A workforce of prolific artwork thieves was discovered responsible of stealing pricy items of artwork and sports activities memorabilia for many years from museums and different high-profile establishments for greater than twenty years, federal prosecutors introduced Friday.
Three males from Pennsylvania had been discovered responsible of stealing championship belts, priceless artwork items, and vintage firearms collectively price hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from all around the state, in addition to New Jersey and New York.
The US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Center District of Pennsylvania mentioned the three males, of their late 40s and early 50s, had been part of a nine-man heist crew chargeable for main thefts courting again to no less than 1999, after they acquired away with a Christy Matthewson jersey and two indicators contracts from Keystone School in Factoryville.
Since then, federal prosecutors linked the crew to Canastota, New York, the place they stole six championship belts in 2015. Ten years earlier, the group acquired away with work by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock, every stolen in 2005 from the Everhart Museum in Scranton.
Fourteen trophies and different awards had been taken from the Harness Racing Museum & Corridor of Fame in 2012 in Goshen, New York, in keeping with prosecutors. And three vintage firearms price greater than $1 million went lacking from the House Farms Zoo & Museum in Wantage, New Jersey, again in 2006.
One other one of many group’s priciest hauls got here in 2014, when prosecutors mentioned they acquired away with 10 World Collection rings, seven different championship rings and two MVP plaques belonging to Yogi Berra. That Little Falls theft was valued at greater than $1 million.
Regardless of the excessive worth of a lot of the gadgets snatched by the crew, prosecutors mentioned they’d often deliver the gadgets again to a house in north Pennsylvania the place they’d soften down the memorabilia and later promote the uncooked metals “for hundreds or a few thousands dollars” within the New York Metropolis space.
In a single occasion, the lads burnt “Upper Hudson,” a portray by Jasper Cropsey valued at roughly $500,000, with the intention to maintain it from being acknowledged.
“The whereabouts of many of the other paintings and stolen objects are currently unknown,” prosecutors mentioned in a press release on Friday.
5 different members of the nine-man crew already pled responsible and are awaiting sentences. The three males convicted Friday face vital jail time; their sentencing hearings weren’t but scheduled.
