Press Release
FRENCH NATIONAL CHARGED IN INTERNATIONAL STOLEN ART CONSPIRACY INVOLVING PAINTINGS BY MONET, SISLEY, AND BRUEGHEL
June 27, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Anthony V. Mangione, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced today that on June 26, 2008 a one-count Indictment was returned charging defendant Bernard Jean Ternus, 55, a French citizen who resides in Cooper City, Florida, with conspiring to transport in interstate and foreign commerce, four stolen paintings, knowing that they were stolen.
The paintings were stolen from the Musee des Beaux-Arts, also known as the Museum of Fine Arts, located in Nice, France. The stolen paintings are "Cliffs Near Dieppe" by Claude Monet; "The Lane of Poplars at Moret" by Alfred Sisley; "Allegory of Water" by Jan Brueghel the Elder; and "Allegory of Earth" also by Jan Breughel the Elder. They were stolen by armed robbers on August 5, 2007.
According to the Indictment, Ternus and his co-conspirators worked for approximately ten months to broker the sale of the four stolen paintings to undercover agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and an undercover officer of the French National Police. In late fall of 2007, Ternus traveled to France to meet with his co-conspirators and subsequently reported to the FBI undercover agents that he had access to the stolen paintings. In January of 2008, Ternus and a co-conspirator traveled to Barcelona, Spain, where they negotiated with FBI undercover agents for the sale of the stolen paintings. Ternus' co-conspirators also traveled to Miami, in April 2008, to meet with Ternus and the FBI undercover agents to negotiate the terms and structure of the sale of the stolen paintings.
In May 2008, one of Ternus' co-conspirators met in France with an undercover officer from the French National Police and showed two of the stolen paintings to the undercover officer. The undercover French National Police officer agreed to purchase the stolen paintings on behalf of the undercover FBI agents. On June 4, 2008, when the final transaction was to occur, the French National Police arrested Ternus' co-conspirators in southern France and located and recovered all four stolen paintings in Marseilles, France.
Also on June 4, 2008, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Ternus at his Cooper City, FL, residence pursuant to a previously sealed complaint and arrest warrant charging Ternus with visa fraud. A grand jury subsequently returned a one-count indictment charging Ternus with using and possessing a United States visa knowing that the visa had been procured by means of a false claim and statement. Ternus is in federal custody on that charge.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as their French counterparts. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher J. Hunter and Trial Attorney Scott Lawson of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice.
Attachments:
Indictment (PDF)
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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