FBI Finds Stolen Norman Rockwell Painting in Spielberg’s Home

March 6, 2007

  • March 6, 2007 at 1:03 am
    Artiste says:
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    It sounds more as if Spielberg\’s staff brought it to the attention of the FBI…or did the FBI tiptoe around his house until THEY found it?

  • March 6, 2007 at 2:41 am
    calypso says:
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    Sounds like Spielberg needs to fire his staff. They narced on him.

  • March 6, 2007 at 2:56 am
    DAwn says:
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    Yes, he is Jewish.

  • March 6, 2007 at 2:57 am
    calypso says:
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    & his ethnicity matters why?

  • March 6, 2007 at 3:04 am
    A Russian says:
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    I think thats why the FBI is after him right? I thought thats what the article was suggesting because he didnt do anything wrong. I saw a documentary on something similar. It was either that or the CIA as I recall.

  • March 6, 2007 at 3:43 am
    Took a while says:
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    It took over 15 years to \”find\” this painting with all the recordkeeping auction houses & everyone else does? Doesn\’t say much for their investigative abilities.

  • March 6, 2007 at 5:29 am
    JR says:
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    It may take 15 years to find the weapons of mass destruction that we know are in Iraq, because we sold some of them to Saddam. 15 years to find a well known painting is about par for the course apparently.

  • March 7, 2007 at 8:00 am
    Stat Guy says:
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    Fire his staff? They did the only honorable and honest thing. Do you think it\’s OK to possess stolen items as long as no one knows? Don\’t you OWE an obligation to society to be law abiding?

  • March 7, 2007 at 8:02 am
    Stat Guy says:
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    And what does being Jewish have to do with stolen art? Or is this just bigotry rearing its ugly head again?

  • March 7, 2007 at 9:06 am
    A Fellow Jew says:
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    Just the opposite, from waht I understand the FBI was monitering him for stealing the painting because he was Jewish – At least thats waht I think the article said.

  • March 7, 2007 at 10:03 am
    baffled says:
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    Are your reading the same article the rest of us are? Or are you just pulling our leg? They were monitoring Speilberg? The doofus\’ didn\’t even know where the painting was until Speilburg told them.

  • March 7, 2007 at 10:38 am
    A Fellow Jew says:
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    Then why did Speilberg have the painting for all those years? How could he have properly valued it without knowing it was stolen – Are you kidding me??

  • March 7, 2007 at 1:05 am
    baffled says:
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    Why did Spielburg have the painting all those years? Because he bought it from a reputable dealer.

    In 2004, Agents with the FBI\’s ACT determined the painting had been advertised for sale at a Norman Rockwell exhibit in New York in 1989.

    This painting obviously has been floating out in the open for quite some time. If everybody knew it was stolen, then you have a bunch of art dealers who would be in a lot of hot water. Spielburg would be considered the LEAST culpable. The question you should be asking is why a painting like this that the FBI has been looking couldn\’t be found when it\’s up for sale at an auction in New York after being at an auction in New Orleans?

  • March 7, 2007 at 1:13 am
    Jack Fortin says:
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    We are talking about a guy who made a movie ( Schindlers\’s List ) as though it were a true story . You will find the book in the FICTION section at your local library . Don\’t fret though , it will be in the history section soon enough .

  • March 7, 2007 at 1:42 am
    baffled says:
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    Oskar Schindler was a real person. And most of what was documented in Shcindler\’s Ark is documented history. What is the point of your post?

  • March 7, 2007 at 2:37 am
    Mell says:
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    I think hte point oh his post is that Schindlers list never happened. The holocost was really blown out of proportion.

  • March 7, 2007 at 2:48 am
    Not baffled but STUNNED says:
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    Good grief. I though I was \”conversing\” with people who possessed a brain. My apologies.

  • March 7, 2007 at 2:52 am
    Mary B. says:
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    They are some seriously stupid people out here. The article is pretty clear cut. How did some of you people learn to read and comprehend, if at all? Quit using your own prejudices when reading a simple story.

  • March 8, 2007 at 3:01 am
    Jack Fortin says:
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    I brought up Schindlers List to point out an easily verifable example of Mr Speilbergs\’ dishonesty . I am not the one investigating this case but any insurance investigator will tell you that where you find a dishonest person involved in a crime there is likely to be culpability. Only a fool would draw a conclusion about guilt or innocence based on a press release.I am not saying anything more than this needs to be carefully looked into .

  • March 7, 2007 at 3:17 am
    Mell says:
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    Why do some of you idiots post the same thing twice in a row?? Also, if there were so many Jews that died, how come there is never a memorial where they get together all the names of the people that died? Wouldnt that prove how many died once and for all?

  • March 7, 2007 at 3:22 am
    baffled says:
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    You\’re yanking our collective chain right? C\’mon. You can admit it. There can\’t be anybody in America not wearing a white hood that could possibly believe the holocost (sic) didn\’t really murder approximately 6 million Jews.

  • March 7, 2007 at 3:30 am
    Mell says:
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    No really, how come there is no memorial with the names? Just tell me that. Why cant we just come up with a list and put this thing to bed – If someone killed my reletives I think I would notice it and remember their names, wouldnt you?

  • March 7, 2007 at 3:58 am
    baffled says:
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    My apologies. I thought you were kidding. It just never occurred to me you could be serious. I\’ll let someone else who has patience for ignorance respond.

  • March 7, 2007 at 4:17 am
    Leon Maslanka says:
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    Mell,

    Do us all a huge favor – promise you won\’t continue your gene line into the next generation!

    I don\’t know which is more unbelievably stupid: your comments, or your willingness to make them in public and reveal the extent of your mind-numbing stupidity!

    Is it really possible you\’ve never read a book…OK, seen a film…OK, watched a TV show that exposed the awful and hideous things done to Jews and others during the Nazi progroms? \”If someone in my family is murdered I\’d notice..\” – what about when EVERY member of the family is murdered? And EVERY member of EVERY family on the block, or in the neighborhood, or in the town is murdered with nobody left to \”notice\”? D\’ya think it might have been a little tough in the 1930\’s and 40\’s to keep track of 6 million people who were taken far from their homes and imprisoned, tortured and buried or burned into nothingness? Duh!!

    You\’re a disgrace to the human race, Mell. And that\’s being about as diplomatic as I can be.

  • March 7, 2007 at 5:17 am
    Jeff says:
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    People, people…don\’t humor this person. Whatever he is calling himself today, his only point is to get you up in arms. He\’s not worth the effort in typing a response.

  • March 8, 2007 at 9:58 am
    Jewel says:
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    \”We are talking about a guy who made a movie ( Schindlers\’s List ) as though it were a true story . You will find the book in the FICTION section at your local library . Don\’t fret though , it will be in the history section soon enough .\”

    Uhm, so your point is that this movie isn\’t based on a true story? Or that it is based on a true story? It seems as if you are pointing out that the book is in the wrong section of the library and therefore, you believe the events portrayed in the film actually took place.

    Then you follow up that comment by saying: \”I brought up Schindlers List to point out an easily verifable example of Mr Speilbergs\’ dishonesty .\”

    So, again it is like you are trying to say the movie has no basis in truth at all. Can you please clarify your point of view because with all of your contradictions, I can\’t figure it out.

    Oh and to the \”person\” who thinks there should be a Holocaust wall with the names of all those killed in concentration camps:
    Hmm, I know those Nazis kept detailed records but I\’m pretty sure this would be next to impossible. Sorry, but I don\’t need it to prove the Holocaust happened. Of course, I am sure someone will comment that I wasn\’t there. You\’re right. So, in that case, George Washington was NOT the first president and the whole moon landing was just a scam. Brilliant!

  • March 8, 2007 at 10:17 am
    Stat Guy says:
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    Let me get you straight: I asked why Speilberg should fire his staff and I asked what being jewish had to do with stolen art. This made me a racist? Someone else brought up the comment about Speilberg being jewish and I failed to see any connection. You say the FBI was monitoring him because he was jewish? The FBI must have a lot of resoureces to monitor people just because they are jewish…the FBI is the Gestapo?….and as for firing his staff…why would Speilberg even want to keep stolen art? Why should anyone keep silent about any stolen goods, whether it is art, whatever the religion of the owner, how does being jewish connect to stolen art? I am anything but racist; I wanted to know what how Speilberg\’s religion connected to this and I would REWARD my staff for pointing out that I possesed something stolen. I don\’t \”covet my neighbor\’s goods\”, nor do I care how or what or who they worship. racist??? I think not. And I do not suffer theives well either!

  • March 8, 2007 at 11:19 am
    Mell says:
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    Within five minutes, any intelligent, open-minded person can be convinced that the Holocaust gassings of World War II are a profitable hoax.

    Fred A. Leuchter is America\’s leading specialist on the design and fabrication of execution equipment, including homicidal gas chambers. In 1988, Leuchter scraped samples from the alleged gas chamber walls in Auschwitz, Birkenau and Lublin. Cyanide residue would be clearly evident on all these walls if gassings did occur. To his astonishment, Leuchter found no significant cyanide traces in any one of these rooms.

    In 1991, the Polish government repeated these tests to disprove Leuchter\’s findings, but they as well found no evidence of any gassings ever occurring.

    The structural integrity of these \”gas chambers\” is also extremely faulty. These rooms have ordinary doors and windows which are not hermetically sealed! There are large gaps between the floors and doors. If the Germans had attempted to gas anyone in these rooms, they would have died themselves, as the gas would have leaked and contaminated the entire area. Also, no equipment exists to exhaust the air-gas mixture from these buildings. Nothing was made to introduce or distribute the gas throughout the chambers. There are no provisions to prevent condensation of gas on the walls, floors or ceilings. No exhaust stacks have ever existed.

    Though six million Jews supposedly died in the gas chambers, not one body has ever been autopsied and found to have died of gas poisoning. We have been shown piles of bodies from World War II, but most of these persons died of typhus or starvation or Allied bombings and a great many of those were murdered Germans, not Jews. Roughly the equivalent of ten football fields should be packed full of gassed bodies to present as evidence, yet not one body has ever been discovered.

    The Germans documented everything in meticulous detail from shrubbery to arbors, but no pre-war or wartime plans or documents exist that detail or even mention any gas chambers for reasons of genocide. All documents ever presented were drawn up AFTER the war.

    Even if we threw away all the evidence and accounted for every so-called gas chamber, it would have taken 68 YEARS to accomplish gassing six million Jews!

  • March 8, 2007 at 11:41 am
    Jewel says:
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    Seems as if Mell left out some information:

    You can\’t just report half a story and expect people to buy into it, Mell. Well, just the gullible ones, I guess. I found this information and it took me all of 10 seconds.

    \”Leuchter does not address the discrepancy between the trace amounts of cyanide which he dismisses vs. the complete lack of any cyanide residue found in his sample 12, a sample taken from a gasket in an unrelated building intended for use as a negative control [1]; instead he only compares the low amounts in the alleged Krema to the higher readings in his positive control sample.

    Lab manager James Roth swore under oath to the results at the trial. It was only after he got off the stand that Roth learned what the trial was about. In an interview for Morris\’s film, Roth states that cyanide would have formed an extremely fine layer on the walls, to the depth of one-tenth of a human hair. Leuchter had taken samples of indeterminate thickness (he is seen in Morris\’s film hammering at the bricks with a rock hammer). Not informed of this, Roth had pulverized the entire samples, thus severely diluting the cyanide-containing layer of each sample with an indeterminate amount of brick, varying for each sample. Roth offers the analogy that the tests were like looking at timbers when one needed to be looking at the paint.

    Leuchter did not examine the walls of the gas chambers until fifty years after they had been used; his critics note that it would have been virtually impossible to discover any cyanide at all using his method. In fact, tests conducted on ventilation grates immediately after the end of the war showed substantial amounts of cyanide. The chambers were demolished by the Nazis when they abandoned Auschwitz, and the facilities Leuchter examined were, in fact, partially reconstructed. Leuchter was unaware that part of the camp and chambers were reconstructed, so he had no way of knowing if the bricks he was scraping were actually part of the original gas chamber.\”

  • March 8, 2007 at 11:48 am
    Jack Fortin says:
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    The screenplay for the movie is based on a novel of the same name . A novel is fiction as opposed to an historical account which is generally considered non-fiction . Do you know the difference ?

    Just because a story injects an element that may be accurate , such as the existence of a central character , it does not make the rest of the story true.

    Someone who sells fiction as fact is dishonest .

  • March 8, 2007 at 12:02 pm
    Jewel says:
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    Obviously, YOU are the one who doesn\’t know how books are arranged in a library. The history section is non-fiction (at times, reference) not FICTION. You said the book would be there soon enough (the history section, therefore NON-FICTION). I thought you were trying to make a point. Apparently not, since you don\’t even know how.

    \”Although Schindler\’s Ark is based on actual people and events, it is classified as fiction. The book tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a Nazi Party member, who turns into the unlikely hero. By the end of the war, Schindler has saved 1100 Jews from concentration camps all over Poland and Germany.\”

    I don\’t just spew what I think is fact; I check to make sure my facts are correct. Unless you care to dispute Wikipedia.

  • March 8, 2007 at 1:33 am
    baffled says:
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    In October 1990, the state of Massachusetts brought criminal charges against Leuchter for representing himself as an engineer without a license. Leuchter says he was a victim of selective prosecution, since only 10% of engineers are actually licensed. Critics have argued that Leuchter not only lacks an engineering license but hasn\’t an engineering degree or other professional certification or recognised credential — his only education consists of a BA in history, which he completed in 1964. He admits to having no formal training in toxicology, biology or chemistry. Additionally, while Leuchter had some experience with electric chairs and lethal injection systems it was discovered that his claims of expertise in the area of gas chambers was a fabrication and he had no experience with them.

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:22 am
    baffled says:
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    I\’ve checked out Churchill\’s \”Second World War\” and not a single mention of Nazi \’gas chambers,\’ a
    \’genocide\’ of the Jews, or of \’six million\’ Jewish victims of the war.

    This is astonishing. How can it be explained?

    Eisenhower\’s Crusade in Europe is a book of 559 pages; the six
    volumes of Churchill\’s Second World War total 4,448 pages; and
    de Gaulle\’s three-volume Memoires de guerre is 2,054 pages. In this
    mass of writing, which altogether totals 7,061 pages (not including
    the introductory parts), published from 1948 to 1959, one will find
    no mention either of Nazi \’gas chambers,\’ a \’genocide\’ of the Jews,
    or of \’six million\’ Jewish victims of the war. Hmm.

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:35 am
    The real baffled says:
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    It would be nice if you would make your idiotic statements without using my \”baffled\” name. I wouldn\’t want people to think I\’ve suddenly lost my mind and joined the KKK.

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:41 am
    The really baffled says:
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    That said, what does the KKK have to do with the holocaust? Im not sure, someone seems confused here!

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:46 am
    The real baffled says:
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    Only KKK types WOULD believe the holocaust was a hoax

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:49 am
    Jewel says:
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    I think you meant they WOULD believe the Holocaust is a hoax. We don\’t want to confuse those who are not as savvy. I know what you meant though. Or, at least I hope that\’s what you meant to say.

    Anyway, thanks for making the point. If we followed Mell\’s logic, lots of events never occurred. Hmm… weird.

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:50 am
    Jewel says:
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    I just missed your correction. I just didn\’t want the ignorant to be even more confused. :) Sorry again…

  • March 8, 2007 at 2:56 am
    Mell says:
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    O.K. I\’m convinced. I don\’t know why I listened to my Uncle Bubba when he tells me these things. I should have known he was an idiot when he married my sister.

  • March 8, 2007 at 3:09 am
    People, People, People says:
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    Lots of words back & forth here. None of us were there and can\’t confirm what really happened. Why is it the deniers are so eager to disbelieve personal histories and photographic records (as well as Nazi records) and yet, treat as accurate any other account of history? Why don\’t they deny themselves then? Obviously they don\’t exist!

  • March 9, 2007 at 8:43 am
    Stat Guy says:
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    Get it right at least…I don\’t remember ever hearing about gassing with cyanide but rather an insecticide called Zyklon -B, which is documented.

  • March 12, 2007 at 1:41 am
    Disappointed says:
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    Wow, I thought this was a forum for insurance professionals, not a haven for anti-semites and holocaust deniers. Mell, if you really have this much free time on your hands, couldn\’t you find something more exciting to do than lurking in an insurance industry message board and spouting your anti-semitic b.s.?

  • March 13, 2007 at 9:28 am
    Jewel says:
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    Tom-

    I agree with you.

    Ponder this:

    I suppose the conspiracy theorists are also the same people who complain about airport security. I mean, who wants to wait while the government tries to ensure our safety, right? But, if something were to happen and the \”crazy\” airport rules hadn\’t been used, it would have been the government\’s fault. Catch 22. Hmm… can\’t have your cake and eat it too people.

    And to Disappointed:

    All I have to say is hilarious. The aliens spaceships aren\’t big enough and \”here\’s hoping.\” I loved it- made me laugh out loud. I thank you for that bright spot in my day.

    To you both, I say thank you. :)

  • April 2, 2007 at 2:00 am
    Daughter of Abraham says:
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    Someone here should go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, or to the one in Germany, or elsewhere in the world. Real historians have put together the historical facts, artifacts, photos, interviews…by the way there were trials after the war. And the US troops who liberated the concentration camps and saw the mass graves told their stories too.
    I don\’t think this is a matter of debate. This is a pure matter of ignorance fueling predudice. You probably don\’t believe there is genocide taking place right now in Africa either.

    The fact that a news story about a stolen work of art cannot even be discussed in this \”insurance journal\” without someone using it for hate propaganda is evidence that the blog should be monitored. It is way off its intended purpose, which is, evidently, to give the readers the opportunity to bash individual insurance moguls and whichever insurance carriers the bloggers don\’t happen to be working for at the moment.



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