On an April evening
nearly 44 years ago, just days after Easter Sunday, someone slipped into a
museum in Sarasota and stole 15 paintings, one portraying the resurrected Jesus
and 14 depicting the Stations of the Cross.
Now, a Sarasota
County Sheriff's detective is reinvestigating the decades-old disappearance of
the art.
"Those paintings
could be anywhere in the world," said Detective Kim McGath.
All of the paintings
were done by artist, illustrator and author Ben Stahl, who died in 1987. He was
well known in the 1950s and '60s for being a prolific and well-compensated
illustrator for the Saturday Evening Post and for creating movie posters and
book covers. "Ben Hur" and the 25th anniversary edition of "Gone
With The Wind" were among the movie posters; "Madame Bovary" was
one of his limited-edition book illustrations. He also one of the first
professors at the Famous Artists School, a correspondence course in art once
advertised on the back of matchbooks.
Stahl, who was from
Chicago, wrote and illustrated "Blackbeard's Ghost," which was made
into a 1968 Walt Disney film.
Commissioned to
illustrate a Bible for the Catholic Press in the mid-1950s, Stahl painted the
14 Stations of the Cross. Later, he decided to paint larger versions, along
with a 15th painting titled "The Resurrection," because he wanted his
work to end on a positive note. All 15 paintings were 6 feet by 9 feet, and
painted in oil.
In 1965, Stahl and
his wife moved to Sarasota, Fla., and decided to open a museum for the
large-scale paintings. Called "The Museum of the Cross," it was one
of the main tourist attractions in the area at the time. He also displayed
other works that he had done, some on loan from museums. Even his fellow
artists were impressed.
"Those Museum of
the Cross pictures are absolutely fabulous," wrote Norman Rockwell in a
letter dated June 3, 1968. "The rest of us are just illustrators but you
are among the masters and I am filled with admiration."
Whoever stole the
paintings and other pieces of art in the predawn hours of April 16, 1969 must
have known what they were doing, said McGath, because they carefully removed
each of the tacks that attached the canvases to the frames.
Stahl told The
Associated Press at the time that the heist was "one of the craziest art
robberies of this century."
More than 50 artworks
in all were stolen, including gold rosaries that Stahl and his wife had on
display and had collected from their world travels.
Left behind by the
burglars was "The Moment of Silent Prayer," a "miracle
picture" because it also survived a fire that destroyed Chicago's
convention center in 1968, Stahl said at the time.
The fact that
"The Moment of Silent Prayer" and one other painting were left
untouched was interesting: They were the only two paintings on loan from
another museum and the only ones that were insured.
"He couldn't
understand how anyone could steal from his museum, because it was like
church," said his daughter, 78-year-old Gail Stahl. "I couldn't
understand why he wouldn't understand why they shouldn't have been
uninsured."
McGath said that no
evidence points to an insurance scam or Ben Stahl's involvement. In fact, she
said, he ended up in deep financial trouble following the heist.
"He put
everything into that museum," McGath said. "He mortgaged his home on
the museum. He lost everything."
At the time,
officials said they had no clues. One officer theorized the works might be held
for ransom. One witness remembered seeing a white van near the museum that
night, while Stahl recalled two visitors from South America who asked odd
questions in the days prior to the theft.
The trail eventually
went cold, and Stahl and his family didn't think investigators were trying as
hard as they could.
"It was
devastating," said Regina Briskey, Ben Stahl's daughter, who was working
at the museum at the time. "It was incomprehensible, because at that that
time in Sarasota, there was hardly any crime."
Stahl's son, David
Stahl, wrote on a website that he even contacted witnesses and possible
informants around Florida, but claimed authorities didn't pay attention. David
Stahl could not be reached for comment for this story.
McGath — who is also
investigating the cold case of a quadruple murder in 1959 in Sarasota and its
possible link to the "In Cold Blood" killers in Kansas — said she's
poring over records and wants to talk to anyone who might have information
about the Stahl art heist.
INTERPOL Washington
is also involved. Spokeswoman Nicole Navas said this week that officials
recently sent out a message to all 190 INTERPOL member countries in an attempt
to renew interest in the case, which she said is one of 500 open art heist
cases being investigated by the agency.
"These paintings
could be anywhere," she said.
The latest
investigative efforts are welcome news to Gail Stahl, an artist herself who has
a gallery in Laguna Beach, Calif.
"I certainly
hope that something will be accomplished," she said. "It's really
quite sad that someone can go and take someone's work like that and
disappear."