For Immediate Release
December 6, 2005
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Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
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ADDITION TO TOP TEN ART CRIMES LIST ANNOUNCED
Washington, DC - The FBI today announced the addition of two paintings by Maxfield Parrish to the Top Ten Art Crimes list. The paintings are two of six panels painted for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and completed between 1912 and 1916. These two paintings were stolen in July 2002 from a gallery in West Hollywood, California. The paintings were removed from the gallery by being cut from their frames. 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 announcement of this addition was made at the FBI Philadelphia Field Office by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Deborah Pierce who stated "The Vanderbilt murals are deemed national treasures by scholars, collectors and museum curators. These lost masterworks are of extreme artistic importance and their loss goes past a dollar amount; we've also lost a piece of our American cultural heritage."
The addition of the two Maxfield Parrish paintings to the FBI's Top Ten Art Crimes list replaces the Swedish National Museum theft which includes a Rembrandt self-portrait and Renoir's Young Parisian, both recovered this year.
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