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.

][<en