Window cleaner ‘stole £500k artworks from home of dead painter’
DOZENS of paintings worth more than £500,000 were stolen from an internationally renowned Scottish artist’s home by a window cleaner after his death, a court heard yesterday.
Daniel Pressland regularly worked at the property owned by alan Davie, and was allegedly aware of an insecure first-floor window.
after Mr Davie – a major British artist who was feted by Jackson Pollock and David Hockney – died in 2014 at the age of 93, Pressland is said to have taken 31 paintings in a series of break-ins.
a jury heard the 42-year-old had admitted one burglary charge after the last break-in, when a neighbour alerted police and he was caught with three works worth £190,000 in his van.
But Pressland, of Billericay, Essex, denies charges relating to other paintings.
Some were sold to a contact and others went to an auction house, St albans Crown Court was told.
Prosecutor Sarah Morris said: ‘after he [Mr Davie] died and the property was empty, Mr Pressland knew how to get in, what was in there and what these paintings were worth. He was able to select paintings and remove them.’
Mr Davie was born in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, and attended Edinburgh College of art in the 1930s. He favoured an ‘automatic’ style of painting, intended to bring forth elements of his unconsciousness. Like Pollock, many works were executed standing above the painting, often adding layers of paint until the original subject had been covered.
The jury heard an audit of thousands of works at his home in Rush Green, near Hertford, was carried out after his death by London art gallery Gimpel Fils, which had acted for him for 50 years. This enabled police to establish that 31 works had disappeared between 2014 and 2015.
The three paintings recovered from Pressland’s van included one entitled Cross for Bluebirds.
The defendant initially claimed he found them in the painter’s garage where he kept his ladders and assumed they had been ‘put out there for the rubbish’.
Miss Morris said: ‘He said he had taken them away as a favour and thought he would use them for skateboard ramps for his son.’
an examination of his phone led police to co-defendant Gavin Challis, who denies charges of possessing criminal property.
One message from Challis to Pressland allegedly said: ‘How much do you want for one of your pictures? I need one for my hall.’
Two works worth £26,000 were found at Challis’s home in nazeing, Essex. The court was told he informed police they were bought for £5,000 from a man in a pub but later said they were bought ‘in good faith’ from Pressland.
Emails from Pressland to an auctioneer allegedly discussed selling paintings. He is said to have received £2,500 for a brush and ink work and £9,500 for two oil paintings. all Mr Davie’s works were to have been inherited by his daughter, Catherine.
Victoria Long, a director of Gimpel Fils, said the artist had been ‘very prolific’ throughout his life.
She added that Mr Davie did not normally give away his work but when he did he would inform the gallery so they knew its location.
Pressland denies two burglary offences, two charges of converting criminal property and two of transferring criminal property.
The case continues.