Collectors say artwork by Pollock, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, others stolen from Calif. home

October 9th, 2009 Calif. collectors seek to prove stolen art existsSANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Two men accused of lying about having millions of dollars of artwork stolen from their high-rent home in Pebble Beach released documents Friday that they insist proves they were ripped off.

October 8th, 2009 Van Gogh's letters show method, not madnessAMSTERDAM — While Vincent van Gogh has become almost as famed for his troubled mind as for his paintings, a new exhibition in the Van Gogh Museum seeks to remind us there was more method than madness to his style. In honor of the publication of a new compendium of all the artist's known correspondence, the museum has put more than 100 personal letters in which he discusses his craft on display alongside the actual paintings.

October 5th, 2009 Former JOY DIVISION rocker PETER HOOK has admitted conning record collectors and memorabilia sellers by faking the signature of his late bandmate IAN CURTIS. The bassist was reminded of his scam when he recently stumbled across an autographed record in his hometown of Manchester, England.

September 30th, 2009 British folk rockers NOAH AND THE WHALE are calling on fans to help track down equipment stolen following their gigs in Manchester, England. The Five Years Time group awoke on Wednesday (30Sep09) to find that thieves had made off with a trailer containing all their instruments from a hotel car park.

September 18th, 2009 Rarely seen Rembrandt portrait to be auctionedLONDON — A Rembrandt portrait that once hung in the president's office at Columbia University is expected to sell for up to 25 million pounds ($41 million) when it is auctioned later this year. Christie's auction house said Friday it will offer "Portrait of a Man, Half-Length With his Arms Akimbo" in London on Dec.

September 13th, 2009 LONDON - Sir Elton John is planning to adopt a child from Ukraine with partner David Furnish. The singer revealed that a 14-month-old boy called Lev has apparently "stolen his heart." The child had performed at an orphanage in Ukraine while the 'Candle In The Wind' hitmaker was on a visit.

September 12th, 2009 Los Angeles police are hunting for a multi-million dollar collection of ANDY WARHOL artwork stolen from a private collector earlier this month (Sep09). Authorities were called out to the home of businessman Richard Weisman after he found 10 pieces of his Warhol collection had been taken.

September 11th, 2009 Warhol's sports superstars stolen from LA homeLOS ANGELES — A unique series of Andy Warhol pieces — portraits of Muhammad Ali, Jack Nicklaus, Pele, Dorothy Hamill and other athletic superstars — has been stolen from a collector's home. Los Angeles police said Friday the collection of 10 silk screen paintings of famous athletes of the 1970s was taken from the home of businessman Richard Weisman sometime between Sept.

September 11th, 2009 10 Warhol paintings stolen from LA homeLOS ANGELES — A multimillion dollar collection of Andy Warhol artwork depicting famous sporting figures was stolen from a West Los Angeles home, police said Friday. The 10 pictures, each 40 inches square, were taken from businessman Richard Weisman's home sometime between Sept.

August 26th, 2009 Police: Iraqi forces recover stolen PicassoBAGHDAD — Special forces have recovered a stolen Picasso and arrested a man planning to sell the painting during a raid of his house in southern Iraq, Iraqi police said Wednesday. The painting, "The Naked Woman," apparently had been among the artwork looted from Kuwait during Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion, said police spokesman Maj.

July 2nd, 2009 Italy unveils antiquities returned by US museumROME — Italian officials on Thursday unveiled 14 artifacts spanning from antiquity to the Middle Ages that were looted or stolen from Italy and recently returned by The Cleveland Museum of Art. Culture Ministry officials trumpeted Italy's latest victory in its campaign to recover antiquities they say were stolen or dug up by looters, smuggled out of the country and sold to prestigious museums and collectors across the world.

July 1st, 2009 Digital images of all Rembrandt's work on showAMSTERDAM — The life work of Rembrandt — all 317 known paintings, 285 etchings and more than 100 drawings — go on display next week in full-sized digital reproductions that attempt to recreate the works as they emerged from the artist's studio rather than as they exist today. In some ways, the high resolution images are more authentic than the real paintings, said Ernst van de Wetering, a leading Rembrandt scholar who supervised the project.

June 9th, 2009 French police: notebook of Picasso sketches stolenPARIS — A police official says a notebook full of Pablo Picasso's sketches worth several million euros (dollars) has been stolen from the Paris museum that bears the painter's name. The official says the theft was discovered Tuesday morning at the Picasso Museum but it was not clear when or how it took place.

May 12th, 2009 6 landscape paintings stolen from Dutch museumAMSTERDAM — Thieves pried open the emergency door of a small Dutch museum with an iron bar and made off with six 17th- and 19th-century landscape paintings — the second major art heist in 10 days in the Netherlands. The break-in at 3 a.m.

May 6th, 2009 New exhibition documents Louvre during WWIIPARIS — On the eve of World War II, curators at the Louvre swathed the museum's most priceless painting — the "Mona Lisa" — in layers of waterproof paper, boxed it up and spirited it to the French countryside for safekeeping. Leonardo da Vinci's smiling maiden moved another five times during the war before she was brought, safe and sound, back to the Louvre.