[CPProt.net] Jackson Pollock Oil Painting, Andy Warhol Silkscreen Stolen From Pennsylvania Museum

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Warhol, Pollock Artworks Stolen From Pa.
Jackson Pollock Oil Painting, Andy Warhol Silkscreen Stolen From
Pennsylvania Museum
The Associated Press

SCRANTON, Pa. - An oil painting by Jackson Pollock and a silkscreen by Andy
Warhol were stolen from a museum by thieves who shattered a glass door in
the back of the building, officials said. 

The Pollock was likely worth about $11.6 million and the Warhol had a value
of about $15,000, experts said.

The thieves had disappeared from the Everhart Museum by the time police
arrived four minutes after the alarm sounded at 2:30 a.m. Friday.
Surveillance cameras were not working, officials said.

The stolen Pollock oil-on-canvas painting, "Springs Winter," measures 40
inches by 32 inches and was created in 1949 by the famed abstract
expressionist. It was on loan to the Everhart Museum from a private
collector. The museum declined to identify the lender.

The stolen Warhol, "Le Grande Passion," is a 40-by-40 inch silkscreen on
board. The pop art icon created the work in 1984 on commission for an ad
campaign for Grand Passion cognac. It was owned by the museum.

Authorities and museum officials said they were unsure of the actual value
of the paintings, which were taken from the museum's second floor exhibition
hall.

But Helen Harrison, director of the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center
in East Hampton, N.Y., said the Pollock's value was comparable to a similar
painting that sold at auction for $11.6 million in May 2004. Art dealer
Pierette VanCleve said the Warhol piece would have an auction value of about
$15,000.

The thieves appeared to have been aided by a large tent covering the
museum's back entrance for an event, investigators said. Officials said they
had no immediate leads.

The museum did not say why the surveillance cameras were not working. Wilbur
Faulk, former security director at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles,
said the problem was not unusual.

"It takes money to maintain systems, whether it's a computer system or an
alarm system," he said. "If we traveled around the United States, we would
be surprised at how many places this is the case."


On the Net:

Everhart Museum: http://www.everhart-museum.org