ART THIEVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23145, 17 September 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

ART THIEVES

AN ORGANISED GANG "THE GENT" AS LEADER HANDIWORK AGAIN DETECTED "ORITAIN'S best-dressed crook did not leave his visiting card behind when he raided the mansion of Earl Winterton on the SurreySussex border and removed a Reynolds' £IO,OOO masterpiece, but he left enough of his handiwork for detectives to know that the elegant, immaculate figure of "The Gent" was behind the robbery. "The Gent" is the guide, overseer and ruler of Gang No. s—fifth5 —fifth skilled art gang to operate in England since the beginning of the century. Gang No. s's crimes include tho disappearance of two oil paintings from the Mayfair homes of Sir Gervnse Beckett; the theft of 20 Bronze Age palstaves from Winchester City Museum; the £3OOO haul of pictures from Alton Lodge, Boehampton; and tho £IOO,OOO robbery of old masters from Chilham Castle. "Work Back" When Gang No. 5 go to work it is either an "order" job, with a market in readiness to receive the stolen goods, or a "work back." In tho first instance tho order comes from an unscrupulous crank collector who is willing to stake anything as long as ho gets possession of a treasured work of art. In a "work back," the property is returned through various underground channels for the handsome reward offered. But this is only resorted to when tho criminals fear tho risk of smuggling the treasure out of the country to America, the most likely resort of "crank" collectors. How tho hauls are handled for transport is best illustrated by the methods of the Sinith-Itobson gang which came to grief in 1923, when tho police got on their trail after tho £1,000,000 country mansion crimes. Hidden in Crates Bare pictures were concealed in the sides of wooden crates, sandwiched between tho outer covering and a thin stripping of plywood on the inside. The crates were filled with china. The entire Wernher collection of 300 priceless objets d'art. stolen from the Bed Boom, Bath House, Piccadilly, and valued up to £250,000 was "booked" for America —but fate changed its destiny. Such was tho publicity given to the robbery that tho American receivers got scared and refused delivery. The collection was "workod back."