NBC News reports on a huge theft from Cuba’s museum:
Nearly 100 works of “important” Cuban art were stolen from a warehouse of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuban officials confirmed Friday — and it may have turned up in Miami.
The Cuban National Council of Cultural Patrimony released a statement Friday confirming that a number of “important pieces” stored at an administrative building for the museum are missing, but that there was no forced entry at the building.
“We do not know exactly when the theft took place because the criminals cut the paintings from their frames in a way that the eye could not detect,” the statement said. “Most of the stolen works are from the period called Arte Cubano and are mostly pieces by Leopoldo Romañach.”
The AP follows up with what happened in Miami:
Gallery owner Ramon Cernuda said Friday that he bought a painting two weeks ago by Cuban artist Eduardo Abela from another local gallery and discovered the Cuban museum owned the work. The museum confirmed the painting was missing from its warehouse.
Cernuda then went back to the same Miami gallery and saw ten works by Cuban artist Leopooldo Romanach. Those also turned out to be missing from the Cuban museum’s warehouse. The museum confirmed the theft in a statement Friday. Cernuda said he was suspicious because the Romanach paintings had been cut from their stretchers, something only someone in a hurry would do.
Art Stolen From Museum in Cuba Turns Up in Miami (NBC News)
MIAMI: Art from Cuban national museum turns up in Miami (MiamiHerald.com)
