By Cheryl Wittenauer, The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - The FBI and Bridgeton police said Wednesday they have recovered some of the more than $2 million in artworks stolen from a storage unit in October, including original paintings and sculptures by Pablo Picasso and other artists.
The works - in excess of 100 pieces - were placed in a storage unit in Bridgeton, in suburban St. Louis, by the owner, a family that lives out of state, Bridgeton Police Capt. Robert Wacker said.
“We recovered a bunch of it ... a couple million dollars worth of it,” Wacker said.
FBI special agent Peter Krusing said police and FBI agents recovered some of the artwork on Nov. 2, and more on Nov. 24. Fewer than half of the pieces have been recovered, and the investigation is ongoing, he said.
The FBI and police would not disclose the victim’s name. Nor would they say how they recovered the artwork, or why it was placed in a storage unit. No arrests have been made. No charges have been filed.
The FBI said the stolen items included original paintings, prints and sculptures by Picasso; abstract expressionist painters Willem De Kooning and Mark Rothko; Milton Avery, dubbed the “American Matisse"; Ukrainian cubist sculptor Alexander Archipenko; Bulgarian artist Christo Javacheff and others.
The works had been valued at more than $2 million in 1991, the FBI said.
Stevan Layne, a Dillon, Colo., consultant specializing in protection of cultural properties, said no piece of art should be left in a commercial storage facility. Only a vault or museum storage facility has sufficient security along with humidity and temperature controls.
Such facilities are rare in this country. He didn’t know if one existed in Bridgeton, and authorities wouldn’t say what kind of facility was used to store the artwork.
The owner of Layne Consultants International also said the art theft in Bridgeton is not common.
“You can’t steal highly valued artwork and sell it on the market,” he said. “What do you do with it?”
In such cases, he said it’s more likely the thief has a buyer lined up even before the theft occurs.
The artworks are “typically stolen, disappear into a private collection and never seen again,” Layne said. “It’s rare that they’re recovered quickly.”
The majority of art pieces are in museums, but works have been slipping into private collections. Many pieces were stolen in World War II, and in the last 20 years, art has been disappearing from galleries and museums, he said.
“No one even knows what’s out there,” Layne said.
Both Interpol and the FBI have offices dedicated to solving art theft crimes, he said.