FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2005
D.A. BROWN: TRUCK DRIVER PLEADS GUILTY TO STEALING BASQUIAT PAINTING VALUED AT $1.5 MILLION FROM JFK AIRPORT
Faces Up To Three Years In Prison
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a truck driver has pled guilty to stealing a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting – Untitled 1982 – valued at over $1.5 million dollars that was stolen last May from an air cargo warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He faces up to three years in prison at sentencing.
District Attorney Brown said, "The defendant has admitted his guilt, waived appeal and acknowledged that he used his position as a trusted insider to restricted cargo areas within JFK Airport to remove a wooden crate labeled ‘painting’ from a cargo warehouse, which was worth over $1.5 million, placed it into a truck and drove away. The defendant has now been held accountable for his actions and, under the circumstances, the term of imprisonment to be imposed is more than warranted.”
The District Attorney added, “Our airports here in Queens County are the gateway to the entire New York Metropolitan area. They are important worldwide arrival and departure points for both passengers and air cargo shipments that often include valued works of art. The safety and security of those passengers and that cargo is of paramount concern to us and surveillance by law enforcement is constant. In this case that surveillance led to the recovery of a major work of art valued at over $1.5 million.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Anthony Porcelli Jr., 35, of 108 Warwick Avenue on Staten Island, a truck driver employed by Cace Trucking of 833 Fairmont Avenue in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The defendant pled guilty earlier today to Grand Larceny in the First Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin Brandt who indicated that at sentencing on November 3, 2005 she would impose a sentence of one to three years in prison.
The District Attorney said that the investigation began when the painting was reported missing shortly after the theft. A review of video surveillance tapes of the cargo building revealed evidence that led to the identification of the defendant and the recovery of the painting by Queens District Attorney’s Office detectives at the Cace Trucking Company warehouse in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The defendant admitted that on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 at about 2:30 p.m. he removed from a Virgin Atlantic cargo warehouse at JFK Airport a wooden crate that contained a painting by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat entitled “Untitled 1982" valued at over $1.5 million dollars which had been sold in November at Christie’s, the auction house in Manhattan, and was slated to be shipped to a buyer in Rome via London.
District Attorney Brown expressed his appreciation for the cooperation and support of Corporate Loss Prevention Associates in the investigation.
The investigation was conducted by Port Authority Police Detectives Carla Harris and Donald Firehock, under the supervision of Detective Sergeant Raymond DiLena and Detective Lieutenant William Hanley and the overall supervision of Deputy Superintendent George Johansen and Superintendent Samuel J. Plumeri Jr. and Detective Michael Mormino and Sergeant Franco Russo of the District Attorney’s Detective Squad under the supervision of Chief Lawrence J. Festa and Deputy Chief Albert D. Velardi.
Assistant District Attorney Purvi Patel of the District Attorney's Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gerard A. Brave, Chief, and Marc P. Resnick, Deputy Chief, and Christina Hanophy, Chief of Airport Investigations and Counter-Terrorism Unit and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for investigations Linda M. Cantoni.