Recovered Picasso Goes Back On Display In SF; Thief Sentenced
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - A New Jersey man who stole a Pablo Picasso drawing from an art gallery near San Francisco's Union Square was sentenced Monday and will be extradited to New York within the next month to face separate charges there.
Mark Lugo, 31, of Hoboken, N.J., walked into the Weinstein Gallery at 383 Geary St. on July 5, and walked out with a Picasso pencil drawing titled "Tete de Femme," police and prosecutors said. He fled in a waiting taxi.
Lugo was arrested the next day after police reviewed surveillance video footage and other evidence and tracked him to a hotel in San Francisco, then to an apartment in Napa where he was staying with friends.
He pleaded guilty last month to one count of grand theft in exchange for a 16-month jail sentence, but will be released soon under supervision, district attorney's spokesman Omid Talai said.
Lugo will be extradited to New York sometime within the next 30 days, his defense attorney Douglas Horngrad said.
Lugo is facing charges there of stealing 11 different pieces of artwork from Manhattan galleries and hotels, as well as stealing expensive wines from a store in his hometown of Hoboken.
The property was found in his apartment after the San Francisco arrest, and has since been returned, Horngrad said.
The Picasso drawing was also returned to the Weinstein Gallery, and was unveiled at a news conference this morning. The drawing has more than doubled in value since the theft, gallery officials said.
The drawing was in good condition when it was found, but had been taken out of its frame. It appeared Lugo was planning on having it shipped somewhere, but authorities did not know where.
Horngrad said, "My expectation is that it was headed to the walls of his apartment, like the other paintings" since Lugo had no history of selling stolen artwork.
Horngrad said Lugo suffered some sort of "psychotic episode" that led him to steal all the artwork and other items within a 30-day period.
The case will return to court in San Francisco on Dec. 21 to verify that Lugo has been extradited to New York.
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