In a message dated 8/13/99 10:35:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> ...another stained glass expert ?
My impression of the NYC world of stained glass is that beneath a façade of
cultural sophistication there is a rogue's gallery of unscrupulous thievery,
backbiting, and deception. For some time I have thought it would present ripe
plucking to an investigative journalist, or an enterprising novelist. Where
there is not enough fact a novelist would be free to invent.
If an "expert" can purchase a stolen Tiffany for $60,000 here and sell it in
Europe for $219,980 (as stated in the NY Times) then I consider, even with
deduction of custom's bribes and shipping charges, this represents a fairly
decent mark-up. Exactly how does one do this sort of deal? I imagine a stolen
Tiffany lends itself to a lucrative career, for a while… it certainly makes
for a solid down payment on a yacht or a concrete cottage depending on the
score. Mr. Duncan seems to have opted by default, with assistance of the FBI,
for the less mobile real estate. Should we be referring Duncan to Edison for
an unshrinking patch so's as he can keep his future home in neat repair?
To believe that only three guys in the world have worked the grave robber to
riches scheme seems a bit far. The Times says the phenom of graveyard art
thefts is a growing problem, one can only assume if it is growing there is
likelihood of competition. Grave robbers coming across each other's
operations in the night with a requisite giving of blood associated with the
establishment of exclusive territory.
The line I would follow, fiction or otherwise, is one of rivalry between
"experts", the sophisticated fences, and a fight for market share where there
is a slim and finite supply of stock. Stock procured under suspicious night
laden circumstances by the likes of a Casamassina and Zinzi bumbling around
with lantern, chisel and hammer in Kensico Cemetary in Valhalla, NY. Oh,
Valhalla! How I love to plot over Valhalla! The epitome of mystery and
opulence a Tiffany illumined plot in Valhalla.
Quite evocative names for our anti-heroes, only reinforced in mystery by
Casamassina who confessed in court that he communes with the dead when
foraging in pursuit of his art and disregards the ashes of an anonymous 12
year old boy in his back yard.
Both men at one time, I imagine, associated in a smoke filled back mausoleum
barter, possibly soured and switched, with the totally immoral, two-faced,
unscrupulous, debt ridden Teflon prodigy of stolen Tiffany's who has, the
unnamed one, not unlike Sherlock's Moriarity, masterminded the sorry fall of
the naïve, but for a while wealthy nevertheless, Duncan.
I confess seed of this scenario was not my idea but as with many tips that
fall my way works on the imagination.
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