"Fantasia" Art Stolen in 1991 Recovered

[Ed]

Florida art dealer helps recover stolen Disney 'Fantasia' artwork
Christine Show
Sentinel Staff Writer
January 6, 2008

A New Smyrna Beach art dealer has helped police solve the 16-year-old theft of two rare Walt Disney Studios watercolors featuring Mickey Mouse in scenes from Fantasia.

Bill Tirrell realized the artwork was stolen property after he bought the pieces in October and researched their origin. The paintings were part of a five-piece collection of Fantasia scenes snatched from the now-closed Museum of Cartoon Art in Rye Brook, N.Y., in 1991.

The combined value of the two paintings in 1991 was $60,000 to $80,000.

Tirrell bought the Disney pieces in Hollywood, Fla., from another art dealer, Patricia LeBlanc, who was unaware that the pieces were stolen, said Det. Sgt. Terence Wilson of the Rye Brook Police Department. LeBlanc bought the pieces months before from a Florida storage facility with assorted collections of unwanted property.

After Tirrell realized what he had, he contacted Rye Brook police to confirm that the paintings were indeed missing. Tirrell couldn't be reached for comment Saturday.

Wilson said at first he wasn't sure whether the artworks were authentic.

"I needed to get an expert to see if the pieces were real," Wilson said.

An art expert, Peter Merolo, verified the paintings' authenticity.

The two recovered pieces both feature Mickey Mouse in scenes from the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia. One shows Mickey motioning to a broom, while the other shows him turning a waterfall into snow.

"They're actually cute pieces," Wilson said. "They're actual storyboard pieces from Disney."

The paintings were part of a collection owned by Mike and Jeanne Glad in 1991. They loaned the artwork to the cartoon museum for a Fantasia exhibition. After the artwork was reported stolen from a workroom, Ohio Great American Insurance bought the rights to the pieces.

Shortly after he authenticated the art, Merolo bought the paintings from the insurance company. Tirrell received the original reward of $5,000 offered by the Glad family more than two decades ago, Wilson said, but it's unclear whether he recouped his $10,000 investment in the paintings.

Wilson said that although part of the theft was solved, his department will continue looking for the other three pieces of the collection.

"It's nice when you close out an old major case," he said. "But to me it's not completely closed out. We're going to continue to follow it and hopefully get the other three pieces."

Christine Show can be reached at [email protected] or 407-420-5735.



Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel

[MegaDisney]

Cool!

[diz_girl]

Amazing that it was part of an unclaimed storage lot. It's reminds me of that person in NYC that took a painting out of a garbage can and it turned out to be worth a lot of money. I don't think that it was stolen, but I can't be sure.