Oct 18, 2009

After returning the portrait, the art thieves reclined


Did you know the Los Angeles Police Department has an Art Theft Detail? Did you know it is the only only full-time municipal art investigative unit in the United States? It's a good thing, too, considering how, as Greg Allen says, "Seriously, there is some great art in LA. Or at least there was, until it got JACKED."

One of the stolen pieces is one of Andy Warhol's portraits of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. According to the aforementioned Allen, eight were commissioned by the man who had one set of athletes' portraits stolen. I have my own picture somewhere of one that hangs in the UCLA Chancellor's Residence, on loan from the Hammer Museum (perhaps they got one of the 4/8 given away), but this one will have to do because I can't find it. I have no real opinion on Chancellor Block's wife other than that I really enjoy her statement to the Daily Bruin: "
'I met Kareem at a UCLA event recently and I said, ‘Oh, I see you every day.'"

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