[MSN] Ceramic plate worth $3, 700 stolen from Ohio artist during sale

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Ceramic plate worth $3,700 stolen from Ohio artist during sale
**
*Associated Press*

*CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - *A hand-crafted ceramic plate valued at 
$3,700 was stolen from property owned by acclaimed artist and industrial 
designer Viktor Schreckengost, his stepson said.

The second-edition plate, produced last year and based on 
Schreckengost's 1931 "Jazz Bowl" series of plates and bowls that became 
icons of the Art Deco era, was stolen from an unlocked china cabinet 
during an estate sale Saturday, stepson Chip Nowacek said.

About 400 people attended the sale at a 32-room mansion that 
Schreckengost's second wife, Gene, lived in before they were married in 
1991, Nowacek said. The mansion is just a few doors down from where the 
couple currently lives in this Cleveland suburb.

Police have not announced an arrest.

"Whoever it was knew what they were doing," Nowacek, 41, said. "To pull 
something like that off with all these people around, it was just 
incredible."

Police searched vehicles and questioned people who attended sale but 
didn't find the plate, Nowacek said. The family will be contacting art 
dealers in New York, Los Angeles and Miami to make them aware of the 
theft and will monitor the Internet to see if it shows up on the auction 
Web site eBay, he said.

The plate is signed by Schreckengost and contains many studio markings 
that make it easy to identify, Nowacek said.

Schreckengost, 100, is a prolific designer whose works range from toys, 
ceramics and paintings to dinnerware and trucks.

His artistic creations include paintings, sketches, sculptures and famed 
New Yorker ceramics that caught the eye of Eleanor Roosevelt. His 
industrial designs include millions of bicycles sold by Sears, iconic 
children's pedal wagons, lawn chairs, sit-down lawn mowers, American 
Limoges dinnerware - all with eye-catching flair.

*ON THE NET*

Schreckengost: http://www.viktorschreckengost.org