Co-Defendant in Theft of NC Wyeth Paintings Sentenced

  • July 14, 2015 13:27

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N.C. Wyeth's 1922 "The Duel"
FBI

A New England man who admitted transporting stolen N.C. Wyeth oil paintings to California, where four of them were sold to a high-end pawn shop for $100,000, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine.

Lawrence Estrella, 65, waived indictment and pleaded guilty to interstate transportation of stolen property in April. He was arrested in Los Angeles after a pawn shop owner in Beverly Hills had acquired the four artworks taken in 2013 from the residence of developer Joseph Soley of Portland, Maine.

Estrella will serve a 92-month sentence (nearly eight years), plus three years of supervised release. 

In April, Oscar Roberts, 37, of Los Angeles, was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release for his part in the scheme. Roberts sold the Wyeths to Yossi Dina, star of the reality show “Beverly Hills Pawn.”

The stolen paintings' value has been pinned at between $1 million and $2 million, but could be worth much more, according to Soley. Works recovered include, “At a touch from Michael’s knife,” “The Unwrit Dogma,” “The Duel,” and “John Brimlecombe.”

Two of the stolen Wyeths are still missing: “Go Dutton, and that right speedily” and “The Encounter on Freshwater Cliff.” The FBI is investigating.

Soley is hoping someone will come forward with information on the two missing Wyeths, part of a collection he put together for 50 years.

Read more at Bangor Daily News

Tags: American art

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