[MSN] Picassos' Theft Contributes to Mystery of Eccentric Collector's Art Trove.

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January 12, 2007
Picassos' Theft Contributes to Mystery of Eccentric Collector's Art Trove
By THOMAS J. LUECK

When the colorful Manhattan gadfly known as William M. V. Kingsland died in
March, leaving an unexpected trove of important art in his Upper East Side
apartment, a mystifying art world caper began to unfold.

Much of the artwork, it turned out, was stolen.

In the latest twist, the authorities said yesterday that a moving contractor
from Queens whom public officials had hired to help clean out that apartment
had been charged with making off with two precious works: drawings by Pablo
Picasso. The mover's mother-in-law has also been charged.

"Not only are these defendants charged with stealing from their own
customers, but from the dead," said Rose Gill Hearn, the chief of the city's
Department of Investigation, which announced the arrests yesterday of Nahum
Kohen, the mover, and Ori Lellouch, his mother-in-law.

Ms. Gill Hearn said the arrests were made after her office was told by the
Office of the Public Administrator for Manhattan and the F.B.I. that the
Picasso drawings were missing, and that one was being offered for sale to
several auction houses. The drawings, worth an estimated $60,000, were not
thought to have been in Mr. Kingsland's possession illegally.

Mr. Kohen, 38, of Fresh Meadows, was charged with taking the drawings, each
about 12 inches square, of a guitar and of a mandolin. He will face up to 15
years in prison if convicted, the authorities said.

Ms. Lellouch, 56, of Kew Gardens Hills, who investigators said had tried to
sell one of the drawings through a broker, is charged with possession of
stolen property and could face one year in prison.

A lawyer for Mr. Kohen, Roger L. Stavis, said: "My client is absolutely
innocent. There is no evidence against him whatsoever, and we hope that this
grave injustice will be rectified immediately."

The authorities said they did not know who was representing Ms. Lellouch.

Although their lives seemed far removed from each other, the stories of the
recently deceased and the newly arrested are bound in a web of intrigue.

Mr. Kingsland, who died without a will, had lived a life shrouded in
mystery. His real name, unbeknownst to many of his Upper East Side
acquaintances, was Melvyn Kohn. His age was unclear; he was perhaps 58 or
62.

Mr. Kohn was an occasional art dealer who seemed to have boundless knowledge
of the buildings in his neighborhood and their residents, and he cultivated
an aura of someone rooted in Upper East Side aristocracy. But he was a
recluse who lived alone and welcomed few people into his unkempt, dusty
one-bedroom apartment.

After Mr. Kohn died, the contents of that apartment came as a shock to those
who thought they knew him. Among the trove of art, besides the two Picasso
drawings, were works by Giacometti, John Singleton Copley, Odilon Redon,
Kurt Schwitters and others.

The apartment was "chockablock with interesting treasures," said Colin Stair
of the Stair Galleries in Hudson, N.Y., who was hired by the public
administrator to sell some of the lesser works in the apartment, including
many watercolor-on-ivory miniature portraits.

As it turned out, according to the F.B.I., many of the most important works
had been stolen, although how Mr. Kohn obtained them remains unclear.

Ms. Gill Hearn said yesterday that the public administrator had hired a
consulting firm to examine the collection and to help sell the most valuable
items. The consultants photographed the two Picassos, which later
disappeared.

When the public administrator informed Ms. Gill Hearn's investigators that
the drawings could not be found, they compiled a list of everyone who had
entered the apartment on East 72nd Street after the consultants took their
photographs.

Mr. Kohen's name was on the list. Meanwhile, according to Ms. Gill Hearn,
the F.B.I., which was investigating reports that other works in Mr. Kohn's
apartment had previously been stolen, was tipped off that a Manhattan broker
was trying to sell one of the missing Picassos, and that he had obtained the
drawing from Ms. Lellouch.

The broker, whose identity was not disclosed, is not being charged and did
not know that the drawing presented by Ms. Lellouch was stolen, said an
official directly involved in the case who insisted on anonymity because the
case remains under investigation.

"Stealing on the job is not a fringe benefit," Ms. Gill Hearn said in
announcing the arrests yesterday. "Most realize that it could lead to jail
and a criminal record."

http://www.nytimes.com/