A team of prolific art thieves was found guilty of stealing pricy pieces of art and sports memorabilia for decades from museums and other high-profile institutions for more than two decades, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
Three men from Pennsylvania were found guilty of stealing championship belts, priceless art pieces, and antique firearms collectively worth millions of dollars from all over the state, as well as New Jersey and New York.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said the three men, in their late 40s and early 50s, were a part of a nine-man heist crew responsible for major thefts dating back to at least 1999, when they got away with a Christy Matthewson jersey and two signs contracts from Keystone College in Factoryville.
Since then, federal prosecutors linked the crew to Canastota, New York, where they stole six championship belts in 2015. Ten years earlier, the group got away with paintings by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock, each stolen in 2005 from the Everhart Museum in Scranton.
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Fourteen trophies and other awards were taken from the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in 2012 in Goshen, New York, according to prosecutors. And three antique firearms worth more than $1 million went missing from the Space Farms Zoo & Museum in Wantage, New Jersey, back in 2006.
Another one of the group's priciest hauls came in 2014, when prosecutors said they got away with 10 World Series rings, seven other championship rings and two MVP plaques belonging to Yogi Berra. That Little Falls robbery was valued at more than $1 million.
Despite the high value of most of the items snatched by the crew, prosecutors said they would usually bring the items back to a home in north Pennsylvania where they would melt down the memorabilia and later sell the raw metals "for hundreds or a few thousands dollars" in the New York City area.
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In one instance, the men burnt "Upper Hudson," a painting by Jasper Cropsey valued at roughly $500,000, in order to keep it from being recognized.
"The whereabouts of many of the other paintings and stolen objects are currently unknown," prosecutors said in a statement on Friday.
Five other members of the nine-man crew already pled guilty and are awaiting sentences. The three men convicted Friday face significant prison time; their sentencing hearings were not yet scheduled.
