FBI's art theft unit could not comment on this specific theft, but a representative explained to 48 Hours' Crimesider that the case is somewhat unusual because most art theft in the U.S. is a crime of opportunity; someone, for example, might burglarize a home and grab a painting or sculpture they don't know much about. In this case, on the other hand, the theft appears to have been well planned.
The LAPD did not return a request for comment on the case, but their website lists several Warhols as stolen, including "Bald Eagle."