Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-01-14
LAYS ART THEFTS
TO ORGANIZED GANG
London Expert Produces
Data to Back His Charge.

London.-That there is a lucra-
tive market in the art centers Of
Europe and America for stolen art
objects, particularly pictures, is a
postulate advanced by the art ex-
pert of the Times of London; that
this market is fed by well-organ-
lied gang of expert robbers is an
other; his conclusion is that the pa
irons of the market are some of the
best known, but INSCRIPTIONS, col
1ectors in the world.
In his attempts to furnish proofs
for his postulates and support for
his conclusion he writes:
1.-The trial of the Thomas gang,
a body of tradesmen by day, who
made wholesale robberies from
French museums and churches by
night, revealed that the art trade
of London, Paris, and New York
unfortunately included members
who were ready to become receiv-
7ers of stolen property. The head
of the gang, Antoine Thomas, who
received heavy sentence, boosted
at the trial that in two years he had
made a profit of $4,000 pounds
(about $400,00O). ....~
Steal Substitutes. ~.
when in 1926 Romney's superb
portrait of Mrs. Davenport made
the record figure of $4,000 pounds
at Christie's rooms few present at
the sale were aware that it was
nearly secured by a band of art
thieves. The owner of the picture,
Sir William Bromley Davenport,
leaving his London fiat unoccupied,
had the picture sent to his seat in
Cheshire, another picture being SUBJ
:sttuted. Soon after his departure
burglars entered the fiat and ripped
the substitute picture from its
frame; nothing has been heard Of
it since. There is no question that
the thieves thought that they were
stealing the Romney.
THE famous manuscript known
as the Cardigan Chaucer, stolen by
a Belgian refugee from Lady Car
digan's seat, Deene Park, was miss
ing for nearly ten years after the
theft. 1t was found in the library
of a college near New York.
"a member of the family CHANGED
Il read a paragraph in a Scandi-
navian paper that the manuscript
had been bought by an American
college. Investigation followed and
it transpired that it was first sold
in London for so pounds, purchased
by a New York buyer for $50 pounds
and resold to the college for 1000
pounds. 1t was at once handed back
and later sold by auction.
Morgan a Victim.
1.-THE late John Pierpont Morgan
was on more than one occasion the
victim of art thieves. He bought
for a large sum the famous cope
stolen from the cathedral at AScoli
from a dealer who had acquired it
in the ordinary course of business.
When it's history came to light Mr..
Morgan at once presented it to its
rightful owners, the Italian govern
ment. The thefts of Gainsborough's
portrait of the Duchess of Devon
shire and Lenardo's Mona Lisa,
both of which pictures were fortu-
nately recovered, are too familiar
to need recapitulation.
During the present century the
Victoria and Albert Museum, the
London Museum, the National Por-
trait Gallery, the Wallace Collec-
ton, the Guildhall Art-Gallery, the
Royal Academy and the Painted
Hall, Greenwich, have all suffered
at the hands of art thieves.
"To prevent thefts from museums
is by no means an easy matter.
Visitors naturally object to too close
a surveillance, and if the present
system were strengthened a visit to
a museum would be robbed Of much
of its feeling of freedom from re-
straint The area of some museums,
too, makes it practically impossible
for the staff to watch every exhibit.
There are, for instance, at the Vic
toria and Albert museum, several
miles of galleries, and few min
utes alone is unfortunately all-suf-
ficient for the thief to carry out his
plan"