Springs Winter by Jackson Pollock (photo courtesy of the FBI National Stolen Art File)
For over twenty years, a ring of thieves terrorized museums and antique shops across the United States, stealing millions of dollars worth of valuables. Gerard Karam, the attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, announced last week that his office has identified the members of this organization, pressing charges against nine individuals. While these men normally resorted to stealing sports memorabilia, jewels, and antiques, most are talking about the art they stole. On November 18, 2005, the group broke into the Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They took only two items: a 1984 silkscreen by Andy Warhol and a 1949 Jackson Pollock painting Springs Winter, valued at $11.6 million. At the time, police estimated the entire heist took a mere ten minutes to pull off.
The ring of art thieves mainly operated in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York but also performed robberies in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington DC, and even as far as North Dakota. Most of what they stole was not art, though. A majority of their loot consisted of sports memorabilia and other collectibles. In 2014, the thieves executed a heist at the Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, New Jersey. They made off with nine of Berra’s ten World Series rings. Investigators say it’s likely that they subsequently melted them down into their raw materials and sold them. And that job in North Dakota? The group broke into the Roger Maris Museum in Fargo, stealing the Yankee’s Hickok Belt from 1961. They also stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and over a million dollars in antique firearms.
Despite some of the robberies happening 20 years ago, investigators could only uncover the thieves’ identities thanks to forensic evidence discovered about three years ago. Of the nine individuals charged, eight have already turned themselves in. Five have already entered preliminary plea agreements, where they agree to plead guilty to charges of theft and conspiracy. The last suspect is Nicholas Dombek, who is now considered a fugitive. Prosecutors have filed additional charges against Dombek, namely concealment or disposal of a major artwork. After stealing a painting by the Hudson River School artist Jasper Francis Cropsey from New Jersey’s Ringwood Manor in 2011, Dombek allegedly destroyed it to prevent it from being used as evidence against him.
Much of the group’s loot has not been recovered yet, and it is unknown if the museums and private businesses will ever have their stolen items returned to them.