Rockwell Heist: The extraordinary theft of seven Norman Rockwell paintings and a phony Renoir—and the 20-year chase for their recovery from the Midwest through Europe and South America

Chapter 17

130 17 The evidence suggests that the stolen paintings, minus the “Renoir,” which has never surfaced again, made their way to Lisbon. After failing to unload them there, the organized crime figures who controlled them must have concluded that if they were to realize anything at all on their sale, the paintings had to reenter the New World. Whether or not they were actually in Argentina in 1991, when the car collector who wanted to do the right thing contacted Sotheby’s, is an open question. They had certainly entered Brazil by 1993. Three faxes were sent to Elayne Galleries in the spring of that year, all by a man who represented himself as interested in making sure the paintings were returned to their rightful owners. The faxes were on the letterhead of Galerie Schreiner, Inc., a company with galleries in Lisbon, Basel, and New York. The sender was in Lisbon. He wanted to arrange the return of the paintings to Portu- 131 The Rockwell Heist gal, where he would set up a sting operation that would result in their recovery. “Dear Mrs Elayne,” says the first fax, dated April 28, 1993, “The case is too complicated to deal with alone. We’ll have to join forces. I fear we have to deal with a gang!” “The day afterwe got that fax, I got a phone call from the gallery owner himself,” says Bonnie. “He wanted to make certain we were the people who owned the Rockwells. I told him we were, and he said, ‘I believe your paintings are being held by the federal police in Brazil.’ So first it’s a gang, then it’s the federal police. Of course, later on we came to understand that in Brazil it’s a thin line.” The callerclaimed that hewas personallyacquainted with the president of Portugal and had contacts in Brazil who would be able to obtain the paintings from the police. He was worried that his involvement in the situation might damage his reputation, but he was willing to risk it if the paintings could be recovered. “That same day I got a call from a fellow named Fulvio Minetti,” says Bonnie. “He was a State Farm Insurance agent in Las Vegas, but he owned a travel agency and a money exchange in Rio de Janeiro as well. He told me pretty much the same story as the gallery owner , that the Rockwell paintings were in the hands of 132 rubenstein the Brazilian federal police. So I had information from two independent sources who said the same thing: The paintings are in Rio, and the police have them.” Minetti claimed to have some shady Brazilian contacts who could get their hands on the paintings and said he would call again soon. At that point no deal had been discussed, but Minetti clearly had one in mind. Bonnie notified the FBI’s Minneapolis office. “They were simply not interested,” she says. “It made me mad. I’d heard that they’d organized an FBI art crime team in Washington, and somehow I found out how to reach them and managed to get someone on the phone. I explained what was going on, and within hours a local agent came to the gallery. He told me to get as much information as I could from the people I was in touch with, but he said he was skeptical that any of it was real.” She made further inquiries of the Home Insurance Company, based on her hunch that this time something might come of the contacts. She said she needed the files because her mother had passed away, and they were now her only reference if questions about ownership of any of the paintings were to arise. They sent a copy of the $90,000 claim paid to Brown & Bigelow and said that was the extent of it, according to their records. Bonnie contacted Minetti and told him exactly what was going on. Minetti was upset that the FBI was in- Photo sent from Brazil in 1993, with a newspaper in the background to demonstrate that the painting was there at that time and place 134 rubenstein volved. In order not to be seen as a double-crosser, he would have to tell his Brazilian contacts about their involvement, he said, and they might back out. Nevertheless...