Sep 29, 2009 1:02 pm US/Pacific
Pebble Beach Collectors Say Millions In Art Stolen
PEBBLE BEACH (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
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One of the pieces missing from the Pebble Beach home.
CBS
Two Pebble Beach residents are offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of art stolen Friday from their private collection, including paintings by Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gogh.
The 13 pieces of art have an estimated value of $27 million, investigators said.
The burglary happened sometime between 1 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. at the home of Angelo Benjamin Amadio and his housemate Ralph Kennaugh at 4027 Sunridge Road. The two renters believe the 13 pieces were taken Friday by professional art thieves.
Amadio said the suspect or suspects appeared to have entered through an unlocked guest bedroom window and fled with the artwork before he and Kennaugh, a retired radiation oncologist, arrived.
"Whoever did this knew us and knew our collection," Amadio said. "There are probably no more than five or six people who knew about our collection."
Amadio said he has lived at the home for about four months now and is in the process of starting an alternative asset investment company.
Amadio said he and Kennaugh are offering a $1 million reward if the artwork is returned anonymously and undamaged. The reward offer could be increased to $5 million if information received leads to the arrest of the perpetrators, Amadio said.
Among the art stolen are Rembrandt works "Woman Making Water'' and "St. Jude Praying.'' Amadio said many of the pieces have never been on the market, including a Pollock painting valued at approximately $20 million and works by Van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Matisse.
Amadio said he and Kennaugh have accumulated about 300 substantial pieces of art worth an estimated $70 million over a period of two or three decades.
Along with the artwork, business records and a hard drive were also stolen, in addition to about 20 to 30 items valued at roughly $100,000, including lithographs, prints and vintage posters, Amadio said. Of those pieces, 100 of the most valuable are being removed from the house and stored in an insured, secured facility.
The Monterey County Sheriff's Office is pursuing leads in the case, Cmdr. Mike Richards said. He said while the FBI has not yet been contacted, "We many contact outside resources at a point when we feel it's necessary.''
Anyone with information on the burglary is asked to call sheriff's Detective Mark Stevens at (831) 647-7690.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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