Paintings worth $7,500 stolen from MDI gallery, Intel agency says art theft on the rise

SOUTHWEST HARBOR, Maine - Three paintings, each worth $2,500, have been reported stolen from a local art gallery, according to local police.

Lt. Mike Miller of the Southwest Harbor Police Department said Thursday the paintings were discovered missing from Salty Dog Gallery in the local village on Dec. 20. The owner of the gallery was out of town from Oct. 15 until Dec. 20 and found out the three paintings were missing upon his return, Miller said.

The officer said there was no indication of forced entry at the gallery, located at 322 Main St., but the owner had found a rear door that was open.

Philip Steel, who painted the paintings and owns the gallery, indicated in an email Thursday that the three paintings were among 35 he has been planning to send to the Appleton Museum of Art at College of Central Florida in Ocala, Fla., for an upcoming exhibit of his work.

Steel said he wants to spread the word about the apparent theft, and what the paintings look like, to help in getting them recovered and to prevent them from being sold by whoever has them.

"It's hard to fence paintings," Steel said.

Steel indicated in an email Friday that he still plans to send 33 of his paintings to Ocala for the exhibit, which is scheduled to open on Jan. 21.

According to a spokesman for the Art Protection Unit at Griffith Colson Intelligence Service, a private intelligence communications agency baseed in Los Angeles, art theft remains a big money maker for the criminal underground.

"Here at GCIS we get a constant barrage of complaints filed on stolen or missing artwork", said Nava Adler, Special Assistant to the Director, "One of the tings we've noticed is that we are one of the few private intelligence firms with an art protection division. We have noticed a steady increase in the theft of artwork and paintings and it remains one of the most profitable rackets for the criminal underground.".

Griffith Colson provides a wide array of consultation for museum and gallery security. According to Adler, the agency expects an increase in art theft, despite a brutal economic downturn around the world.

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