[MSN] Art and Police Powers

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The Heat on the Beat
And the Artists on the Street-Part 1
By Charles Vincent Sabba Jr.
Rahway News Record- Rahway Arts District Column
April 12, 2007

   I have been approached by a couple of readers of this column who have
expressed their bewilderment about a cop who is devoted to art. This
inspired me to write this two part article about artist encounters with
the law and two art loving police officers who are great characters in
the history of art: NYPD Detective Robert Volpe, who was known as the
"Art Cop," and Commissioner Zamaron who at the beginning of the 20th
century befriended many of the legendary artists of Monmartre and
Montparnasse, Paris.
  The artist colonies of Monmartre and Montparnasse were made up of many
different nationalities.French, Italian, Dutch, Mexican, Scandinavian,
Russian, Spaniards, to name a few. The artists of Montmartre and
Montparnasse had a special friend and protector named Zamaron.
Commissioner Zamaron was the officer in charge of foreign nationals at
the Prefecture of Police in Paris. He was an ardent art lover and always
came to the assistance of the artists in need, especially his personal
favorite, Maurice Utrillo. When off duty, this police officer would seek
out his artist friends at the cafes such as the Dome and the Rotonde for
drinks and good intellectual conversations. His friend's paintings
covered the walls of his police station office; there he proudly
displayed works by the Italian Modigliani, the Lithuanian Kikoine, the
Belarus-born Lithuanian Soutine, the Montmartre native Utrillo, and
Utrillo's mother, Suzanne Valadon. There was another, less honest
officer named Descaves in Paris who loved art as well. Descaves would
shake down the artists for their art works. Once in a while he would
take a painting and pay a tiny installment after instructing the artist
to stop by his office for the remaining sum on a future date. Of course
the artists knew better not to do so. The honorable Zamaron was
constantly protecting the artists from the dirty Descaves.
  As you can imagine, the artists kept Zamaron quite busy. Modigliani and
his pal Utrillo were constantly being picked up for drunk and disorderly
conduct; Utrillo was an alcoholic and drank eight liters of wine a day.
Both Picasso and Alfred Jarry (but Jarry was a more frequent violator)
cocked and waved their pistols in the faces of drunken adversaries at
the slightest insult and they loved to shoot out the gas lamps that
lined the streets. In fact, pistol packing was in vogue in the artist
quarters of those days; Picasso carried a browning every where he went,
which he shot in the air in festive drunken folly and fired out of his
bedroom window every morning as an alarm clock to awaken his friends.
While dueling was illegal in this era, fistfights were not considered
gentlemanly behavior, so the artists resorted to crossing swords and
cocking pistols quite frequently. These neighborhoods, and a few of the
cafes located in them, were breeding grounds for the popular anarchist
movement. A number of illegal anarchist newspapers were being printed
and distributed there. The artist Juan Gris was erroneously arrested
after police officials mistakenly identified him as an anarchist named
Garnier, who was a main suspect in a band of political bombers in Paris.
   One of the most famous police encounters involved Picasso and the poet
Guillaume Apollinaire after the Monalisa, which was painted by Leonardo
DaVinci, was stolen from the Louvre on Aug 21, 1911. Both Picasso and
Apollinaire were both brought in for questioning as suspects in this
crime. In 1907, a friend of Apollinaire's named Ge'ry Pieret, stole
several valuable artifacts from a storeroom at the Louvre, simply by
placing them under his overcoat and walking out. Pieret was a former
boxer from Belgium who turned to writing. Both Picasso and Apollinaire
bought objects from Pieret and later denied knowing they were stolen.
Picasso's lover, Fernande Olivier, stated that Pieret warned Picasso on
the day he bought two small Iberian heads, not to display them but to
keep them hidden from view. Picasso kept the objects in an
inconspicuous place, fully aware of their illicit nature.
   After the theft of the Monalisa, Pieret sold his story, along with a
full confession and a statuette from the museum, to the Paris-Journal.
Pieret wanted a little cash and some notoriety. The article further
humiliated the Louvre and implemented Picasso and Apollinaire; both
were overcome with fear and contemplated throwing the artifacts into
the Seine. Picasso was brought in for questioning, where he turned over
the artifacts he possessed, and was released. Apollinaire was arrested
on Sept 7, 1911. He was not released until Sept 12, 1911. Apollinaire
was extremely frightened and hated his stay in a cell, however, for
years after the fact, he would boast of being the only man in France to
be arrested for the famous crime. The real culprit, Vincenzo Perugia,
was arrested for this crime on Dec 11, 1913 in Florence, Italy. Perugia
declared he was an Italian patriot and only stole the Monalisa so he
could return her to Italy where she belonged. He incorrectly believed
that Napoleon Bonaparte stole the painting from Italy as war loot and
couldn't stand seeing her in French hands.
  In my next article I will introduce Robert Volpe to you; Bobby was an
artist, a dedicated art lover, an NYPD art theft investigator and a
protector of New York artists, collectors and dealers. In fact, many
people in the N.Y. art world called him their archangel.

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