<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Mozilla/4.8 [en] (WinNT; U) [Netscape]"> <meta name="Author" content="Andrew Wilcox"> <title>Art News</title> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="/scripts/imageSaver.js"></script> </head> <body style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" alink="#000000" link="#000000" vlink="#000000"> <center><img src="http://www.tambrastudios.com/images/TambraLogo.jpg" alt="Tambra Studios" height="76" width="400"> <br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="+2">Art News</font></font></b> <p><img src="http://www.tambrastudios.com/images/Bar.gif" alt="Bar" height="13" vspace="2" width="515"><br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><a href="/">Home</a> ~ <a href="/art.html">Art Gallery</a> ~ <a href="/artnews.html">Art News</a> ~ <a href="/notecards/">Art Note Cards</a> ~ <a href="/artisttambra.html">Meet the Artist</a></font></b> <br> <img src="http://www.tambrastudios.com/images/Bar.gif" alt="Bar" height="13" vspace="2" width="471"></p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="+3">ART CRIME ALERT</font></font></b> <br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="+3">Stolen Art Uncovered</font></font></b> <br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="+3">Is It Yours???</font></font></b> <br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="+3">8/11/2008</font></font></b> </p> <p><img src="http://www.tambrastudios.com/images/fbi1.jpg" height="180" width="260"><br> <b><font size="-1">The late William Kingsland's New York City apartment,</font></b> <br> <b><font size="-1">found stuffed with hundreds of works of art after his death.</font></b></p> </center> <br> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Talk about a surprising discovery. In 2006, a treasure trove of all kinds of art work&mdash;some of which has subsequently been identified as stolen&mdash;was uncovered in a New York City apartment. In an effort to track down the rightful owners, the FBI and the Public Administrator of New York County have posted pictures of the most important pieces here on our website.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">More than 300 works of art&mdash;paintings, sketches, sculptures, and other pieces by such artists as Pablo Picasso, John Singleton Copley, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio Morandi, and Eugene Boudin&mdash;were discovered after the death of the apartment&rsquo;s occupant, William M.V. Kingsland.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Kingsland was well known in New York City&rsquo;s art circles as an engaging and intelligent connoisseur of art, books, architecture, and genealogy. But when he died, he left no will&hellip;and no apparent heirs to claim the floor-to-ceiling stacks of paintings and art works crammed into his one-bedroom apartment.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Turns out Kingsland was a pretty secretive guy&mdash;despite having many acquaintances, very few people had ever been inside his residence. In conversations with friends, he was often evasive about his early years and his family. And, as reported by the media not long after his death, William Kingsland wasn&rsquo;t even his given name&mdash;he was born Melvyn Kohn and spent his early years in the Bronx before legally changing his name to Kingsland. He thought it had a more literary sound to it and would help him gain acceptance among Manhattan&rsquo;s upper crust.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">A surprising discovery. After Kingsland&rsquo;s death, New York Public Administrator Ethel Griffin hired two auction houses&mdash;Christie&rsquo;s and Stair Galleries&mdash;to sell the art. But as Christie&rsquo;s researched the pieces to determine their provenance (history of ownership), it discovered some of them had been reported stolen in the 1960s and 1970s and immediately contacted New York Special Agent Jim Wynne, a member of our Art Crime Team. And after Stair Galleries auctioned off several pieces, one of the buyers&mdash;an art gallery owner&mdash;discovered the piece he bought had been reported stolen as well, so he too got in touch with Agent Wynne.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">One bizarre side note: A mover hired by the Public Administrator&rsquo;s Office to transport the contents of Kingsland&rsquo;s apartment to a warehouse was charged for stealing two Picasso sketches each valued at approximately $30,000. And, it turns out that was not the first time those two sketches had been stolen&hellip;sometime before they ended up in Kingsland&rsquo;s collection they were stolen from a New York art gallery around 1967!</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">With the cooperation of the Public Administrator&rsquo;s Office and the two auction houses, we began investigating Kingsland&rsquo;s collection of art and positively identified several works that had been stolen. And we think there are more. But because of the overwhelming size of the collection and the complex and time-consuming nature of provenance investigations, we decided the best and most expeditious course of action was to publicize the art work to the general public.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">We need your help. If you have information on the provenance, acquisition, or ownership of any work of art from the Kingsland collection shown here&mdash;or if you want to make a claim&mdash;please contact Agent Wynne at (718) 286-7302 or by e-mail at James.Wynne@ic.fbi.gov.</font></b> </p> <p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Resources</font></b> <br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times">- <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/northamerica/us/kingsland/kingsland.htm">View the artwork recovered</a></font></b> </p> <p><font face="Times New Roman,Times">IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THESE WORKS OF ART OR CIRCUMSTANCES OF THESE CRIMES, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm">LOCAL FBI FIELD OFFICE</a> OR THE NEAREST <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/contact/legat/legat.htm">U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE</a> OR <a href="https://tips.fbi.gov/">SUBMIT A TIP ONLINE</a></font> </p> <center> <p><img src="http://www.tambrastudios.com/images/Bar.gif" alt="Bar" height="13" vspace="2" width="544"><br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><a href="/">Home</a>&nbsp; ~&nbsp; <a href="/contact.html">Contact</a>&nbsp; ~&nbsp;<a href="/Privacy.htm">Privacy</a>&nbsp; ~ <font color="#000000"><a href="/shipping.html" target="_new">Shipping</a></font>&nbsp; ~&nbsp; <a href="javascript:window.open('https://www.paypal.com/cart/display=1&business=Tambra%40J30AD%2Eorg','cartwin','width=600,height=400,scrollbars,location,resizable,status');history.back(1);">View Cart</a></font></b> <br> &nbsp; </p> <br> &nbsp; <p></p> <p><img src="http://www.tambrastudios.com/images/ZCopyRight1.jpg" alt="Copyright" align="middle" height="15" width="63"><br> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font color="#000000"><font size="-1">By Tambra Wilcox</font></font></font></b></p> </center> <b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="-1">The artwork is protected by copyright.&nbsp; Any reproduction, modification, publication, transmission, transfer, or exploitation of any of the Content or Service, whether in whole or in part, without the express written permission of Tambra Wilcox is prohibited.&nbsp; All Rights Reserved.&nbsp; <font color="#000000">Contents throughout may not be duplicated without prior consent by Tambra Wilcox</font></font></font></b> <center><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font color="#000000"><font size="-1">Please see our <a href="/Privacy.htm">Privacy Statement &amp; Disclaimer</a></font></font></font></b> <br> &nbsp; <p><!-- Site Meter --> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://s14.sitemeter.com/js/counter.js?site=s14TambraStudios"> </script> <noscript><a href="http://s14.sitemeter.com/stats.asp?site=s14TambraStudios" target="_top"> <img src="http://s14.sitemeter.com/meter.asp?site=s14TambraStudios" alt="Site Meter" border="0"/></a> </noscript> <!-- Copyright (c)2009 Site Meter --></p> </center> <p><br> <br> </p> </body> </html>