As reported earlier, 12 pieces of art by Canadian artist Bill Reid had been stolen from the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. The value was estimated at around $2 million.

On Sunday June 8th, a house in south Burnaby was raided by police in connection with the case according to RCMP Const. Annie Linteau. She did not say if all of the items had been recovered but police are still present at some locations connected with the crime.

Linteau said police hope to release more information today, so I will update this post when more information becomes available.

Update: All I’ve been able to find so far is a quote from a museum spokesman Scott McRae. He says, “I can confirm that they (the RCMP) told us that at least some of the Bill Reid pieces stolen from the Vancouver museum have been recovered and intact”.

So it sounds like only some of the pieces were found. If anyone knows more post in the comments, and when I find more I’ll update.

2nd Update: There are still 2 pieces missing according to the National Post and The Globe and Mail.

“After searching both residences extensively, all but two stolen Bill Reid art exhibits were recovered intact. The substantive items, including the most prized, which is the gold box with an eagle, were recovered,” said RCMP Inspector Brendan Fitzpatrick.

Police are still hopeful that the pieces were not melted down for the gold.

“While we are satisfied that we have recovered most of the stolen items, the RCMP would like to seek the public’s assistance in recovering the last two items which we have reason to believe are still in the Lower Mainland area,” Insp. FitzPatrick said. “Our investigation to date indicates those items likely went to a local buyer or stolen property broker.”

The desk where Charles Dickens wrote “Great Expectations” and his final correspondence hours before his death fetched 433,250 pounds ($850,000) at auction on Wednesday, around seven times its pre-sale estimate.

The Irish entrepreneur who bought the furniture called the price “a bargain” for such a piece of literary history.

“It’s a part of Charles Dickens, so I’m delighted to be its owner,” Tom Higgins told Reuters by telephone after the sale. “I’ve been a huge Dickens fan for a long time. I actually think it’s worth a lot more than what I paid for it and expected it could have gone for as much as five million (pounds). I think it’s a bargain, really,” added Higgins, 49, who plans to be Ireland’s first space tourist.

Proceeds from the sale were going to Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London made it easier to part with the cash.

Christie’s sold the furniture as part of its valuable books and manuscripts sale in London, and the price includes the buyer’s premium.

The writing desk and chair from the study of Dickens’ Gad’s Hill residence near Rochester, Kent, was passed on by descent to Christopher Charles Dickens and his wife Jeanne-Marie Dickens.

She then donated them to Great Ormond Street, with which Dickens had a close association.

According to Christie’s, Dickens wrote “Great Expectations” and a number of other late novels and short stories at the mahogany writing desk.

A former guard at the Carnegie Museum of Art has been charged with vandalizing a million-dollar painting he apparently didn’t like, damaging it beyond repair.

The museum’s surveillance camera caught the vandalism on May 16, police said Thursday.

Timur Serebrykov, 27, of Pittsburgh, is accused of defacing “Night Sky #12″ by Latvian-born Vija Celmins. The 31-by-37 1/2-inch oil-on-canvas painting of a black starlit night had a large vertical gouge in the middle and was damaged beyond repair, according to a police affidavit.

The painting was valued at $1.2 million, authorities said. Museum spokeswoman Betsy Momich would not comment beyond confirming that a piece of art was vandalized and a suspect was arrested.

Court documents indicate Serebrykov used a key or other implement to damage the painting because he disliked it.

Serebrykov was arrested May 20. He is to be formally arraigned July 29 on a charge of institutional vandalism in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

The Carnegie Museum houses works by 19th-century artists Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt and Camille Pissarro, as well as 20th-century painters Marsden Hartley, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock.

The Associated Press could not locate a telephone number for Serebrykov. It was not clear if he had an attorney.

Peter Paul Rubens is a well known baroque style painter from the late 1500’s. One of his projects was a series of nine large panelsfor the ceiling of the Banqueting House at the Palace of Whitehall, most of which was destroyed in a fire in 1698.

Rubens did many sketches before he created the panels, one of which, valued on the open market at just over 11 million pounds, is set to go up on sale after existing in a private collection for over 200 years.

The Tate Britain museum has an agreement with the potential vendor of the sketch to keep it off the market until the end of July. They are looking for donations to aquire the piece for their own collection stating that “It is absolutely unthinkable that this leaves the country”.

According to Reuters, “there [are] plans, if the appeal succeeded, to unite the work with about a dozen other known preparatory sketches for the ceiling in a special exhibition.”

The Tate has secured 1.56 million pounds so far, and donations can be made by visiting artfund.org or tate.org.uk.

Art news is hard to find sometimes. I was browsing around in the AP news feed over at newsvine and I discovered this.

“A French prosecutor says police have recovered four paintings stolen in August from a museum in southern France.

The prosecutor’s office in Marseille announced the discovery Wednesday. It said about 10 people were arrested in southern France in the case.

One of the paintings is by Claude Monet and another is by fellow impressionist Alfred Sisley. Two are by Flemish master Jan Brueghel the Elder. The paintings were stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice by masked gunmen on Aug. 5.”

I’ve been looking around but I haven’t found which pieces they are yet. I’ll post more info when I find it. With all the art thefts it sure is nice when pieces are found.