POLAND
Man poses as mannequin to steal jewelry, food
In a storefront window in Warsaw, Poland, stood at what first glance appeared to be a mannequin in a mustard-colored sweatshirt.
Only it was not a mannequin, but a 22-year-old man. He stood motionless with his arm outstretched holding a shopping bag, beside two real mannequins in jeans. Once the store closed, the man leaped into action, stealing jewelry, according to Warsaw police.
In a separate incident, police said, after the shopping center closed, he ate at one of the bars, changed into a new set of clothes and escaped under the store’s partly open gate. Later, he returned to the bar for a second meal.
It will most likely be his last meal at the shopping center for some time. Police have arrested the man and charged him with theft and burglary, they said in a statement Wednesday. The statement did not specify when the incidents occurred.
The suspect faces up to 10 years in prison. He was also accused of committing thefts and burglaries at another location, police said.
— The New York Times
CHICAGO
German museum given 300-year-old painting taken by U.S. soldier
After a stopover in the U.S. that lasted the better part of a century, a baroque landscape painting that went missing during World War II was returned to Germany on Thursday.
The FBI handed over the artwork by 18th century Austrian artist Johann Franz Nepomuk Lauterer to a German museum representative in a brief ceremony at the German Consulate in Chicago, where the pastoral piece showing an Italian countryside was on display.
Art Recovery International, a company focused on locating and recovering stolen and looted art, tracked down the elusive painting after a person in Chicago reached out last year claiming to possess a “stolen or looted painting” that their uncle brought back to the U.S. after serving in World War II.
The painting has been missing since 1945 and was first reported stolen from the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich, Germany.
“The crux of our work at Art Recovery International is the research and restitution of artworks looted by Nazis and discovered in public or private collections. On occasion, we come across cases, such as this, where allied soldiers may have taken objects home as souvenirs or as trophies of wars,” said Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International.
The identity of the Chicago resident who had the painting was not shared.
— The Associated Press