IFARreports

Volume 8, No. 10

December 1987.

The Japanese French Connection
— Elizabeth Hayt-Atkins
Recovery of three Corot paintings stolen from Semur-en-Auxois museum highlights criminal connection between French sources and cash-rich Japanese buyers

The Mystery of Jim Thompson Continues: The Disappearance of His Art
— Elizabeth Hayt-Atkins
Silk industry developer disappeared in 1967; 16 bronze figurines stolen from his vast art collection in Bangkok in 1980; five more bronzes taken in 1981 from his house in Bangkok.

Modifying the Artist's Creation: Flattery May Get You Nowhere
— Franklin Feldman
Lawsuit by artist Walt Spitzmiller, later settled out of court, over changes in his painting, used as L.L. Bean catalogue cover; Saul Steinberg wins design infringement suit over Moscow on the Hudson illustration copying Steinberg's well-known parochial view of New York.

Cumulative Index: Stolen Art, 1987
Index

Rouault Recovery Update
Robert Singer pleads guilty to receiving stolen property.

1987 Art Theft Statistics
Statistics

10 Important Thefts Reported in 1987
Giorgio de Chirico, Vulcan's Forge, and 20 other paintings from Giuseppe Verzocchi collection, Triennale Museum, Milan; Ephebe Greek head and five other works, from museum, Terracina, Italy; René Buthaud vase and five other Art Deco vases, from Société de Gens de Lettres, Paris; Gorham punchbowl and ladle, and other silver objects, from Roger Williams Park Museum, Providence, R.I.; Pierre Auguste Renoir, Bouquet of Anemones in a Green Vase, from Wildenstein Gallery, London; Willem van de Velde the Younger, Dutch Ships, and eight other old master paintings, from art gallery, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Roman general's sarcophagus, from Villa Taverna, Frascati, Italy; Henri Matisse, The Garden, from Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm, Sweden; Adolph Gottlieb tapestry, Empire State Institute for the Performing Arts; Robert Spear Dunning, Still Life with Peaches, Pears and Grapes, from North Point Gallery, San Francisco.

10 Important 1987 Recoveries
Gustav Klimt, Schloss Kammer Am Attersee, from Michael Gruen ownership dispute; J. Ellsworth Broadhead, Carved and Painted Miniature Circus Parade, New Jersey; Eugène Delacroix, Tam O'Shanter Pursued Witches, from Richard Feigen and Stephen Hahn; 14 of 17 Egyptian Old Kingdom standing and seated male figures, tomb storehouse, Saqqara, Egypt; Cesare Detti, Odalisque, from West Hollywood, Calif., gallery; Roman Sarcophagus with Putti Holding Central Medallion with Coat of Arms, private owner, Rome; Edouard Vuillard, Petit Café de Tristan Bernard, and three other Vuillards, Comedie of the Champs Elysées, Paris; Thomas Gainsborough landscape, private collection, Brannenburg, West Germany; T'ang Dynasty Tomb Figure of a Horse and six other Chinese artifacts, from private collection, Chevy Chase, Md.; El Lissitzky, Self-Portrait, from private collection, Los Angeles.

Stolen Art Alert: Soyer's Studio Plundered
Burglarized five weeks after his death; up to 500 etchings and lithographs taken.

Owner Sought: Udine, Italy
15 icons, all oil on wood, seized.

IFAR Evenings
Program for 1988 Series.