December 6, 2005

MAXFIELD PARRISH WORKS STOLEN FROM WEST HOLLYWOOD MUSEUM ADDED TO FBI'S LIST OF TOP TEN ART CRIMES A case involving the theft of two original Maxfield Parrish paintings, stolen from the Edenhurst Gallery in West Hollywood in July 2002, has been added to the FBI's national list of top ten art crimes, announced J. Stephen Tidwell, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles. The two paintings were reported missing from the gallery, located on Melrose Avenue, sometime between the hours when the gallery closed for business on 7/28/2002, and when it reopened the following day. The paintings, two panels from a series of six, were painted by Maxfield Parrish for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Each painting measures approximately 64" X 74" and similarly depicts a group of young men and women in renaissance costume strolling before a Tuscan style wall decorated with a large terracotta urn. The combined value of the two paintings may be up to $4 million. The thieves accessed the gallery through its roof and absconded with the panels, which had been cut and removed from their frames. Maxfield Parrish, whose renderings are among the most reproduced prints in the United States, is a beloved and internationally renowned American artist. The Vanderbilt murals are considered to be some of his finest creations, and have been deemed national treasures by scholars, collectors and curators. Los Angeles is a member of the FBI's national Art Crime Team (ACT), established late 2004 to combat art and cultural property crime, a growing problem with losses estimated at $6 billion each year. Since that time, the ACT has been involved in the recovery of more than 100 items of art and cultural property, valued at more than $40 million. The items recovered by the ACT include a wide range of cultural property: manuscripts, maps and documents, historical firearms, Native American artifacts, paintings and sculptures. The ACT assists in art related investigations worldwide in conjunction with foreign law enforcement officials and FBI Legal Attaché Offices. Recently, the ACT and the Los Angeles Field Office were instrumental in the recovery of a painting by Rembrandt, valued at $36 million, that was stolen from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm. The ACT / Top Ten List website can be found at www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/arttheft.htm. Tips can be submitted on the www.fbi.gov website or by contacting your local FBI office.