Zatista The premier source for original art online

Mattise | Image: http://www.pebblebeachartheist.com

It’s gotta sting just a little bit to find out that the local sheriff is closing your case when $27 million worth of art from your art collection is still missing. That just happened recently in the exclusive California coastal enclave of Pebble Beach. As is often the case, the theft proved to be a dramatic one, full of intrigue, twists and turns – what is it with drama and stolen art?

Pollock | Image: www.pebblebeachartheist.com

The very valuable collection in this case belonged to a retired Harvard Medical School physician and his associate, and included “substantial works” by Jackson Pollock, Vermeer, van Gogh, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Miro, among other artists. At one point, the owners themselves were considered suspects, which complicated their somewhat significant insurance claim.

Miro | Image: www.pebblebeachartheist.com

Now, in the wake of an election of a new sheriff in Monterey County, the investigation has been closed due to a lack of physical evidence. Apparently, the owners are still hoping their art comes home. They have set up a website dedicated to the crime, where you can browse through the missing works and bone up on the details of the case. A $5 million reward is up for grabs if you’re inclined to do a little art sleuthing on your own.

Renoir | Image: www.pebblebeachartheist.com

Related articles

• Sheriff suspends investigation into CA art thefts (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Art Heist: The Top 7 Stolen Paintings (abcnews.go.com)
• $500M Heist: Home Yields Guns, No Art (abcnews.go.com)

Copyright The Granger Collection, New York

Talk about a bad night. According to London’s Daily Mail, a New York art handler recently lost a $1.3 million painting while bar hopping. James Haggerty, who was charged with taking the Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot masterpiece, ‘Portrait of a Girl’ to a Manhattan hotel for inspection by a potential buyer, eventually returned home later in the night without the painting.

Apparently, after the deal fell through, Haggerty decided to drown his sorrows in a pint or 15. He was caught on security cameras at the hotel with the painting but somehow ended up empty handed at the end of the night. When he reported his indiscretion to the owners of the painting, the only excuse that he could offer was that he had had too much to drink and couldn’t remember what had happened.

Yeesh. That must have been one heck of a headache to wake up with.

So whether you’re buying a piece of art on Zatista for $50 or $50,o00, know that we a) definitely don’t condone drinking on the job, and b) we are pretty sure that neither do the USPS, UPS or FedEx. You’re in good hands, is what we’re saying — and incidentally, cheers to the lucky bar goer who finds the “Portrait of a Girl” in the bathroom. Just be sure to buy everyone a round with your new-found fortune.

When the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) hired gallery owner, curator and art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as its new director, the art world raised its collective eyebrows. The move was a major shake up on two fronts: primarily because academics are typically favored over private dealers for such positions due to potential conflicts of interest, but also due to Deitch’s particular background.

While hardly your typical “outsider,” Deitch has been both an institution in the New York art world and a champion of young, emerging and often controversial artists since the 1980′s. A Harvard MBA and one time Vice-President at Citibank, he immersed himself in the burgeoning street art scene almost from its inception, working with  Jean Michel-Basquiat and eventually coming to represent the estate of Keith Haring.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Source: TheCityReview.com

…

Keith Haring

In more recent years Deitch Projects has aided subsequent waves of street, graffiti and other non-traditional artists in transitioning into the mainstream art world, providing representation and a venue for gallery exposure.

Barry McGee, Source: GiantRobot.com

…

Steve Powers, Source: RobotsWillKill.com

He has funded art armadas and human hamster nest installations, fostering the slow acceptance of outliers as icons in their own right.

Swoon "Miss Rockaway Armada," Source: TheDailyBeast.com

Deitch has always bankrolled his more provocative exhibitions and exploits by brokering art sales, catering to high-profile private collectors–a field in which there are far more gray areas than in the starched white world of institutional leadership.

Even as he shutters Deitch Projects on June 1 in order to assume his new position, all eyes will be on him for back room dealings or inklings of self-interest. It’s a gamble for MOCA, but considering Jeffrey Deitch’s already monumental impact on the shape and form of contemporary art as we know it today, it’s one that could pay off handsomely.