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Judge: Lawyer must pay for hiding art

By wire services
Published February 2, 2006

BOSTON - A retired Massachusetts lawyer says he secretly held seven stolen paintings, including a Paul Cezanne still-life worth millions of dollars, for 28 years because he wanted a 10 percent fee.

The paintings, including Cezanne's Bouteille et Fruits, had been stolen from a collector's home in the Berkshires in 1978.

Robert M. Mardirosian, the retired lawyer, said the work was left in a bag in his attic by a client.

"He was going to bring them to Florida to fence them, but I told him that if he ever got caught with them with the other case hanging over his head, he'd be in real trouble," Mardirosian said in Wednesday's Boston Globe.

Mardirosian said when he discovered the paintings in 1979, the thief had been shot to death by two men seeking to collect on a debt. The lawyer said he considered returning the works to their owner, Michael Bakwin, formerly of Stockbridge, but changed his mind when he discovered that none of the art had been insured, so there was no reward.

Mardirosian, 71, hid the paintings in Monaco and then in a Swiss bank while he said he worked to recoup 10 percent of their value from Bakwin. He set up a shell company to facilitate a trade or sale.

A lawsuit filed last year by Bakwin and the Art Loss Register, a London company that tracks stolen artwork, led to a hearing Tuesday in London, during which Mardirosian was identified as sole owner of the shell company, Erie International.

The judge ruled that Mardirosian was responsible for paying an estimated $3-million in court, legal and investigative fees accumulated by Bakwin in trying to get his paintings back.

"I know some things don't look good here, but I believe I have a legitimate case to make," Mardirosian said.

Mardirosian said his next step will probably be to give back the paintings, but he is looking at alternatives.

[Last modified February 2, 2006, 02:15:36]