This is the investigative journalistic blog of Articolo 9 Art Consultation. Here you can find daily news and important info on the protection of artistic and cultural patrimony, criminality in the global art market, and other signifcant areas such as art markets, exhibitions, artists and cultural events.
Brett as a Negro, acrylic on tiling glued on plywood, painted by Jean Michel Basqiuat in 1982, in the private collection of Brett De Palma.
Back in the early 1980s, the outstanding artist Brett De Palma ran in a circle of very creative friends from the Transavanguardia, such as Jean Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia and Enzo Cucchi, to name only a few. In 1982, The late Jean Michel Basquiat painted this portrait of Brett and wrote the title himself. Basquiat traded the painting with De Palma for one of his artworks. The painting is currently included in the exhibit: Jean Michel Basqiuat: Art and Objecthood which is at NAHMAD Contemporary until June 6, 2022. Of the portrait, De Palma states cheerfully: “Forty years later I find myself with myself. I haven’t changed a bit.”
NAHMAD Contemporary is located at 980 Madison Avenue, New York, third floor.
William P. Youngworth III v. Netflix and TriBeCa Enterprises
William P. Youngworth III and his son, William P. Youngworth IV, are suing Netflix, TriBeCa Productions, the Barnicle Brothers, Inc. for $2,500,000 for defamation, emotional distress and loss of consortium. This civil action arises out of damages the Youngworths feel they received after the airing of the four-part documentary series based on the infamous art robbery that occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990 in which a Vermeer, several Rembrandts, a Manet, and drawings by Degas were stolen. This documentary film series, which is entitled This is a Robbery and first aired on April 7, 2021, has been very popular among Netflix’ subscribers, which amount to over 200 million globally. Mr. William Youngworth III believes he was wrongly misrepresented in episode 3 entitled We’ve Seen It” and states his reputation has been damaged both in his business dealings as well as his personal life. While Youngworth has had legal issues in his past, he points out that over the last two decades he has devoted his life to providing for his son and raising him well, has been an outstanding citizen in his community and has built a reputable and successful business trading in antiques.
In episode 3 of the series, ex-Boston Herald Reporter Thomas Mashberg labeled Youngworth a “petty criminal” and also stated authoritatively that he knew Youngworth stole art and antiques from a hoard of stolen art and antiques that he was safeguarding for Myles Connor while Connor was serving time in prison. Mashberg is quoted as saying
“…in talking to this guy (Youngworth) I realized that he at some point opened up Myles’ trailor and was basically selling off items without telling Myles”. Youngworth stated that Netflix aired the accusations in episode three freely without properly vetting Mashberg or his information, which Youngworth’s lawyers point out amount to unsubstantiated personal attacks against a private citizen.
In the We’ve Seen It episode, Tom Mashberg describes the events that occurred on the night of August 18, 1997 in which Youngworth drove him to Red Hook, Brooklyn and showed him Rembrandt’s painting Storm on the Sea of Galilee, which was one of the artworks stolen from the Gardner Museum. Mashberg wrote about this sighting in the now famous We’ve Seen It article in the Boston Herald. The authorities were not satisfied and refused to grant Youngworth full immunity to produce the paintings so Mashberg requested more “proof of life.” A manilla envelope arrived with photos of the stolen art. A highly respected Gardner Museum Trustee named Arnold Hiatt was convinced Youngworth was the key to the recovery of the stolen art.
Mr. Youngworth recently told me in an interview that Tom Mashberg claimed in an article that he wrote for the March 1998 issue of Vanity Fair that Youngworth was not present when he was transported to the Red Hook warehouse and shown the Rembrandt. Now Youngworth questions why Mashberg changed the story in the Netflix series and told the interviewer that Youngworth actually drove him to Brooklyn himself and handed the painting to him after retrieving it from a tube.
The March 1998 Vanity Fair Magazine in which Tom Mashberg describes his visit to a warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Thomas Mashberg also received a vile with paint chips that the Boston Herald had examined by an expert named Walter McCrone. McCrone stated that "the paint chips looked like something Rembrandt plain produced. It looked exactly like the paint layers and pigments that was produced in Holland at that time. Everything was just perfect for a Rembrandt paint layer.” The paint chips were next sent to the Gardner Museum and were examined under their experts’ microscopes. The Museum officials pointed out that they saw that the color in the chips had not been used in any of the Rembrandts that were stolen from the Gardner Museum. They stated that the chips may have been from the 17th century but the colors didn’t match the colors in the paintings, so they couldn’t be from their Rembrandts. But Youngworth insists that no one ever stated the paint chips were from the Rembrandts. Mashberg points out in the episode that the color was Red Lake Madder and that pigment was used in The Concert, the painting by Vermeer that was also stolen on March 18, 1990 from the Gardner Museum. The paint chips were re-examined in 2003 by a Vermeer expert named Hubert von Sonnenburg. Mr. Sonnenburg was the chairman of painting conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sonnenburg’s tests determined that the paint chips were an exact match for the Vermeer. In a CBS investigative reporting piece in 2015, F.B.I. Special Agent Kelly, who worked on the case out of the Boston F.B.I. Office for years, admits that the paint chips appear to be from the Vermeer.
This lawsuit, which has been filed in the Department of Trial Court in the Common Wealth of Massachusetts, is just another part of the thirty-two year long, and complicated, drama that is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art robbery saga.
View the CBS investigative reporting from 2015 in which F.B.I. Special Agent Kelly states that the paint chips appear to be from the Vermeer:
Boston Herald Reporter Thomas Mashberg and William P. Youngworth III; oil on canvas, 2009; detail of a larger painting that is currently in art storage, by Charles Vincent Sabba.
Portrait photo of Myles Connor holding a samurai sword from his collection. This photo was taken by Charles Sabba in Myles' abode in Blackstone, Massachusetts in 2009.
Storm on the Sea of Galilee, oil on canvas, by Rembrandt van Rijn. Property of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; current location is unknown.
The Concert, Oil on canvas, by Johannes Vermeer. Property of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; current location is unknown.
