• Renoir bought for $7 at flea market may have been stolen from museum in 1951

    Potomack Company via AP

    This undated image provided by the Potomack Company shows French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Paysage Bords de Seine," which was purchased for $7 at a flea market in West Virginia.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    The Renoir painting that caused a sensation when it was bought at a flea market for $7 may have been stolen from a museum six decades ago, and an auction house has put its sale on hold.

    Pierre-Auguste Renoir's painting "Paysage Bords de Seine" was due to go to auction through the Potomack Company on Saturday, but its sale was put on hold after a Washington Post reporter discovered documents in the Baltimore Museum of Art's library showing it was on loan there from 1937 until 1951, when it was stolen.


    The Impressionist work, whose title translates as "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine," was purchased two years ago at a West Virginia flea market.

    The buyer, a Virginia woman who has not revealed her name, took it to auction house The Potomack Co. in July, and experts there confirmed it was by the French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The frame of the painting includes a "Renoir" plaque.

    "I originally bought it for the frame," the buyer admitted to NBCWashington.com earlier this month. "I was trying to rip it apart... I was like, well, maybe I should wait." The buyer's mother encouraged her to get it appraised.

    It was expected to fetch $75,000 to $100,000 at auction. 

    "The rest of the auction will go on, but the Renoir has been withdrawn," said Lucie Holland, a spokeswoman for The Potomack Co.

    Read the story on NBCWashington.com

    Potomack said that the London-based Art Loss Registry had said that the painting had never been reported stolen or missing and the FBI's art theft website did not list it as stolen either. There was also no police report from the theft.

    The FBI is now investigating.

    'Caught by surprise'
    The Renoir came to the Baltimore museum through one of its leading benefactors, collector Saidie May. Her family bought it from the Bernheim-Jeune gallery in Paris in 1926.

    The Washington Post found records in the museum's library on Tuesday that showed May had lent the paintings and other works to the museum in 1937, Potomack said.

    After the newspaper told it of the findings, the Baltimore museum checked its files and found a loan record showing the Renoir had been stolen on November 17, 1951. What happened to it after the theft is unknown.

    Doreen Bolger, the museum director, said the museum's probe into what happened to the painting was in early stages.

    May died in May 1951 and the art collection was willed to the museum. As its ownership was going through legal transfer, the painting was stolen while still listed as on loan.

     

    The Mona Lisa Foundation, based in Switzerland, is claiming Leonardo da Vinci painted an earlier version of the Mona Lisa. Is she or isn't she? NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

    "We were caught by surprise," Bolger said on Thursday.

    "At this point we just want to make sure that the painting winds up where it belongs and that we provide all the information we can to law enforcement about this issue," Bolger said. 

    She said that she would be happy to show the painting again if it is ultimately returned to the museum.

    NBC News staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Another day at the office: Workers paint George Washington Bridge 330 feet above water

    John Munson / The Star-Ledger

    Painting supervisor Kevin McSweeney walks out onto one of the cables on the George Washington Bridge to inspect the painting operations in Fort Lee, NJ, on July 10.

    John Munson / The Star-Ledger

    Obed Gonzalez paints one of the large cables on the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, NJ, on July 10.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    It was as he was selecting his harness that New Jersey Star-Ledger photographer John Munson realized that he, too, would be joining the George Washington Bridge painters high above rush-hour traffic on the cables suspending the bridge over the Hudson River. As he and reporter Steve Strunsky headed to the span's midpoint, Munson focused on shooting the Port Authority workers and tuning out the vibrations from morning commuters heading into New York City below them.

    For the painters, it is just another day at the office. They work on maintaining the bridge year-round, completing a full paint job in approximately 18 months. The Star-Ledger's Steve Strunsky reports:

    Kevin McSweeney stood 330 feet above the Hudson River on one of four 36-inch diameter cables strung between the twin towers of the George Washington Bridge.

    Manhattan-bound cars and trucks whooshed 100 feet below him as his crew of five bridge painters worked on a narrow platform. Clipped to safety wires, they used rollers to coat the cables with an aluminum-based protective layer.

    It was 9 a.m. and already hot under a blazing July sun. But the small gang of adrenaline junkies applied the silvery coating with amazing speed and coordination, seemingly oblivious to the dizzying height.

    Read the complete story.

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    John Munson / The Star-Ledger

    Keith Schmitt paints the top of the south cable on the George Washington Bridge. Fort Lee, NJ, on July 10.

  • $150,000 Salvador Dali painting stolen from New York City art gallery

    By NBC New York and msnbc.com staff

    A Salvador Dali painting worth an estimated $150,000 was stolen from a Manhattan gallery earlier this week, police sources told NBC 4 New York on Thursday.

    NYPD via AP

    Salvador Dali's painting, "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio," which was stolen from a New York art gallery on June 19.

    The 1949 painting, known as "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio," appears to have been stolen on Tuesday from The Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue, police sources said.

    Surveillance cameras show a man wearing a dark shirt with white polka dots enter the gallery with a black cloth bag, police sources said. He is later seen on cameras leaving the gallery with the painting.

    The New York Daily News reported that the man took an elevator from the third floor onto street level and fled down 77th Street. 

    The painting was included in a display with other paintings as part of an exhibit at the gallery, which opened in May of this year, at 980 Madison Avenue between 76th and 77th Streets.

    NYPD via AP

    This image provided by the New York Police Department shows a surveillance camera image of a man suspected of stealing a $150,000 Salvador Dali painting from a Manhattan art gallery Thursday.

    Anyone with information is asked to call police.

    NBC New York and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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  • 474-year-old painting stolen by Nazis given to owner's heirs

    Philip Sears/Reuters

    Corinne Hershkovitch, legal representative of the family of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, and officials stand next to the painting "Christ Carrying the Cross" by Italian artist Girolamo de' Romani after signing papers to return it to its rightful owners in Tallahassee, Florida.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A painting – nearly five centuries old and worth millions - that was taken by the Nazis in World War II has been returned to the heirs of its original Jewish owner by U.S. officials.

    "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged By A Rascal" by Italian artist Girolamo de' Romani was stolen during the occupation of France from Frederico Gentili di Giuseppe, an Italian Jew who had lived in Paris, Reuters reported.

    He died of natural causes in 1940, a month before the Nazis invaded, and his children and grandchildren had already fled the country.

    The painting was one of 70 items taken from his collection, Reuters said. It depicts Christ crowned in thorns, carrying a cross and dressed in a copper-colored silk robe, and dates back to circa 1538.

    The former neighbor of a Dutch Holocaust survivor travels to the United States to hand-deliver a dish set the survivor's family left behind before they were sent to Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. KING-TV's Natalie Swaby reports.

    The collection was sold by the French Vichy government – allowed by the Nazis to run parts of France - in 1941 and Gentili's grandchildren filed suit in 1997 to get it back, according to the news service.

    The painting had found its way to the Pinacoteca di Brera museum in Milan, Italy, which then loaned it to the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, Florida.

    'Right a wrong'
    Based on a tip from an employee of Christie's auction house in June 2011, Interpol investigators last summer alerted U.S. officials that the painting may have been stolen, Reuters reported.

    Last September, U.S. Attorney Pamela Marsh ordered the Brogan museum to hold the painting instead of returning it to Italy, saying the federal government believed it rightfully belonged to the man's family, according to The Associated Press. It had been under the protection of the U.S. government since November.

    "Seventy years is a very long time … But it shows that it is never too late to right a wrong,” U.S. Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Susan McCormick told reporters Wednesday.

    The piece is one of hundreds of thousands of works of art stolen from Jewish families throughout Europe by the Nazis. It is among nearly 2,500 works of art and antiquities that Homeland Security Investigations officials have repatriated to 23 countries since 2007.

    Gentili's grandson, Lionel Salem, told reporters by telephone on Wednesday that the six heirs plan to sell the work, which he said was due to be auctioned at Christie's in New York on June 6. The painting has been insured for $2.5 million.

    Former Ohio resident John Demjanjuk is found guilty for his involvement in thousands of deaths at a Nazi death camp during World War II.

    "For a cake, it is relatively easy cutting it into six, not totally easy but quite easily," Salem said of the family's decision to sell. "But for a painting, you see, it is more difficult."

    Marsh hailed the outcome of the investigations.

    "This result happened only because people were courageous and willing to step up and do what they knew was right and good," she said, according to The Associated Press.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • 'Painter of Light' artist Thomas Kinkade dies at age 54

    Popular painter Thomas Kinkade died from natural causes Friday in his California home, his family said. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

    By NBCBayArea.com and msnbc.com staff

    One of the most popular artists in America, "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade, died Friday at his home in Los Gatos, Calif., his family said.

    He was 54, and his family issued a statement that his death appeared to be from natural causes.

    "Thom provided a wonderful life for his family,'' his wife, Nanette, said in a statement. "We are shocked and saddened by his death.''


    His paintings are hanging in an estimated one out of every 20 homes in the United States, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Fans cite the warm, familiar feeling of mass-produced works of art while it has become fashionable for art critics to dismiss his pieces.

    Kinkade lived with his wife and was the father of four girls, NBCBayArea.com reported.

    "Thomas Kinkade, the celebrated 'Painter of Light' is one of the most widely collected and beloved artists of our day," Kinkade's website states. "Each year millions of people are drawn to the luminous light and tranquil mood of Kinkade's paintings and include his creations in their lives through prints, books, and other fine collectibles."

    The University of California Berkeley graduate had a strong faith in God, which served as the foundation for his artwork.

    "I try to create paintings that are a window for the imagination," Kinkade said on his website. "If people look at my work and are reminded of the way things once were or perhaps the way they could be, then I've done my job."

    Kinkade's Media Arts Group took in $32 million per quarter from 4,500 dealers across the country 10 years ago, before going private in the middle of last decade, the Mercury News reported. Paintings are priced hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000.

    His website also offers prints, mugs, nightlights and other home-decor items adorned with his paintings, which feature bridges, churches, cottages, Disney scenes, gazebos estates and the outdoors.

    On Friday, the Mercury News reported that Kinkade's family was traveling to Australia and unavailable for further comment.

    Bennett Raglin / WireImage

    Artist Thomas Kinkade paints the 2007 Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Nov. 30, 2007, in New York City.

    In 2010, his production arm, Pacific Metro of Morgan Hill, Calif., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a day after a $1 million payment was due to former Kinkade gallery owners who won a judgment after claiming Kinkade used his Christian faith as a tool to fraudulently induce them to invest in his galleries, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. From 1997 through May 2005, as galleries failed, Kinkade reaped more than $50 million from his prints and licensed product lines, according to testimony in the case cited by the Times.

    In 2006, the Times reported that former Kinkade dealers told the newspaper that the FBI was looking into allegations that Kinkade and his top executives fraudulently induced investors to open galleries and then ruined them financially. The company, in a Sept. 1, 2006, statement called the allegations a "smear campaign."

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