Stolen artworks treated like cash

Dozens of paintings stolen from the residence of a wealthy couple in the Laurentians are likely destined to end up in the hands of organized crime figures who value artwork as a form of currency, an expert on the subject says.

About 25 to 30 paintings were stolen from a home owned by Mitzi Steinberg-Dobrin, heir to the former Steinberg grocery chain, and her husband Mel Dobrin, a former president of the same chain. Some of the paintings are estimated to be worth more than $100,000, said Sûreté du Québec Sgt. Annie Thibodeau.

Thibodeau said experts with the provincial police force’s investigative unit specializing in stolen artwork are working on the case in Ivry-sur-le-Lac, a town about 110 kilometres north of Montreal, along with colleagues based in the Laurentians.

The couple’s son said his parents had amassed a large collection of artwork over the past four decades. The theft appears to have been pulled off by an expert, or experts, as the home’s alarm system was turned off and the thief, or thieves, selected specific types of paintings while leaving others behind, police said.

Alain Lacoursière, a former detective with the Montreal police who specialized in recovering stolen artwork, said valuable stolen paintings often end up in the hands of organized crime figures even if they can never be hung on a wall and appreciated for their beauty.

“To people in organized crime they represent 20 per cent of the cash value of the painting. They are easy to transport and they are easy to get across a border,” he said.

“The artwork remains a form of currency throughout. They remain hidden away in a closet. It’s not like in the movies where some guy who really appreciates art has a secret room in his mansion that only he can enjoy. I have never seen that in my entire career.”

He noted one case that stands out in his memory involved artwork stolen from homes in Westmount and Outremont that was later found, in October 2000, in the Montreal-area home of Joseph Ghaleb, a notorious loan shark who had ties to the Hells Angels and the Montreal underworld who was murdered in 2004.

Lacoursière, who now has his own appraisal company, said the list of people in Quebec who could have pulled off such a heist is a very short one.

“There are three guys, maybe five tops, who can pull off a job like that — where they know a lot about art. You have to possess a great deal of knowledge about art to do something like that,” Lacoursière said. “The Sûreté du Québec knows who they are and will likely want to talk to them.”