Man who resembles Drake Steals Picasso Drawing!!

WTF Drake LOL

Thursday, July 07, 2011

 If Hollywood films are to be believed, art heists require meticulous planning, James Bond-style equipment and elaborate getaways. But a thief in San Francisco this week made off with a valuable Pablo Picasso drawing by taking it off a gallery wall and escaping in a taxi. 

  The sketch, entitled TIte de Femme (Head of a Woman), was hanging near the entrance to the Weinstein Gallery, near Union Square, when it was stolen on Tuesday. The work, part of a collection Picasso gave his chauffeur, Maurice Bresnu, is worth around $200,000 but police say it will be difficult for the thief to offload it. 


 "I've had some sleepless nights," said Rowland Weinstein, who owns the Weinstein Gallery. "I feel very, very lucky and very relieved that the Picasso wasn't harmed and will be returned back safely." Weinstein said he planned to upgrade the street-level art gallery's surveillance system. The drawing was displayed under guard at a news conference at the police station on Thursday.

 Many pieces of art are difficult to steal because of their sheer size, but Picasso's 1965 pencil drawing, "Tête de Femme (Head of a Woman)," is 10 5/8 by 8 1/4 inches, about the size of a standard sheet of paper.
It was part of a collection that Picasso originally gave to his driver, Maurice Bresnu, and was purchased this spring at auction for $122,500, said gallery President Rowland Weinstein.

 Weinstein returned from his honeymoon in Europe on Tuesday to news of the first-ever major theft from his gallery. He said it had challenged his goal of putting high-level work in front of the public at street level.

 Thirty-one-year-old Mark Lugo of the Mile Square City was arrested yesterday at a hotel in Napa. He's been booked on burglary, grand theft and drug charges, and his bail is $5 million.

 "Where we have video, we're going to have a lot of success," Suhr said. He said he encourages all businesses to install surveillance cameras because they often provide key evidence for police investigations. The Picasso drawing, which was back in a frame and displayed at today's news conference, was later carefully placed in a cardboard box by police and taken away to be kept as evidence for the pending criminal court case. Lugo is being held in county jail in lieu of $5 million bail, police said.


 San Francisco Police investigators from the Central Police Station investigations team arrested 30-year-old Mark Lugo of New Jersey in Napa on Wednesday. Police say they believe Lugo walked into the Weinstein Gallery, located at the corner of Geary and Powell streets, on Tuesday at 11:40 AM. Police then say the suspect took the 1965 Picasso sketch called "Tete de Femme" from a wall of the gallery, walked out, and got into a taxicab. The sketch is valued at $275,000, SFPD said. Police say that after interviewing witnesses, locating the taxi driver, and impounding the vehicle, they were able to identify the suspect and track him down to a Napa hotel. He was taken into custody without incident. The stolen sketch was found in Lugo's hotel room, police say.

Lugo's bail has been set at $5 million. He was booked under charges of burglary, grand theft, possession of stolen property, possession of controlled substance without prescription, possession of controlled substance, and possession of narcoticcontrolled substance.

Lugo faces burglary, grand theft and drug charges and is being held on $5 million US bail. He has been in town since July 4 and was visiting friends, said Police Chief Greg Suhr. Lugo's arrest comes a day after surveillance video released from a nearby restaurant showed a man matching his description walking by with a piece of framed artwork covered by a newspaper under his arm. Suhr said the footage played a key role in the arrest. Investigators believe Lugo was working alone and likely planned to ship the artwork to an unknown part

 Police were able to track down the cab and learned that its driver took Lugo to the Hotel Palomar at Market and Fourth streets where he was staying, police Lt. Ed Santos said. Lugo had flown in from New Jersey on Monday, and was found on Wednesday night at the Napa apartment, where he was with two friends he knew from the East Coast, Santos said. The painting was in good condition but had been taken out of the frame, and it looked like Lugo was preparing to have it shipped somewhere, according to Santos. The friends did not appear to know that Lugo had stolen the drawing and were not arrested, he said. Police said today that they did not know whether Lugo targeted the gallery and that specific drawing, and said they were not aware of any similar offenses on his criminal record.