Does the FBI have your artwork?
The FBI is currently seeking the true owners of hundreds of works of art (follow link to see pictures of the artwork) which were discovered in the apartment of William M.V. Kingsland when he died in 2006 intestate and with no apparent heirs.
It now appears that much of this art work was stolen including “paintings, sketches, sculptures, and other pieces by such artists as Pablo Picasso, John Singleton Copley, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio Morandi, and Eugene Boudin.” See Stolen Art Uncovered — Is it Yours?, FBI.gov, August 11, 2008.
According to the FBI report:
After Kingsland’s death, New York Public Administrator Ethel Griffin hired two auction houses—Christie’s and Stair Galleries—to sell the art. But as Christie’s researched the pieces to determine their provenance (history of ownership), it discovered some of them had been reported stolen in the 1960s and 1970s and immediately contacted New York Special Agent Jim Wynne * * *. And after Stair Galleries auctioned off several pieces, one of the buyers—an art gallery owner—discovered the piece he bought had been reported stolen as well, so he too got in touch with Agent Wynne.
One bizarre side note: A mover hired by the Public Administrator’s Office to transport the contents of Kingsland’s apartment to a warehouse was charged for stealing two Picasso sketches each valued at approximately $30,000. And, it turns out that was not the first time those two sketches had been stolen…sometime before they ended up in Kingsland’s collection they were stolen from a New York art gallery around 1967!
For additional information, see Eric Konigsberg, Two Years Later, the F.B.I. Still Seeks the Owners of a Trove of Artworks, NY Times, August 11, 2008 and Ed Pilkington, ‘Stolen art uncovered, is it yours?’ appeals FBI, The Guardian, August 13, 2008.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) and Alfred L. Brophy (Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law) for bringing this development to my attention.