[MSN] Dunedin gallery owner guilty of stealing Hotere painting

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Dunedin gallery owner guilty of stealing Hotere painting

Posted at 4:21pm on 20 Sep 2006

A man faces a bill of more than $20,000 after he was found guilty of stealing a Ralph Hotere drawing.

The man, who has interim name suppression, had defended the theft charge but was fined $2,500 in the Dunedin District Court on Wednesday and ordered to pay $18,000 dollars reparation - the value of the stolen drawing.

The court was told he had seen the drawing, "Black Window", at a woman's house and offered to take it and fix its broken frame.

However, he never returned it and the prosecution said he sold it.

After he was contacted by police, he tried to pass off a similar Hotere drawing as the stolen art, but the victim was adamant it was not the drawing she had treasured for 16 years.

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