According to a LA Times article, a $1.7 million dollar reward has been offered by one of the world’s top financial executives, Jeffrey Gundlach, for the safe return of prized contemporary art stolen from his home in Santa Monica, California last week. Some of the most well known names in contemporary art were included in the $10 million art heist from the private collector’s home, including, among others, Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns, and Piet Mondrian.
Gundlach’s seven-figure reward is said to be surpassed only by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s $5 million reward for the safe return of $300 million worth of art stolen in a robbery at the Boston museum. Among the stolen art included three Rembrandts, which remain missing to this day, and the thieves have yet to be apprehended by police.
Retired FBI agent Robert K. Wittman, author of the book “Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures,” commented “[m]useums don’t lose
pieces very often because they have excellent security systems[,]” however, “[w]hen it comes to individuals, many times they often don’t have the sophisticated alarms and systems they need.” The silver lining in all of this for Gundlach, according to Wittman, is that because stolen art is so difficult to sell, it is recovered far more often than other valuables. Without proof of authenticity, it is rare for artwork to command high values.
It was reported that Gundlach initially offered a $200,000 reward for information leading to the return of the stolen paintings. Gundlach has since added $1 million for information leading to the return of a Mondrian painting entitled “Composition (A) En Rouge Et Blanc.” It is claimed by one art-theft expert that the $1 million reward was the most ever offered for the return of a single painting. An additional $500,000 is being offered for information leading to the return of three other valuable paintings, including two by Joseph Cornell and one by Jasper Johns.
Gundlach is said to have estimated the value of his prized collection at approximately $10 million. In recent years, two of his pieces sold for a combined $8.7 million, including Johns’ painting “Green Target”, which sold for $3.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2004. According to Sotheby’s, the Mondrian painting sold at auction for $5.3 million in 2002.
Gundlach declined comment as to whether the stolen paintings were insured.