$1m reward as Warhol sport star series stolen

Published on Saturday 12 September 2009 19:47

A COLLECTION of Andy Warhol paintings worth millions of dollars has been stolen from a businessman's Los Angeles home.

The stolen works include ten paintings produced by Warhol in the late 1970s depicting athletes. They include boxer Muhammad Ali, tennis star Chris Evert and footballing legend Pele.

A $1 million (600,000) reward has been offered for information leading to the recovery of the collection, said to be worth several million.

The silkscreen prints were commissioned by Richard Weisman and were stolen from his West LA home, along with a Warhol portrait of the tycoon, a spokeswoman for the LAPD said.

Each measures 40in square and had been hanging on Weisman's dining room walls. The theft was discovered by a housekeeper on 3 September.

Weisman was not home at the time of the theft and there was no sign of forced entry, police said. Nothing else was taken by the thieves, who left behind several other Warhol paintings.

"This was a very clean crime," Detective Mark Sommer said. "(The home] wasn't ransacked."

He added that the Warhol collection of sports stars seemed to have been specifically targeted for the theft as other artwork, including other Warhols, had not been taken.

"For some reason they had an interest in this collection," he added.

Weisman described the theft of the works as "a profoundly personal loss to me and my family".

It is understood Weisman, who was a friend of Warhol's, sometimes lent the collection and it was shown in the spring at a benefit exhibit. Warhol became a leading figure in the Pop Art movement during the 1960s, best known for his Campbell soup-can images and multi-coloured silkscreen prints of celebrities.

His New York studio The Factory became a byword for Bohemian excess, hosting parties and happenings. The artist died in 1987.