Lawyer hid stolen paintings, is outed after 27 years
Hugo S. Cunningham
Quoted text copyright (c) 2006 by the "Boston Globe" and the
Associated Press
"Ex-lawyer says he's held stolen paintings
"February 1, 2006, Wednesday
"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 finder's 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 representing in another case.
[...]
"When Mardirosian said he discovered the paintings in 1979, the
alleged thief, David Colvin, 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 of Stockbridge, but changed his
mind when he discovered that none of the art had been insured.
"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-based 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."
[end of quotes from article]
Comment:
"If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas."
It sounds like counsellor Mardirosian picked up the morals of his
criminal clientele.
It used to be said that an attorney is an "officer of the court," with
certain ethical obligations, eg not to engage in crime. Is that no
longer true? Perhaps counsellor Mardirosian could argue he should
keep quiet about the paintings on his client's behalf, but his duty to
his client expired with said client in 1979. His more recent
finagling with his shell company was pure profiteering, based on
misuse of information acquired as an "officer of the court."
Is there any chance he will be disbarred? He is retired, but it would
seem a moral point could be made in any case.
--Hugo S. Cunningham
Dick Margulis
[snip Shocking! Shocking! tale of greedy lawyer]
>
> Is there any chance he will be disbarred? He is retired, but it would
> seem a moral point could be made in any case.
>
Why stop there? Hang him next to the paintings ;-)