Los Angeles is known for its expensive tastes; the fashion will cost you, the parking isn't cheap... so it would only make sense that a reward for stolen works of art would put all others to shame.
L.A. bond trader Jeffrey Gundlach supplied the City of Angels with some detective-style gossip when his $10-million art collection was stolen from his Santa Monica home last week, including works by modern masters Piet Mondrian, Jasper Johns and Richard Diebenkorn.
He recently kept the town abuzz with the announcement of a $1.7-million reward for the safe return of the stolen goods, which also include a red Porsche Carrera, luxury watches and fine wines, Reuters reports. Of this $1.7M, Gundlach set $1M aside for Mondrian's "Composition (A) En Rouge Et Blanc," making this the most expensive reward ever offered for a single art piece. Gundlach made the hefty offer at a news conference in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Many questions are still whirring around the scene of the crime. Were the thieves knowledgable art connoisseurs or savvy cat burglars? What exactly are they planning to do with these now un-sellable artworks? Was Gundlach insured and for how much? Detective Henry Ramirez told Reuters there are still no suspects to this mysterious crime.
Police forces have released little information about the robbery, save the fact that it occurred while Gundlach was on a two-night business vacation. Local police are working with art-theft experts from the FBI, Interpol and Los Angeles Police Department to solve the case, LA Times.. Read the police file and see the stolen images here.
If this article dredges up a memory of you glancing upon a masked figure with a Mondrian in hand darting across the 405, we highly suggest you give the Santa Monica police force a ring.
See a slideshow of some of the artists' works below:
