An Aladdin's Cave of Stolen Delights in NYC

Sometimes I wish I had absolutely no scruples and was full to the brim with audacity. With these two traits I could wander the world doing as I pleased and having no scruples about who was affected by my actions. Sort of like William M. V. Kingsland of New York City.

Apparently, upon his death it turned out that not only was his name false (his birth name was Melvyn Kohn) but most everything about him was also quite fabricated. One thing is for certain though, he had a heck of an eye for art. The F.B.I. has been flummoxed by the late Mr. Kingsland for the last four years. Upon his death they were called into a small apartment on East 72nd where quite a magnificent art collection resided. Only one problem, there was little if any provenance that much of it actually belonged to Mr. Kingsland and it appears that quite a bit of it was pilfered from private and public collections around Manhattan and the world.

A charming bust by Giacometti was used to prop a door open, while four paintings (two Porters, a Redon and a Kurt Schwitter) turned out to be reported stolen in the 60s. As Agent James Wynne of the F.B.I. began digging deeper in the mystery of the collection he began finding previous owners who were either unaware or unconcerned that their pieces had gone missing. But, the case must be resolved- what happens to all this wonderful booty?

Part of the “collection” has already been sold through Christie’s Auction House, including a 1790 Copley portrait of the Second Earl of Bessborough which turned out to have been pinched from the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard in the 1970s. The gallery owner who purchased the piece got it at quite a deal ($85K) and expected to make somewhere in the neighborhood of $400K on the piece. But because it was stolen he’s out of luck.

Ironically, when New York City hired two auction houses to go through the floor-to-ceiling stacks of sketches, sculptures and paintings two movers made off with two Picasso’s. They were caught (don’t mess with Christies) and sentenced to probation. Kingsland's collection, which came mostly from Manhattan galleries, is considered to be diverse and interesting, but isn't necessarily a find of epic proportions. Still, the Picassos pinched by the movers were worth at least $60,000 total, and other Picassos in the collection were worth about $600,000.

The FBI has posted a portion of the works found in his apartment in hopes that the rightful owners will come forward. Quite an impressive little cache.

So what happens next? Auction houses attached to the case have cancelled all sales related to the Kingsland estate. Harvard University is working with the authorities to secure the safe return of the Copley and another piece reported stolen from the university in 1968. The FBI waits for people to come forward to make whatever claim they can of the galleries of work. And the public administrator of the New York office who will end up with the loot from the eventual sale and auction of whatever isn’t claimed? She’s treading carefully. Ethel Griffin is quoted as saying “ We don’t want to destroy the man’s reputation if in fact he acquired these from someone else,” she said. Still, she added, “This one is for the books.”

Indeed.