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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home
4/5/2014 2:12:16 AM

Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home

ROME April 2, 2014

Dario Franceschini, left, and Mariano Mossa unveil Paul Gauguin's "Fruits sur une table ou nature au petit chien", (L)
and Pierre Bonnard's "La femme aux deux fauteuils," April 2, 2014. Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images


A pair of stolen masterpiece paintings valued at $50 million have been recovered after being bought at an auction for $25 and hung in an auto worker's kitchen for years.

The masterworks were described as Paul Gauguin's "Still Life of Fruit on a Table With a Small Dog" and Pierre Bonnard's "The Girl With Two Chairs." They were stolen from the home of a British couple in 1970.

An unnamed Fiat employee, described by police as a "lover of art," bought the two paintings in an auction of items left in the lost and found department of the national railway. The paintings were reportedly left behind on a train from Paris to Turin and were never claimed. Railway authorities put them up for auction in 1975.

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The Fiat worker was unaware of their value, according to Gen. Mariano Mossa, the head of the police's Cultural Heritage department. The Fiat employee purchased the two masterpieces for $25 at the auction. He first had the paintings hanging in his kitchen, and after he retired, he brought them back to his native Sicily.

The auto worker's son had decided to sell the paintings last year and that is when they came to the attention of police.

"The present owner of the paintings was circulating pictures of the painting because he decided to sell them. He did so in good faith, as he did not know they were stolen. That is when we became aware of them and started researching," the spokesman for the Art Theft Squad of the Italian police told ABC News.

The paintings were stolen from the collection of Sir Mark Kennedy in England on June 6, 1970. Kennedy and his wife died without heirs, and without ever knowing the fate of their paintings. Press reports from that month say that three men, one posing as a policeman and the others as burglar alarm engineers duped the housekeeper, telling her they were checking the alarm system. While she made them a cup of tea, they removed the paintings from the frames.

Authorities will now have to determine who are the rightful owner of the paintings.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home
4/5/2014 9:35:20 PM

They may not look too impressive here, but these paintings are jointly valued at $50 million. (You may click on the images to enlarge them)


Paul Gauguin - Still Life of Fruit on a Table with Small Dog



Pierre Bonnard - The Girl with Two Chairs



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Joyce Parker Hyde

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RE: Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home
4/5/2014 10:45:17 PM
They are beautiful-I think the auto worker is the rightful owner.
He bought them.
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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home
4/6/2014 1:29:45 AM

Well, he could and he could not - I mean, be the rightful owner. He could invoke the 'uti possidetis' principle, but I don't think he will since he came forward in the first place. And even if he did, I don't believe he would be granted their possession since it was stolen property. What he could get is a nice reward.

This man in the below photo is probably from the gallery and he clearly is happy that the paintings have at last be found. I don't think they will ever be let go again.... except they are offered two or three times their current worth.




"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Roger Macdivitt .

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RE: Stolen Masterpieces Worth $50M Found in Auto Worker's Home
4/6/2014 9:30:32 AM
Although the criminal element of robbery or confiscation is unacceptable we have to admit that it keeps the world of art exciting and intriguing.
I love the palette of Gauguin's works.

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