Art collection stolen
Police in Los Angeles say a multi-million dollar Andy Warhol art
collection has been stolen from a private home in the city.Among the
missing works are 10 pieces created by Warhol in the late 1970s
depicting famous athletes, including Muhammad Ali and OJ Simpson.They
were taken from the house of businessman Richard Weisman. A portrait of
Mr Weisman was also stolen.A $1m reward has been offered for information
leading to their recovery.
The silkscreen paintings, commissioned by Mr Weisman, are valued at
several million dollars.Police said that the paintings - each one 40
inches (101 cm) square - had been taken on the 2 or 3 September.Their
disappearance was discovered by a domestic employee, who found the
dining room walls bare and alerted the police.Among the sports stars
depicted in the series of paintings were tennis champion Chris Evert,
Los Angeles Lakers basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Olympic
skater Dorothy Hamill.
Though the house was locked up at the time of the theft, Los Angeles
police said the rest of the property had remained untouched and there
was no sign of forced entry."This was a very clean crime," Detective
Mark Sommer said. "[The home] wasn't ransacked."He added that the Warhol
collection of sports personalities seemed to have been specifically
targeted for the theft as other artwork, including pieces by Warhol, had
not been taken."For some reason they had an interest in this
collection," he said.
Mr Weisman described the theft of the works as "a profoundly personal
loss to me and my family".Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, became
internationally famous in the 1960s for his iconic image of a Campbell's
soup can and the social gatherings at his New York studio, "The
Factory".
-BBC
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