Paintings stolen from Southampton estate

Thieves have stolen a dozen paintings from a Southampton estate belonging to the wife of late Bear Stearns billionaire Paul Hallingby Jr., police said.

The $12-million estate on Captains Neck, owned by Jo Davis Hallingby, was raided this past weekend sometime between 1 p.m. Saturday and late Monday morning, Southampton Village police investigator Det. Sgt. Herm Lamison said Friday. The paintings are reportedly worth more than $250,000

Lamison told Newsday the theft was discovered by housekeepers reporting to work Monday and reported to police in a call at 12:03 p.m.

He said the home showed no sign of forced entry. Investigators were examining all possible leads, including workers who may have been in the home during the past two months, Lamison said, including cable television installers, phone repair workers and heating and air-conditioning workers.

"There have been a lot of trade-type people in the home," he said. "But we're looking at everything. Everything's fair game right now."

The estate is the summer residence of Jo Hallingby, 66, investigators said.

Paul Hallingby Jr. died in June 2005, reportedly of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 85. He was responsible for helping to develop the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in the 1980s. He was previously married to Mai Hallingby, 70, and before that to Allison Lazo Hallingby, the granddaughter of a former Guatemalan minister to the United States. She died in 1965.

Police said the stolen artwork included works by Frederick H. McDuff, Jean Dufy, Jacques Martin-Ferrières, Howard Behrens, Pierre Bittar and Cecil Everley.

Lamison said that the FBI was contacted on the possibility that whoever stole the paintings will try to sell them.

Lamison said the FBI maintains a database of well-known artwork that could help investigators locate the paintings - and the thieves - if the works come to market.

FBI spokesman James Margolin said police in Southampton had contacted the FBI, and the agency will assist with the investigation if police want the help and it is determined that a federal crime has been committed.

With Robert E. Kessler