10 Warhol Paintings Stolen from L.A. Home

(AP)  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. 2 and 3, said Detective Mark Sommer of the Los Angeles Police Department's art theft detail. A $1 million reward was being offered for information leading to the return of the artwork.

The pop art paintings were on display in Weisman's living room and his house was locked up. It wasn't clear exactly when the silk screen paintings were taken or how the thieves got into the home.

The theft was discovered by the family's longtime nanny who arrived at the home to find the large paintings missing from the walls. She immediately went to a neighbor's to call police, Sommer said.

"This was a very clean crime," Sommer said. "(The home) wasn't ransacked."

The stolen pictures include images of O.J. Simpson, Muhammad Ali, soccer star Pele and tennis champion Chris Evert. It wasn't known exactly how much they were worth but Weisman tried to sell the collection in 2002 for $3 million.

Weisman's home contained other valuable artwork but this was untouched.

"For some reason they had an interest in this collection," Sommer said.

A neighbor saw a maroon van in the driveway of Weisman's home around the time of the robbery, and police are seeking more information about that, Sommer said.

[armyoftwelve]

Why is this story still on the front page???

Not all missing art surfaces..I don't think they EVER found the stuff that got stolen from the Isalbella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston

[bubbadubba]

Notice how fires and thefts for the rich are increasing as the economy goes down?
I wonder what the insurance figures show for claims since 2008?
Not the soup can painting, dear lord, not that great classic work of art!
Please if you took the soup can painting make sure nothing happens to it because it is the greatest work of art of all time. No not the better one done by the third grader, I mean the one Andy did.

[tmittelstaed]

It is an extreme stretch to call what Andy Warhol paints "art". Things like "but-Ugly" and "an amateur attempt at painting" are what springs to mind when anyone sees his "art" If this truly was an actual art heist then it was done by another Warhol collector who would have given the robbers pictures of everything he wanted - sort of like robbery-by-order - and those paintings are now on someone's underground wall being salivated over, and there they will stay for another 30 years until whoever ordered up the theft dies, and his estate is trying to dispose of his collection.

But I, like the other poster, tend towards the belief that this is likely an insurance fraud job. How can you have 3 mil. of paintings on your wall and NOT have a security system that is being monitored? For a few hundred a month you can have a security system that has human monitoring, and even if the robbers somehow got past the entrance alarms without setting them off, and found and covered all the cameras (and with modern pinhole security cameras you can have one inside a wall that a robber cannot locate unless they know exactly where to look) without otherwise disabling them (which would have triggered the alarm) a human monitor would see them taking the paintings off the wall and within minutes the cops would be there.

I would bet that when they investigate they will find that mysteriously the security system was shut off, they probably will blame it on the nanny forgetting to set the alarm when she left the prior day, and oh boy, by golly the video cameras were on the fritz and the last week's video was deleted off the security system DVR hard drives. Yeah, right.

[mahdeealoo]

I suggest you watch the documentary about Andy. I had a slanted view once too until I really understood what he was really all about. It didn't make me like his work any better but it allowed me to appreciate it and what is behind it.

If you saw some of his early work, it would spin your head around. He was as good as it gets. Many of the time-tested classic artists all began doing fine art in the sense of realism, got bored with it, and stepped outside the box.

For example, just about everyone knows Dali. In his museum of work in Florida are drawings and sketches he did when he was 11 years old. They are some of the finest sketches I have ever seen. Again, his early work would blow your mind. VanGogh and many others who you might think could not draw a straight line have similar stories. You just need to look a little deeper.

The early works of many are nothing but pure perfection. Who knows why they begin to alter what they see and how it becomes so far removed from what you might call art, that they are scoffed at. Picasso is another example. Take a look at his early work. They were all DaVincis and Michalangelos in their own way. That's how all great artists begin. They just chose the road less traveled. An education in art would open your eyes to some pretty amazing and revealing things about these famous guys and gals.

As for the actual news about this theft, it will surface in time. They all do.

[fariborzzak]

I am happy he lost his ART.

[jincstress]

Betcha they were heavily insured before the economy tanked- if I were investigating, the first place Id look is the owner...times are hard.

[woeisme1]

armyoftwelve........you're just not in a good mood today huh? Ah. It's okay. The news has really sucked since Wednesday. Seems like they just stopped writing stories.

[armyoftwelve]

Rich guy gets overpriced "art" stolen and makes a major headline on CBSNews.com. Meanwhile some poor schmuck gets murdered while getting milk for his baby and these guys ignore it sheesh...........