Andy Warhol's 'Athlete Series' paintings stolen, $1M reward announced

Police in a Los Angeles say the Andy Warhol art collection that depicts a series of famous athletes has been stolen last week from the house of businessman and art collector Richard L. Weisman.

The collection was taken sometime between Sept. 2 and 3, according to a report from the Associated Press citing Detective Mark Sommer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s art theft detail.

The theft was first discovered by a family nanny.

Warhol's 'Athlete Series' stolen
A Los Angeles Times’ report has cited Det. Donald Hrycyk, head of the LAPD's art theft detail, as saying that Weisman’s long-time housekeeper arrived at the home on Sept. 3 to find 11 large colour screen-prints missing from the dining room walls. She rushed to a neighbor’s house to call police.

LAPD said the house was locked up at the time of the theft and that robbers did not touch the rest of the property. It seems that the robbers’ target was only Warhol's 'Athlete Series' as several other valuable paintings were left untouched. There was no sign of forced entry into the house, Det. Sommer said.

"This was a very clean crime," he said. "[The home] wasn't ransacked."

Of the 11 stolen portraits, each 40 inches by 40 inches, ten were of famous sports personalities of the 1970s, while eleventh was of Weisman.

The collection, named “The Athletes” and thought to be worth several million pounds, features 10 renowned sporting figures: golfer Jack Nicklaus, soccer star Pele, Olympic skater Dorothy Hamill, tennis champion Chris Evert, Los Angeles Lakers basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, boxing champ Muhammad Ali, footballer O. J. Simpson, Major League Baseball pitcher Tom Seaver, U.S. Jockey Willie Shoemaker and Ice hockey forward Rod Gilbert.

Theft of Warhol paintings is Weisman’s personal loss
Weisman, who published a book about his art collection called “From Picasso to Pop,” released a statement yesterday saying: "The theft of Warhol's 'Athlete Series' represents a profoundly personal loss to me and my family."

According to a catalogue of Warhol's work, Weisman commissioned the iconic pop artist Andy Warhol in 1977 to create portraits of sports figures.

"I commissioned him to do this set of athletes because, generally speaking, the worlds of art and sports don't mesh that well," Weisman told The Times in a recent interview.

The exact value of the Warhol collection of sports personalities is not yet known, but it has been reported that Weisman tried to sell the collection in 2002 for $3 million.

Probe underway
Police have no suspects so far, but a neighbor reportedly saw a maroon van in the driveway of Weisman's home about the same time of the crime. Police are looking for that vehicle.

A reward of one million dollars is being offered for further information leading to the artwork’s recovery, police said.

Det. Hrycyk said the delay in announcing the theft was to allow detectives to confirm the reward and garner more information about the missing artworks.

Anyone with any information regarding the artwork robbery was urged to call the LAPD's Art Theft Detail at (213) 485-2524 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7.