Chapter 403

Luke looked at the painting, “Is this painting really a high copy?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to take this painting back for identification.”

Jim looked at the lieutenant and then back at Luke, “Do you have a warrant?”

“No.”

Jim spread his hands, “Suit yourself.”

The situation was definitely different with a warrant and without one, but Jim decided to sell Luke short.

He had suffered a loss at Luke’s hands and knew that this one was not one to be messed with, there was no need to be tough.

“Lieutenant, you take the painting back for identification, and I’ll talk to Jim’s boss alone.”

The vice squad glanced at Jim, “Why don’t we take this slippery kid back to the police station?”

“I’ll think about it.”

Luke didn’t bring him to the police station, not because he knew the other man, but the guy was a bit slippery, and it was easy to arrest him, but hard to convict him.

He had been listening in on the two men’s conversation, Jim was careful and hadn’t said the painting was real since the beginning, so Luke might as well sell him a favor and get some bargains.

Jim invited Luke into the store and the two men sat at an antique table and chairs in the corner of the store.

Luke opened the door and said, “I assume you’re still on parole?”

Jim looked down and pushed his gold-rimmed glasses with the middle finger of his right hand, “Captain Lee, that old detective named Vince may have misunderstood.

I had nothing to do with the robbery of the Getty Museum paintings.”

“Since I’m here, I don’t intend to go back empty-handed, either you provide some valuable clues or take you back to the police station.”

“Captain Li, selling high imitation oil paintings isn’t illegal, antique stores aren’t auction houses, it’s impossible for everything to be authentic.”

“The information we received is that you’re selling authentic copies of the oil painting ‘Rome’ here, before we can identify the authenticity of that oil painting, we can take some investigative measures.

For example, applying for a search warrant to search your antique store or even pawn store.” As long as the other party was involved in the oil painting robbery, Luke had ways to pin him down, even if this oil painting “Rome” had no problem, but he dared to say that all the items in the antique store had no problem with their origins?

Not to mention the stuff in the pawn store.

Luke believed that he would definitely compromise as long as he was not stupid.

“Captain Lee, I respect you and am willing to assist you in your investigation, but I really have nothing to do with the case of the robbery of the Getty Museum’s oil paintings.

I just want to take advantage of this windfall to make some money, that’s all.”

“Tell me everything you know, don’t hold back and don’t lie.

I’m only interested in the oil painting robberies, you should know what I mean.” Luke’s implication, as long as you’re not involved in the oil painting heist, I can turn a blind eye to the other charges.

With Luke’s understanding of Jim, this guy was not clean, and those messages were not through proper channels, and what Luke needed now was precisely these unconventional channels.

Luke was afraid that the other party would throw in the towel and hide some valuable news.

Jim had tasted Luke’s tactics, last time Luke cleaned himself up through David’s relationship, this time he was involved in the oil painting robbery case, which was tantamount to falling into his hands, he thought about it left and right, in addition to cooperating with Luke, there was really no other way to do so.

“I did hear about the oil painting robbery case, and knew that the Getty Museum lost ten oil paintings, one of the oil paintings was Svenson Pilger’s work ‘Rome’, so I moved to acquire a high quality imitation of the painting as well.

The painting I acquired was different from ordinary fake paintings, the painter’s standard of painting was high enough to achieve the fake to the real.

The theft of the real oil painting has already spread in the antique circle.

There will always be some customers who will be interested in these stolen authentic works.

There’s no chance that some wrongdoer will buy the oil paintings, and then I’ll be rich.

That’s the way it happened.”

Luke said, “It’s not going to be easy for you to sell this oil painting as a fake.”

Jim nodded, “I know.

Ninety-nine out of a hundred people might not believe it.

But as long as I can sell it, it’s a huge profit.

Even if it doesn’t sell in the end, I can still sell it at a reduced price.

Highly imitated paintings are just as saleable in antique stores, no worries about selling them.

I won’t lose money anyway, so why not give it a try?”

“Aren’t you afraid of retaliation if your customers know you sell fake paintings?”

Jim laughed, “I never said it was authentic, I’m an antique store here, good or bad is up to me, as long as it’s out of this door it’s none of my business.

Besides, these stolen oil paintings have a record in the police department, I don’t think the other side dares to appraise.

Unable to appraise, and where is the authenticity?”

“Do you know which gang stole the oil paintings?”

“No.”

“Do you have news of the stolen painting?”

“No.

As long as the gang of robbers aren’t stupid, they shouldn’t be selling the oil painting at this time.”

Luke pulled out a picture of the suspect, Jorge, “Do you recognize him?”

Jim picked it up and looked at it carefully, “No.

I’m sorry, I really don’t know much about oil painting robberies.”

Luke pondered for a moment and said, “If you were asked to rob oil paintings, what would you do with those paintings?”

This question was no difficulty for Jim: “You’ve asked the point, there is a saying ‘it’s easy to steal paintings but hard to sell the stolen goods’, that’s what the situation is now.

Many newcomers will focus a lot of energy on stealing for the first time, but they will realize the real problem comes after they get the stuff in their hands.

There is no way to get out of the things you have robbed.

Therefore, professional gangs will think of channels for selling stolen goods in advance before committing crimes.”

“What are all the channels for selling stolen goods.” Luke asked in passing, this gang of robbers had planned well and struck hard, surely they wouldn’t be novices, odds are that they had already found a good channel to sell the stolen goods before the robbery.

“There are many channels for selling stolen goods, which can be roughly divided into two categories.

The first situation, before the crime has found a good reliable buyer, oil painting to hand directly after the transaction.

It will not alarm other people, but also can quickly realize the cash, which is also the best.

It can be called a customized buyer.

There is another situation, get the hands of the oil paintings temporarily not out, stored in a place where no one knows.

After the wind has died down and the police investigation has slackened, the oil painting is sold.”

Luke pursued, “Sell it to whom?”

“It’s a bit complicated, because the stolen oil paintings can’t be realized through legal ways, the stealers will set their eyes on the black market, of course, the selling price will certainly not be too high, about 5% to 10% of the actual price.

This is only the initial transaction, which may change hands several times, and these paintings and antiques may also be exchanged for drugs or weapons.

As for the final flow of these stolen antiques, the odds are that they will be re-sold to the museums, galleries, or insurance companies from which they were stolen.”

Luke thought he’d heard wrong: “You mean the ten stolen paintings might be re-sold by the thieves to the Getty Museum?”

“That’s right.

However, they’ve changed hands several times in between, and it would take a middleman or two to close the deal. Of course the purchase price won’t be too high, probably in the neighborhood of 10 percent.” Jim added, “Actually, it’s for the best.

As far as I know, the ten stolen paintings from the Getty Museum are worth about 20 million dollars.

And the Getty Museum’s bounty alone is $2 million dollars.

So why not use $2 million dollars to buy back the stolen oil paintings?

These ten stolen oil paintings can only get the maximum value if they are returned to the Getty Museum as well.”

Luke understood the other party’s meaning, these stolen oil paintings were all filed and could not be circulated normally, take the ten oil paintings that were robbed from the Getty Museum for example, these ten oil paintings would be worth at most 2 million dollars in other people’s hands.

And once they return to the Getty Museum, then the value of the oil paintings can be doubled tenfold.

Now let the Getty Museum with two million dollars to redeem the oil paintings they may not be happy, feel suffocated, but if the police delay in catching the robbers, also can not find the oil paintings, after two years, the Getty Museum’s head of the calm down, the probability of the choice will be repurchase the oil paintings, because this can maximize the benefits.

Losing the ten paintings cost them $20 million.

Buying them back for 2 million dollars is the same as losing only 2 million.

Take a step back, even if the Getty Museum doesn’t want these ten oil paintings anymore, acquiring them back and selling them again will net them $18 million, which is not a loss in any way.

As long as you are not stupid or stubborn, everyone knows how to choose.

Luke sat at the table quietly pondering.

From Jim’s analysis, the first situation can be realized immediately.

The second situation is a long-term holding, with a higher risk and a longer payback period.

Luke preferred the first scenario, this group of robbers should have found a good buyer before committing the crime and took the deposit before doing the crime.

As for the reason, Luke analyzed it based on the actual situation of the case.

First of all, there is a cost involved here, so far this painting robbery should involve five suspects, if we look at the 10% sale price, they can get 2 million dollars by selling the painting in the second way.

Two million dollars divided between five people, 400,000 dollars for one person is not much.

And there’s also the issue of timing. According to Jim, if no buyer was found, the suspects would have kept the painting for a while, waiting a year or two for the wind to blow out before selling it.

And the gang of suspects in order to plant the slain patrolman Jens Hauraige, but also put 200,000 dollars into his warehouse, the equivalent of not making money before losing 200,000 dollars.

Luke felt that the cost of the crime, the danger, and the time to gain were a little too high to be cost-effective.

He hypothesized that before the gang committed the crime, they should have been a good fixed buyer, and received a substantial deposit, before they were willing to take out a portion of the deposit as stolen money, used to plant Jens Hauraige.

That would have made sense and fit in with common sense.

After smoothing out his head, Luke asked, “Within the people you know, are there any similar directed buyers.”

“This kind of directed buyer is very demanding and not easy to find.

Rich, art-loving, and bold ……”

“Then there is.”

“I …… do know a few.”

“I want their names.”

Robbery and Murder Division office.

Luke looked at the list of names in his hand and was in a bit of a quandary.

Domer Wood, Ruth Morgan, Buddy Caddis, and Albus Stone.

The identities of these four people were not difficult to investigate, all of them were California dignitaries with money, leisure, and status.

Domer Wood was the majority shareholder in a real estate company, and was said to have a number of real estate businesses in Washington, New York, and Los Angeles.

Ruth Morgan, this needs no introduction, her last name is sufficient.

Buddy Caddis was once an executive at Disney, earning a whopping $20 million a year, which included a base salary of $1 million and a bonus of the same amount, as well as $18 million worth of stock awards.

Albus Stone stock market mogul, known as the California Warren Buffett, has long held stock in Disney, Apple, Amazon, and other companies.

All four men have one thing in common, a love of art and collecting, especially collections of oil paintings.

The suspected buyers of the oil paintings have a suspect, but it is not easy to investigate these people.

First of all, these four people currently have no connection with the oil painting robbery, just Luke’s speculation, there is no sufficient reason to investigate them.

Secondly, these people had status and position, and investigating them hastily without a valid reason would probably bring some trouble.

Luke wasn’t afraid of trouble, but he didn’t want to cause trouble either.

He approached the vice squad for a discussion and handed over his speculations and the list of suspected targets.

The vice team looked at the people on the list, and his eyebrows couldn’t help but wrinkle, he wasn’t a person who was afraid of trouble, but these rich people were really not easy to deal with, but if they were a little bit unpleasant, they might get a lawyer, or even a team of lawyers to sue you.

Secondly, these people are all gold masters, each one has their own network of connections, maybe these people even know the director, it’s okay to have a legitimate reason, but the problem right now is that there is not enough evidence for the investigation.

The Vice Squad carefully looked over these four people’s information: ”These four people all like to collect, and they should have quite a few collections as well.

How about we take the initiative to go to the door and tell them that the Getty Museum oil paintings were robbed and the robbers have not been caught yet.

Through the investigation, we found that this group of robbers may commit crimes continuously, and they all have quite a few valuable collections at home, reminding them to pay attention to burglary prevention.

Through exchanges, we can check their reactions, and if they are really buyers of oil paintings, they are likely to reveal something.

Of course, this requires enough experience to judge.

So, it’s necessary for the two of us to investigate in person.”

Luke said, “Will such active solicitude alert them.”

The vice squad bristled, “This group of rich people have priority and are often flattered, and have long been used to people offering courtesies.

If they have nothing to do with the oil painting robbery, they shouldn’t be suspicious, they will only think that our Robbery and Murder Division is ‘sweet’, and may even express their gratitude when they run into the Director at the party.

If some of them are really buyers of the painting heist, they might be suspicious and react in some way.

Then it’s up to us to be discerning.”

The lieutenant’s offer gives the police a reason to approach these suspected subjects, but there are some hidden concerns.

There was a risk of spooking them.

Luke thought for a moment, “Have Matthew gather some more information on the four men and I’ll reconsider.”

“OK, you’re the captain.”

After the lieutenant left the office, Luke took out his cell phone and prepared to call Orty’s number to see if he could get more detailed information from her.

Cats have their ways and mice have their ways.

However, before he could finish dialing the number, his cell phone rang, “Ringing ……”

Coincidence.

The caller was none other than Orty.