A man in Pennsylvania was held on $1 million bond for his arrest over the theft of six artworks that included an etching from Pablo Picasso from a suburban New York City estate, according to The Associated Press. Apparently 42-year-old Joselito Vega was employed in March 2011 as a house painter at the Schulhof Estate in Kings Point, New York. The estate holds 200 works of art but around a year after Vega was working there, three works went missing.
Investigators later found that one of the works that vanished, "Le Fauteuil II," by Jean Dubuffet worth $50,000, has been sold for $8,500 by an Oakland, California art gallery. They found out that money from the sale went to an account owned by Vega's ex-sister-in-law. So last month, they decided to hire him again in a sting operation to see if he'd try to steal again. He did, and it lead to video footage of Vega snatching three additional works.
Vega will face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
[via HuffingtonPost / NYDailyNews]
