US Government Returns Art Work Stolen Over Three Decades Ago to Owner
November 21, 2010
“The last of seven pieces of valuable artwork, stolen on Memorial Day in 1978 from a home in Stockbridge, are were returned to their owner by authorities.
In November of 2008, retired Massachusetts attorney, Robert R. Mardirosian, of Falmouth, was sentenced to seven years in prison following a jury conviction on August 18, 2008, for possession of stolen goods. The case arose from the theft of seven pieces of art from a Stockbridge home in 1978 – the largest burglary from a private residence in Massachusetts history.
Upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of Mardirosian’s last appeal, the government returned two paintings by Jean Jansem, titled Woman Seated and Boy, which are the last of the seven paintings stolen from the home of Michael Bakwin. The FBI had obtained these paintings from a Swiss friend of Mardirosian. The other five paintings, Portrait d’une Jeune Fille and Portrait d’un Jeune Homme by Chaim Soutine, Maison Rouge by Maurice Utrillo, Flowers by Maurice de Vlaminck, and a still life by Cezanne that later sold for $29.3 million at Sotheby’s, were previously returned to Bakwin.”
