Art Crimes

In 1985, police uncovered a .22-caliber rifle inside the Andrew Crispo Art Gallery in NYC, which had been used to kill male model and Fashion Institute of Technology student Eigil Dag Vesti, 26, in that same year. Bernard J. LeGeros, 22, an employee at the gallery and personal assistant to Mr. Crispo, was convicted on second-degree murder charges in the death of the model, whom he claims he killed on orders from Crispo. Vesti's burned body had been discovered on LeGeros' father's estate, wearing only a leather mask and shot twice in the back of the head. LeGeros is currently serving a life sentence. The dubious but well connected Crispo, then 42, was acquitted in this particular case. The flamboyant details of this infamous 80's art world crime are bizarre and sickly glamorous, and are the subject of a 1992 non-fiction book (Bag of Toys) written by David France, which is expanded from an article he wrote about the haut monde nightmare for Vanity Fair in 1988.

In 2004...

...Elton Murphy, 49, killed Joyce Wishart, 61, in her downtown Sarasota, FL art gallery, stabbing her twenty times and leaving her body propped and posed to mimic a painting hanging on the gallery's wall. Murphy, who says his full name is "The Lord God Elton Brutus Murphy" claims he is "God-like," knows about aliens, has 1,000 followers who are under his control and has told a psychologist he has replaced the soul of his lawyer. He has claimed that he is perfectly mentally competent, is aware of his actions, and wants his trial to wrap up as soon as possible (DNA evidence linked him to the crime). The trial is currently in progress.

In 1997, Irena Hatfield, director of the Lismore Regional Art Gallery, was arrested and charged with the 1985 shooting death of her husband Christopher at their Maroubra, Australia home. The rocky, complicated, erotic/revenge-driven case became an ongoing soap opera for the public, and the media reported the details of the lengthy investigation and trail extensively. Hatfield reverted back to her maiden name of Dobrijevich after she was acquitted of the crime in 2000. As well as writing a book about her ordeal (Irena, Harper Collins, 2001), and selling her story to television and film production companies, in 2006 she opened her own erotic-themed art and photography gallery, LushArt, in Surry Hills, Australia.

In 2004, gallery owner Lori Haigh began receiving phone death threats, physical assaults and vandalism after displaying a painting at her Capobianco Gallery in San Francisco, which depicted the torturing of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers. A few days after the controversy began, while Haigh was making preparations to temporarily close the gallery and halt mounting trouble, a man knocked on the door of the gallery. When Haigh answered he punched her violently in the face, knocking her unconscious. The assault left her with a broken nose, injured eye and a concussion. The story became a political hot point, and the death threats towards Haigh increased and became more extreme (listen here). She has sinced closed up shop and has gotten out of the art gallery business.

In 1972, eventual serial killer Gary Gilmore won several prison art competitions (serving time up to that point for a youth spent committing armed robbery and drunken, violent assaults). With those art awards, a marked interest in bettering his IQ, and the expressed goal of cultivating art as a life career, prison officials granted him an early release for the sole purpose of attending an art school in Eugene Oregon. The inspiration was brief, as Gilmore didn't attend the school or pursue art at all once out of jail - and was back to his scary, criminal ways within weeks of release. Gilmore would continue a downward spiral of serious crime and murder, and end up on death row. He was executed by firing squad in 1977, before receiving a goodbye phone call on his last day from Johnny Cash, and also uttering the words "let's do it!" A few remaining pieces of Gilmore's work exist in a box at Utah State Historical Society in Salt Lake City, along with other artifacts from his incarceration.

In 2004, a devastating fire broke out at art storage firm Momart's warehouse on the Cromwell industrial estate in Leyton, England. Destroyed were many extremely valuable pieces of modern "Britart" owned by controversial British art mogul Charles Saatchi. Investigation later revealed that the warehouse was burgled before the fire broke out. The accumulative value of the works lost is estimated in the many millions, and the crime is still unsolved.

In 1911, the Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, vanished out of the Louvre museum in Paris, France. Detectives discovered the painting's heavy display frame discarded in a stairwell leading to one of the museum's cloakrooms. The explosive crime naturally lead to much speculation and finger-pointing. Fiery, inductive surrealist Guillaume Apollinaire (who had once rallied for public torching of the Louvre) was jailed temporarily under suspicion of the theft, and Pablo Picasso was even held and questioned at one point - both were later released. But two years after it disappeared, it was discovered that Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia had stolen it, simply walking out the door with it hidden under his overcoat. He had been hired by con man Eduardo de Valfierno, who had secretly commissioned French art forger Yves Chaudron to make copies of the painting so he could sell them as the missing original. But Valfierno goofed by neglecting Peruggia (he actually didn't need the original for the forging, just for it to go missing in the public's eye). After keeping it in his apartment in Paris for two years, an angry and impatient Peruggia was caught attempting to sell it to a Florence art dealer. After a brief look-see tour of Italy, the original painting was returned to the Louvre, more popular than ever.

In 2006, a Buffalo high school art teacher, along with an off-duty Buffalo police officer friend, was charged with with second-degree reckless endangerment after parking in an area near several homes and businesses and firing rounds from a gun into an open lot. Suspension of the art teacher from the school is still pending (the officer was suspended without pay), and the only apparent motive in the case was boredom.

- photo (above) I...didn't...do it! by Sam Javanrouh, 2003

Comments

[schlarb]

man, what a strange, well written, weird post. thanks so much!

[DougH]

The whole Lori Haigh saga is much weirder -- check out

http://www.recirca.com/artnews/293.shtml

and be sure to scroll down through the comments section!

[Nicholas]

This reminds me a lot of the "Big Book of Conspiracies" which was a staple of my comic reading youth. Lots of odds and ends collected under one umbrella of an idea, looking for a common thread. Sorta like Thomas Fort's writings. I really enjoyed reading it.

[ddv]

For a 1976 exhibition at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Research in New York, USA, artist Gordon Matta-Clark proposed a modest building cut which was refused by the director. On the night before the exhibition opened Gordon turned up with photographs of shattered windows in Bronx housing estates, shot out all the venue’s windows with an air rifle, and placed the photographs in the empty casements.

[Chack]

I have a question to art professionals about
Minds Eye Gallery, Las Olas Blvd, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This gallery sells expencive art works, signed prints of masters or fake "masters", who knows? Gallery people do not have a good reputation. One of them get in a prison for stealing...
I feel that art industry has to be protected from criminals by special serious law.