[MSN] Case of missing art a head-scratcher

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Case of missing art a head-scratcher

4 paintings were taken from a hotel lobby, and police are hunting for leads

By MARK ARNEST THE GAZETTE

Somewhere in Colorado Springs may be an art lover with a guilty conscience.

Four paintings were stolen this month from the lobby of the Antlers Hilton hotel. The works were part of an exhibit of Cottonwood Artists’ School artists.

“There’s a joke going around that artists whose art wasn’t stolen are insulted,” said Kay Jeansonne, one of the theft victims. Jeansonne is part owner of Cottonwood, an artists studio and school downtown.

The other artists whose work was stolen are Chris Alvarez, Diana Cates-Dunn and Jill Spear.

The thief or thieves certainly show a wide range of artistic tastes with
their choices.

Alvarez’s and Jeansonne’s paintings are small — 11 by 14 inches — and representation- al. Alvarez’s “Midnight Apple” is a still-life; Jeansonne’s “The Peak” features a view of the city’s most famous mountain from the Garden of the Gods.

The Cates-Dunn and Spear paintings are large and abstract, or at least semi-abstract. (Cates-Dunn is out of town and said she hasn’t been told which of her paintings was stolen.)

Retail value for the works ranged from $800 for Alvarez’s piece to about $2,000 for Cates-Dunn’s.

Jeansonne said that she thinks Cottonwood’s insurance would cover the stolen paintings, but that she didn’t yet have details about the extent of that coverage.

Spear said the 38-by-30-inch “Crystal Autumn” couldn’t have been easy to steal. “It had museum Plexiglas in a substantial, deep, black metal frame,” she said.

None of the police officers associated with the case could be reached for comment, but Jeansonne said her impression was that art theft from such popular spaces is rare.

“The officer I spoke to was really nice and took it seriously, but he didn’t know quite where to go with this,” she said. The investigation has been hampered by a lack of surveillance cameras in that part of the hotel.

The Antlers Hilton had hosted a previous Cottonwood exhibit and several photography exhibits without incident.

But the thefts were not the first problem associated with this show.

In early February, employees of Judge Baldwin’s brewing company found another painting that had been removed from its display and left by the elevator door.

For Alvarez, the theft continues a run of bad luck that began in November, when a fire at a Cape Cod gallery destroyed nine of his paintings. Alvarez also lost work several years ago when a gallery manager in Avon absconded with five of his paintings.

Jeansonne said she thinks the works were probably stolen to keep, not to fence. The secondary market for most local artists is small.

“It’s flattering that they want it, though I wish people would value it enough to purchase it,” she said.

http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1330094