Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Stolen Art Watch, Dick Ellis Sow's Seed Of Doubt, Goes Forth & Multiplies




Above, Dick Ellis of  
QUINTONS FARM HOUSE
GROVE LANE
ASHFIELD
STOWMARKET
IP146LZ
 

Art thieves steal one of the 8,000,000 porcelain sunflower seeds

Police are on the lookout for art thieves who broke into Tate Modern in the early hours of yesterday morning and made off with a single porcelain sunflower seed, one of the eight million that form part of an installation recently acquired from the contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Police are baffled as to how the thieves were able to bypass the museum’s hi-tech security alarm system and navigate their way around the corridors undetected in the still of night. It wasn’t until staff arrived at the museum just minutes before opening time that they noticed one of the seeds was missing.
‘This was an audacious, well planned and meticulously orchestrated robbery,’ said Richard "Dick" Ellis from the Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Squad, ‘and we think the thieves could strike again. These are highly intelligent, well-informed thieves at the top of their game and at this stage we can’t rule out an attempt on another sunflower seed.’
The thieves ignored works by Turner and Georg Baselitz on their way through the Turbine Hall which has led police to think the seed may have been stolen to order and could already be in the hands of a collector.
‘The porcelain seed is quite distinctive and would be impossible to sell on the open market,’ added Dick Ellis. ‘It is made from a highly-glazed ceramic material and looks exactly like the sort of seed you find on a sunflower.’
‘Apart from the remaining 7,999,999 left at the museum, there are probably only another 90,000,000,000 in the whole world. The thieves will be hard pressed to offload it unless they already have a buyer in mind. At this stage we can’t rule out a ransom demand for the seed.’
The Art Council, which helped fund the purchase of the installation, is said to be devastated by the theft and has offered a reward of 4p for the safe return of the art work, a figure well in excess of a regular sunflower seed’s current street value.
‘Without the seed the installation is incomplete, ruined,’ said curator Neville Hampton-Wood. ‘The public would simply laugh in our face if we allowed them to see it in this state. Unless we get the seed back it will have been a complete waste of £10 million.’

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ROFLMAO

Anonymous said...

I was also ROFLMAO, but obviously another anonymous commenter beat me to the comment!

Anonymous said...

Dick Ellis is trying to sting the Irish guys who hold some Gardner art.
He is going to get them all arrested soon, so beware of the Dick Ellis false promises and undercover sting operation happening now in Ireland.
July 3rd 2012

Anonymous said...

Let me tell you the truth about Dick Ellis.
He has stood in a court of law and committed perdury on more than one occasion.
Nobody can lie better than Dick.
He has stolen money, He has stolen paintings.
He was very very lucky I never had a tape recorder on me when talking to him once otherwise he would have got three years for perdury.
How he has never been arrested is amazing.
How he sleeps at night I dont know.
Just had a thought ask Mr Dick Ellis to take a lie detector test, questions to be asked 'have you ever committed perdury in a court of law'.
Let the real Dick Ellis stand up.
You are a crook who has managed to get away with it for years.
You will not make any complaints about what I have written Dick because you know if you were to take the lie detector test you would be found out.