Petmon Marcus (Marcus Patmon), which in August this year was charged with theft of an etching by Pablo Picasso (Pablo Picasso) «To tell the meal» , pleaded guilty to mail fraud, attempted fraud using the phone as well as transport of stolen goods between U.S. states. Now he faces up to 20 years in prison on the first two counts of fraud, and up to 10 years imprisonment on the third item charges. U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson (Sue Robinson) will make its verdict on the case in January 2010.

It was established during the trial, 10 December 2007 Petmon entered Washington Galerie Larehouse (obviously, before that, he was in this small gallery, and drew attention to the weakness of the security system) and stole two works: lithography Marc Chagall «Meeting of Ruth and Boaz," and etching by Pablo Picasso Faun and a woman. March 28, 2008 Petmon sold a Picasso engraving art dealer Catherine Burns (Catherine Burns) from Oakland (Calif.) for 58 thousand dollars, saying that it was the product of a legacy from his grandfather and grandmother. In April 2008, he sold the Chagall lithograph and a little more than 5 thousand dollars a certain New York-based gallery, whose name is not reported.

However, this Petmon not stopped. Night May 22, 2008, smashing the glass door, he entered the Gallery Biba in Palm Beach and took with a two etchings by Picasso, "To tell the meal" and "Jacqueline Reading» . This time he decided to turn again to Catherine Burns, and asked her to buy a meager meal "for 395 thousand dollars. However, she suspected something was wrong, found out that this work is listed among the stolen, and contacted police. After that, negotiations with Petmonom to become an undercover FBI agent. He called a colleague Burns, who found another buyer for the works of Picasso. During negotiations, the agent told Petmonu that was recently stolen from one of the copies of the "meager meal, and this makes it difficult to sell. He suggested Petmonu contact the police to confirm the legal origin of the work belonging to him. In this case, the agent agreed to pay the full price of 395 thousand dollars. However Petmon refused to go to the police and instead lowered the price to 150 thousand. Shortly after these talks, in September 2008 in a house in Miami Petmona raided by the police and found the couch etching "Reading Jacqueline. Subsequently Petmon, a retired Marine who admitted to police that he had financial difficulties and he was forced to resort to illegal activities to get money.

article prepared by Catherine Onuchina, AI

Source: delawareonline.com , miaminewtimes.com , artinvestment.ru