Saturday, July 14, 2012

A stolen Dali drawing sent back

A $150,000 significant drawing by the world-renowned Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí stolen from a Manhattan gallery several days ago was resent to New York by Express Mail from Europe, according to the US Postal Inspection Service.

According to news reports, postal inspectors were able to intercept it at Kennedy International Airport before the parcel was sorted for delivery. The drawing (11-by-14-inch), ‘Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio’, was allegedly taken from the gallery Venus Over Manhattan , at 980 Madison Avenue in June by a thief who strolled in casually with a shopping bag and moved out with the Dalí work. He simply lifted the drawing off the gallery wall.

It had been hanging alongside over a dozen other artworks in the new gallery’s debut exhibition. Also in the show were a portrait of Russell Means, the American Indian activist, by Andy Warhol and another painting by Llyn Folkes ‘I Left My Heart at Wounded Knee’, and few older works such as ‘Des Esseintes’ by the noted French painter Odilon Redon  and the Swiss-born British artist Henry Fuseli’s work ‘Fairy Mab’ (1793).

The police had released surveillance images showing the thief wearing the checkered shirt. The gallery owner, Adam Lindemann, had been quoted as saying, “There was a security guard standing right there, so how you don’t see a young, sweaty guy with a shopping bag something I don’t understand. And what do you do with a stolen drawing by Dalí?” he had also wondered

Investigation authorities stated that the answer to that query apparently turned out to be, actually not much. Typically, they said, thieves of works could not sell stolen paintings ‘since they are hot.” And the sources added that there had been no arrests thus far in the case.  The gallery apparently received an e-mail that said the drawing had been sent back. It also included an Express Mail tracking number.

Mr. Lindemann, a writer and art collector who said that the gallery was actively cooperating with the police, has refused to speak to media after the work was found.

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