[MSN] Row over Tate's stolen Turners. German police suspect the Tate may have broken federal law in the recovery of £24 million paintings.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Row over Tate's stolen Turners
By Dayla Alberge

German police suspect gallery may have broken federal law in the recovery of £24 million paintings 
 
 


German police are investigating how the Tate secured the return of two Turner paintings stolen from an exhibition in Frankfurt, where they had been on loan. 

 
 
The gallery announced two years ago that it had recovered Shade and Darkness — the Evening of the Deluge, and Light and Colour (Goethe’s theory), which were stolen in 1994. 

The Times learnt yesterday that German police are investigating whether the Tate had broken German federal law. 

One source said that the police were outraged when they discovered that the Tate had not only paid €3 million (£2 million) for information that led to the recovery of the paintings but, they believe, had put at risk investigations into the Serbian underworld figures thought to have staged the robbery. 

The source said that German police had tried for years to catch the gangsters, who are also believed to be involved in drugs and arms. 

Through the stolen Turners, detectives thought that they were getting close to catching the gangsters. Then they discovered that they had not been involved in the final negotiations for the recovery of the paintings. 

Disclosing that German police had contacted the Tate’s insurers about the case, the source said: “In a situation like this, the gallery should have worked with the police. 

“They failed to involve the police sufficiently, which is what has made the authorities so angry.” 

The Tate has said that it paid only for “information” and the costs of the investigation leading to the recovery of the paintings. But experts say that paying money to get stolen property back could encourage other thefts. 

The paintings were stolen from the Schirn Kunsthalle, in Frankfurt. A security guard was tied up in the raid. 

The two thieves and their getaway driver, who were caught in 1999, were given sentences ranging from three to eleven years. The mastermind behind the theft remains free, however. 

The insurers and the Tate are said to remain angry over revelations about the case in the autobiography of Geoffrey Robinson, the former Paymaster General. Before the paintings were recovered he disclosed that they were insured for £24 million, confirming their value to the gangsters, who were then able to use the figure when making their ransom demands. 

The paintings were fully insured. The insurers included Hiscox and AXA Art, who paid the £24 million in full. 

But in 1998, before the works were recovered, the Tate paid the insurers £8 million to buy back the rights, leaving it with a potential profit of £16 million if the pictures were recovered. Soon afterwards one was. The second turned up in 2002. As the millions generated interest, the Tate not only got its paintings back but also an extraordinary windfall from the insurance payout. 

The German police have contacted Hiscox and AXA Art. 

The German police and the Tate declined to comment. But a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt confirmed that an investigation was taking place. 

Selby Whittingham, a Turner scholar and editor of the journal J.M.W. Turner, RA, welcomed the news. He said: “We’ve never got to the truth of the matter about the payments.” 

An art expert who declined to be identified said: “A lot of people will be pleased to learn about an investigation. It’s been smoke and mirrors until now.”
 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/