Rembrandt paintings heist at Taft Museum bungled in 1973
On Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1973, at 1:57 a.m., two adult males wearing ski masks and gloves pointed a pistol at a night watchman at the Taft Museum of Art and forced him to just take them inside to the 2nd-floor gallery. They taped his arms and legs to a chair, then stole two paintings and still left.
The paintings, “Man Leaning on a Sill” and “Portrait of an Aged Girl,” were being by Rembrandt, the revered Dutch Old Master painter, dating to the 1640s. They had been aspect of the art collection at 316 Pike Street and experienced been bequeathed to the men and women of Cincinnati by Charles Phelps Taft in 1927. They had been appraised for insurance policies reasons for $250,000 and $80,000, respectively.
The theft made splashy headlines. “Two Taft Rembrandts Stolen.” “Art Theft Triggers Worldwide Hunt.” The Cincinnati law enforcement worked with the FBI and Interpol in hopes of recovering the paintings, which could be bought on the black marketplace or ransomed.
Enquirer art critic Owen Findsen puzzled why the thieves had “selected two paintings of lesser worth than other folks they could have taken.” They experienced ignored the much more major Rembrandt, “Portrait of a Gentleman Mounting from His Chair,” which was temporarily exhibited with a companion portrait from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was getting proven on a distinct ground than usual.
Just about every working day revealed bizarre twists in the situation. “The full episode took on the aura of a late-night thriller film,” The Enquirer wrote.
Cloak and dagger
That Tuesday night, a man named James L. Hough identified as John W. Warrington, the chairman of the Taft Museum Committee, declaring he experienced potential customers on where to obtain the paintings.
They agreed to meet at Tri-County Buying Centre. Hough pointed out the undercover cops in the mall as they talked in a espresso shop. He mentioned he needed a finder’s charge and would act as the museum’s agent in negotiating the return of the paintings.
“It all appeared kind of cloak-and-dagger to me at the time,” Warrington informed the Cincinnati Post.
The thieves, speaking by means of phone calls to Hough, supplied to return just one of the paintings as evidence they experienced the stolen artwork. Warrington mentioned Hough radically pulled a sheet of guidelines out of his shoe that despatched him to a drop level in Warren County, but absolutely nothing was there. The thieves experienced gotten nervous. A 2nd drop point was also empty.
So, Warrington went property, where by he gained a connect with from Al Schottelkotte, the venerable WCPO-Tv set newsman.
Sudden scoop
“I’ve been in news get the job done 30 decades now, experienced some relatively odd, unexpected things occur, but probably the most unpredicted of all took place tonight,” Schottelkotte claimed as he opened his 11 p.m. newscast on Dec. 20.
He stood on a WCPO soundstage along with Warrington, who determined the recovered “Portrait of an Elderly Woman” in a gold-leaf body on the air, and Hough, introduced as a “real estate broker” who had recovered the painting in a barn on Springdale Street in close proximity to Blue Rock Road in Colerain Township.
Hough created it very clear to viewers – and the intruders – that he was doing the job as the go-in between on behalf of the Taft Museum. When Hough recovered the painting, as a substitute of calling the law enforcement, he had known as the information anchor.
The pursuing night, Schottelkotte recounted assembly Hough at the Regis Lounge in Cheviot an hour ahead of the news broadcast. He confirmed footage of Hough carrying the portray included by a flowered pink quilt, a lit cigarette among his fingers, and placing it in the back again seat of Schottelkotte’s Buick for transportation to the WCPO studio.
“I doubt if my motor vehicle will at any time have a extra distinguished little bit of freight,” Schottelkotte explained.
Soon after the broadcast, the painting was last but not least handed above to the law enforcement, who were fuming off-stage.
Ransom demand
No one appeared to know much about Hough. Apart from his true estate enterprise, he co-owned the Converse-Uncomplicated Lounge in Cleves and was regarded to generate around with a pet lion cub in his automobile. “He emerges … as a form of flamboyant determine on the exterior – and a shadowy enigma on the inside,” Enquirer reporter Marvin Beard wrote.
“Hey, I know, you know, that I have got to be suspect No. 1, Alright, but I also know that I’m clear,” Hough informed reporters. “… I don’t imagine I’m a damn idiot. I have obtained a excellent business.”
By way of Hough, the intruders demanded a ransom of $200,000, but Warrington wouldn’t budge above $100,000, to occur from the museum’s endowment.
“They said if they really don’t get $200,000 they have a 5-gallon can of gasoline and will burn off the painting and mail the ashes to the museum,” Hough mentioned.
Still, just after quite a few calls, the burglars sooner or later agreed to $100,000 in unmarked 10s and 20s, placed in two luggage within a suitcase. Hough was instructed to put the cash in an ice equipment at Lorelei Tavern in Fosters, Warren County. Following they counted the revenue, they named again with the spot of the other painting. It was discovered beneath the steps of a vacant house close to Fosters. The only problems was a chip in the body.
The police, who experienced been keeping again until the paintings had been recovered, instantly swooped in and arrested the intruders, Carl Horsley and Henry Dawn, and the getaway driver, Raymond McDonough, all from Loveland. The ransom income was recovered, minus $18, which they had expended at Frisch’s.
The Taft Museum gave Hough a $15,000 check out as a finder’s cost, but he returned it.
Double-crossed
In the course of the grand jury session, a secret informant named Donald Lee Johnson was provided partial immunity in exchange for his testimony. Five adult men ended up indicted, which include Johnson and Hough, the middleman.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Simon L. Leis Jr. agreed to allow four of the defendants to plead responsible to lesser costs if they testified towards Hough, who was charged with extortion, harboring a felon and getting stolen items.
On March 13, 1974, a copyrighted tale by reporter Peggy Lane outlined what The Enquirer experienced uncovered about the circumstance, but without the need of names – a tale of a mastermind who was double-crossed and a bungled heist. In the demo that September the heist, as spelled out by prosecution star witness Johnson, performed out just as the article experienced presented.
The so-identified as key informant, Johnson, was recognized as the mastermind. He experienced figured out a way to steal two Rembrandts from the Taft Museum and enlisted Horsley and Dawn, but they didn’t appear to be fascinated. As an alternative, they double-crossed Johnson and did the theft with no him.
Other than they did not know that the extra beneficial Rembrandts had been moved, so they stole the completely wrong paintings.
The burglars then turned to Johnson for aid to promote the paintings, and he contacted Hough, whom he had formerly utilized as a fence, or supplier in stolen goods.
Johnson assumed they could get $300,000 for the paintings, but he claimed Hough concocted the ransom plan and contacted the museum officials.
Hough’s legal professional, Bernard J. Gilday Jr., questioned Johnson’s testimony and truthfulness. “It has not been founded that Johnson is an qualified burglar,” he objected.
“I am, Mr. Gilday,” Johnson replied.
Horsley and Dawn were being sentenced to a person to five yrs in prison. Johnson and McDonough were sentenced to six months to 5 decades.
Based on their testimony, Hough was convicted on all 3 counts and sentenced to 3-20 several years. He was paroled just after 27 months, then invested a further calendar year in jail for a parole violation. Despite becoming a felon, Hough ran for sheriff of Franklin County, Indiana, in 1986, but did not get.
The closing twist: art professionals afterwards determined that the two paintings ended up most likely not by Rembrandt right after all.
Sources: Enquirer, Article and WCPO archives “Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Tales of Infamous Artwork Heists” by Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg.
