Shecoda
05-23-2005, 09:08 PM
The Accidental Art Thief
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
He was a millionaire, and he didn't even know it.
A New York City truck driver turned himself in to police Monday, suspected of stealing a $1.5 million painting from a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport (search).
The 1982 untitled oil-and-acrylic work by Jean-Michel Basquiat (search) was on its way to London for an exhibition when Anthony Porcelli, 35, allegedly spotted it on the loading dock in its container, labeled "PAINTING," on May 4.
Surveillance videotapes of the warehouse showed a man who looked liked Porcelli loading it into the back of his truck and driving away.
A copy of his driver's license, as required of all visitors to the warehouse, proved he'd been there that day.
"To me, he's a complete idiot," George Cunningham, his boss at Cace Trucking in Elizabeth, N.J., told the New York Times. "Why would you give someone your driver's license with all your information and then go and do something like this?"
Police searched the Cace warehouse in Elizabeth last Thursday and found the Basquiat, still in its unopened container, hidden in the back.
"He didn't know he hit the lottery with this," one detective told the New York Daily News. "It was just an opportunity, and he took a shot at it."
Porcelli, jailed on charges of first-degree larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, isn't talking, and neither is his lawyer.
But a man calling himself only "Vinnie," and who said he was Porcelli's landlord on Staten Island (search), told the Times that Porcelli had been angry at warehouse workers for keeping him waiting and took the container purely out of spite.
"He absolutely did not know what was in the package — he's a truck driver," Vinnie said. "I don't think there was any intent to make a monetary gain. He was just trying to get back at them."
His boss was less forgiving.
"In all honesty, I haven't seen or heard from him since this happened," Cunningham told the New York Post. "And if I had, needless to say, there would be no work for him to come back to."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156844,00.html
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
He was a millionaire, and he didn't even know it.
A New York City truck driver turned himself in to police Monday, suspected of stealing a $1.5 million painting from a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport (search).
The 1982 untitled oil-and-acrylic work by Jean-Michel Basquiat (search) was on its way to London for an exhibition when Anthony Porcelli, 35, allegedly spotted it on the loading dock in its container, labeled "PAINTING," on May 4.
Surveillance videotapes of the warehouse showed a man who looked liked Porcelli loading it into the back of his truck and driving away.
A copy of his driver's license, as required of all visitors to the warehouse, proved he'd been there that day.
"To me, he's a complete idiot," George Cunningham, his boss at Cace Trucking in Elizabeth, N.J., told the New York Times. "Why would you give someone your driver's license with all your information and then go and do something like this?"
Police searched the Cace warehouse in Elizabeth last Thursday and found the Basquiat, still in its unopened container, hidden in the back.
"He didn't know he hit the lottery with this," one detective told the New York Daily News. "It was just an opportunity, and he took a shot at it."
Porcelli, jailed on charges of first-degree larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, isn't talking, and neither is his lawyer.
But a man calling himself only "Vinnie," and who said he was Porcelli's landlord on Staten Island (search), told the Times that Porcelli had been angry at warehouse workers for keeping him waiting and took the container purely out of spite.
"He absolutely did not know what was in the package — he's a truck driver," Vinnie said. "I don't think there was any intent to make a monetary gain. He was just trying to get back at them."
His boss was less forgiving.
"In all honesty, I haven't seen or heard from him since this happened," Cunningham told the New York Post. "And if I had, needless to say, there would be no work for him to come back to."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156844,00.html