Cops probe rash of East End art thefts

Police are trying to determine if there are links among recent art thefts in Southampton, Southold and Shelter Island involving works valued at more than $270,000.

"We're working to see what kind of commonalities may exist," said Southampton Village Police Det. Sgt. Herm Lamison Wednesday.

The most recent theft took place Feb. 14 at a home in Southampton Village where $20,000 worth of artwork was discovered stolen.

Earlier this month, village police said 13 paintings, valued at more than $250,000, had been stolen from the summer home of Jo Davis Hallingby - a sprawling estate on Shinnecock Bay in Southampton Village.

Hallingby is the widow of Bear Stearns billionaire Paul Hallingby Jr., who was responsible for the development of the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Lamison said that "initially, at least" there appeared to be differences between the two Southampton Village heists, most notably, he said, that in the most recent burglary, physical evidence was left behind.

In the Feb. 14 heist, the thief - or thieves - entered through a first-floor window, police said. Investigators found muddy footprints leading to the living room.

The theft was discovered when a caretaker arriving at the estate reported finding nine paintings, together worth more than $20,000, had been stolen, Lamison said.

The theft included the artwork of Raymond F. Lawrence and Herbert Meyer, Lamison said.

The Hallingby theft involved works by Frederick H. McDuff, Jean Dufy, Jacques Martin-Ferrieres, Howard Behrens, Pierre Bittar and Cecil Everley.

Lamison said Southampton Village detectives are in touch with Shelter Island investigators looking into a recent theft there.

On the North Fork, Capt. Martin Flatley of the Southold Town Police said they are investigating a theft that "fits the same basic style" as the Southampton burglaries.

On Jan. 20, a caretaker for a Sound View Avenue home discovered that a painting and a lithograph were missing.

Nothing else had been taken, and it appeared that the burglar or burglars entered through an unlocked door, Flatley said.

In addition to comparing notes among towns and the village, Lamison said his department has also contacted the FBI.

Robert Wittman, a former senior investigator with the FBI's National Art Crime Team who now runs a Pennsylvania-based art security company, said art thieves are typically caught when they try to sell the work without proper provenance.

The higher the art or the artist's profile, and the higher the piece's market value, the more likely it is that a gallery or collector would require detailed information about its history and past ownership, he said.

Lamison said thefts and break-ins are not uncommon this time of year when many summer estates are unoccupied.

"We do have burglaries; they do spike," he said.

With Andrew Strickler