Six years suspended and a “bracelet” to the burglar of the National Gallery

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Had stolen valuable works by Picasso, Mondrian and a Monclavo drawing in 2012 – Sentenced to six years in prison, but granted parole on condition of electronic monitoring

6 years suspended sentence imposed by the Single-Member Criminal Appeals Court on the 50-year-old oil painter, George Sarmatzopoulos, perpetrator of the theft of works of art of untold value from the National Gallery in 2012.

The 50-year-old oil painter who remained elusive for a decade, he finally confessed in 2021, that he is the perpetrator of the theft of the painting donated to the Greek people by Picasso “Head of a Woman”, the work “Mill” by Piet Mondrian from 1905 and a drawing of a religious theme attributed to Guglielmo Caccia (Moncalvo) of the 17th century. The defendant, who claims that he stole the three works out of love for art, handed over the first two paintings upon his arrest in 2021, while the project claimed to have been destroyed.

The oil painter was found guilty, with a corresponding proposal of the Prosecutor General Constantinos Simitzoglou, for a distinguished case of theft, also committed in an attempt of things of artistic value that were in a collection exposed to public view in a public building. The court recognized the mitigating factor of good behavior after the act and granted a suspension of his appeal on the condition that he be monitored electronically with a geolocation device (bracelet) and prohibited from leaving his home beyond 3 kilometers. Until today’s trial, the 50-year-old was free with a bracelet, after a year of temporary detention for the case.

In the court witnessed by the Museum of Visual Arts, the security guards of the area at the time, the security technician of the alarm company, an expert in the maintenance of works of Art, as well as the lawyer collector of works of Art Mr. Garipis.

The Director of the Museum’s Collections Eutychus Agathonikos told the court that the value of the painting that Picasso donated to the Greek people for their resistance to fascism, it was valued at 2 million euros, Mondrian’s painting at 200 thousand euros and Moncalvo’s drawing at 1000 euros. The witness said that the works suffered damages that cannot be seen with the naked eye: “The irreversible damage was seen in the inspection. There was damage to the consistency of the colors. They must be in special conditions so that damage does not occur, these works”.

The lawyer and art collector Stelios Garipis testified in court that he believes that “The accused is not an oil painter! He is a member of an international ring. I was contacted by a Dutch detective who told me that he has a lot of information about him. It was no coincidence that two works were returned. The painting that was supposedly destroyed was heard to have appeared in sale in Florence. I contacted the National Gallery to see what action they had taken. The simplest thing was for them to send documents and see who received the work. Because it was not sold. They did nothing. It was subsequently identified by foreign experts who said that it is definitely the same work. From the Gallery they did nothing.. Did they go from the Gallery to Florence to see the work if it is a fake? To go to the House?”

Apologizing, the painter described how he entered the Museum after six months of monitoring, stressing that the measures were lacking and that he had to do nothing but “get tired” by activating the alarm that caused the only guard on duty: “Theft she was so simple and stupid that no one could imagine that this would happen from an ordinary citizen. She had one bodyguard when she should have had five,” he said. “I broke a window and got to a point. Within 4 hours of the alarm going off the guard kept going up and down. I did this until he got tired and came down. A few minutes later, I went with the construction tools to break in the door. It was unlocked! That’s why there were no traces of tampering.”

The 50-year-old apologized to the Greek people for the three works I removed, and answered the president’s questions about how he sought out Picasso and how the Moncalvo project was destroyed. He said that because he was frightened when a plasterboard with paintings fell, he left the room and moved upstairs where “I saw a painting that was not tied. I saw that no one had come. I looked at the work and found that it was a Picasso. I hung the painting. I put in the sack. I took another painting. I saw a nice work, I took it away, I put it in the sack too. I didn’t know Mondrian. Suddenly I hear someone shouting “thief! thief!”. The guard who said he chased me doesn’t say really, it couldn’t pass!”

The defendant said that while trying to pick up another painting, he cut himself and used Moncalvo’s drawing to wipe up the blood.

His lawyers, Sakis Kehagioglou and Georgios Dryllis expressed their satisfaction with the decision and among them o Mr. Kehagioglou stated:

“I think the Court treated my client fairly, recognizing him as a mitigating circumstance and granting a suspensive effect to the appeal. I wish to point out once again that the historic and priceless painting by Pablo Picasso is once again in the possession of the Greek people, to whom it belonged, thanks to the spontaneous and, before he was even accused, sincere repentance and cooperation of my principal”.

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