A home on the 500 block of 12th Street was burglarized last week. When the victim returned home, pieces of rare art, most of them high-end paintings, bottles of wine and a red 2010 Porsche Carrera S4 were gone. The suspects also took off with cash and expensive watches made by Patek Philippe, Breitling, TAG Heuer, Glashutte and A. Lange & Sohne.
Police say the haul is worth more than $10 million. The victim, who wished to remain anonymous, says the lost art is the real tragedy. More than a dozen pieces of artwork were stolen, including works by Piet Mondrian, Jasper Johns and California impressionist Guy Rose. He is offering a $200,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and return of the stolen property.
"It was my great hope that other people could enjoy these artworks. I was already working on donating them to museums and it's just so sad that it would be possible that these would disappear essentially from the face of the earth, which could be the case based upon the thefts that happened last week," said the victim, who is a multi-millionaire financier. He said he was on vacation at the time of the incident.
Officials say the theft occurred sometime between 3 p.m. Sept. 12 and 8 p.m. Sept 13. Police do not believe it was a random crime. If you have any information on the heist, you're urged to call Santa Monica Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS or (800) 222-8477.
