STOLEN ART TREASURES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13484, 10 May 1907, Page 5

STOLEN ART TREASURES.

MANY OF THEM RECOVERED.

AN ARREST MADE.

By Telegraph..— Association.—Copyright.

/: , ■ London, May 8. A large number of the art treasures stolen by burglars from Mr. Charles J. Wertheimer have been recovered, having been found in a small house in Clapham. The pictures recovered do not include the missing pictures by Gainsborough and Reynolds. An Italian giving the name of Smith has been arrested in connection with the robbery, and. four 'of the missing snuff-boxes have been found in his possession.

The robbery took place on February 12. Mr. Charles Wortheimer is one of the bestkuown art experts, and the value of the art treasures with which his: house is filled from basement to roof has been estimated at no less than a million and a-quarter pounds. His collection of works by Reynolds, Romney, and Gainsborough is world-renowned, and ■ the other gems of art which he possesses include jewels, china, furniture, enamels, and bronzes. The thieves took £50,000 worth of pictures and articles of value. The house robbed is in Norfolkstreet, Park Lane. The thieves must first have scaled a high wall at the side of the footpath and then entered through the window of the drawing-room on the first floor. This room is a very largo one, and the. walls are covered with priceless works of old masters. Although the house is fitted; with many burglar alarms none rang until the burglars opened the hall door at six a.m. to leave the house. Then the loud ringing aroused the servants, and the butler and . foptman dashed down the stairs ,in night attire to find the door wide open and ho-one in tho street. The pictures and articles stolen "Portrait of Nancy Parsons," by Gainsborough; "Portrait of- the Hon. Mrs. Charles Yorke," by Sir; Joshua Reynolds;" round miniature, surrounded by brilliants, of, a lady playing a guitar; 'round miniature of a lady reclining on a sofa; eighteen eighteenth-century gold enamelled French snuff-boxes, all of great "value. Another picture,- " Reynold's portrait of Mrs. Froude, nee Phyllis Hurrell," was partly cut away from its frame, but was not stolen.