Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Painter’s Ex-Assistant Charged With Stealing His Works

The painter Sean Scully in Tappan, N.Y., in June. A former employee is accused of taking some of his works from a Manhattan storage space.Credit...Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The painter Sean Scully was surprised in early September to receive an email from Bonhams auction house with a photograph of a work attributed to him that they hoped to sell at an upcoming auction. Could the artist confirm certain details about it?

The image showed three panels painted with lines of alternating color. They certainly resembled Mr. Scully’s trademark style, but something was not quite right, the artist thought.

“The composition was off,” Mr. Scully said Wednesday by phone from London. “It was too symmetrical.”

Fearing that a bogus work was about to be sold, Mr. Scully informed the New York Police Department. An investigation began, and nearly two months later it ended with the arrest of a man who had worked off and on for Mr. Scully and who now stands accused of stealing works from the artist’s Manhattan storage space that are valued at about half a million dollars.

That man, Arturo Rucci, a former assistant, was arraigned on Friday on a charge of criminal possession of stolen property, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said, the most recent in a long line of art or studio assistants accused of stealing artworks belonging to their more famous employers. Mr. Rucci could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mr. Scully’s high prices at auction may have made him an inviting target. Born in Dublin in 1945, he became established in the 1980s and has gone on to have shows in Paris, Rome, Barcelona and Beijing. He is known for paintings that feature bands and blocks of color that have sold for more than $1 million. His works have been displayed in major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate in London and the National Gallery of Ireland.

The email from Bonhams to Mr. Scully’s studio, sent on Sept. 5, included not only an image of a work that was listed as a triptych created in 1985 but additional details about its purported history.

The message said that the work was made up of three attached oil and linen canvases with an overall size of 28 by 76 by 3 inches and had been exhibited twice at the McKee Gallery, once in 1986 and again in 1989. A stretcher bar was signed “Scully,” the email from Bonhams said, and the work was described as being part of a private collection after having been acquired directly from the artist.

Image
An image sent by Bonhams auction house to Mr. Scully’s studio, asking for confirmation of details about the work ahead of a planned auction.Credit...via Bonhams

“I wonder if you might be able to confirm that the information we have matches your records, and if you are aware of any additional information regarding this piece, such as exhibition history or literature references?” the email from Bonhams asked.

Mr. Scully, who said he keeps meticulous records, could find no indication that any such work had existed. But he said each of the three panels looked like something he would create, even if he would not combine them into a triptych.

“Those were three small stolen fragments,” he said Wednesday, adding that someone had “arranged them into a triptych and invented a provenance meant to fool Bonhams.”

Mr. Scully asked Bonhams where the work had come from. At first the auction house would not tell him, he said, but it became cooperative once the authorities began looking into the matter.

The police investigation led to Mr. Rucci, who had done inventory work for Mr. Scully and while working for him had access to his storage space on West 17th Street. The criminal complaint said that Mr. Rucci “sold the painting under a consignment contract,” according to records from Bonhams. The work was never included in a catalog or offered for sale, auction house officials said.

A spokeswoman for Bonhams declined to discuss the matter on Wednesday, saying, “We are unable to comment on an ongoing investigation.”

Mr. Rucci, a painter who has produced figurative and abstract works, has had solo shows at the Mixed Greens gallery in Chelsea. Information about a 2009 show on the gallery’s website said that Mr. Rucci had been born in Oberammergau, Germany, and at that time was living in Brooklyn.

Mr. Scully said that Mr. Rucci had worked for him from about 2005 to 2010 and then had gone on a paid leave so that he could address personal issues. Mr. Rucci returned to work for Mr. Scully for part of 2011 but Mr. Scully said he was dismissed later that year.

On Wednesday, Mr. Scully said he harbored no ill will toward Bonhams and was “not celebrating” the arrest of Mr. Rucci, whom he described as “an educated person” with several positive attributes.

“I actually feel sorry for him,” Mr. Scully said. “It’s quite a tragic situation.”

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section C, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Artist’s Ex-Assistant Charged With Theft. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT