Trial opens vs. ex-lawyer in '78 Stockbridge art theft
Defendant is accused of trying to sell work client reportedly stole
obert Mardirosian's former client left seven paintings in an office loft.
By John R. Ellement Globe Staff / August 13, 2008

A federal prosecutor yesterday described a former Watertown attorney as a greedy man who sought to benefit from one of the largest private art thefts in Massachusetts history by allegedly trying to sell paintings he knew were stolen.
"He was caught red-handed," Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Mitchell said in his opening statement in US District Court yesterday.
But the attorney for Robert Mardirosian told the jury that his client wanted only to collect a finder's fee for the paintings, one of which was painted by Paul Cezanne and eventually sold for $30 million.

"He thought it customary and appro priate to be paid a finder's fee," Brian Fitzsimmons said.
Mardirosian is accused of concealing and possessing stolen goods and interstate transportation of stolen goods stemming from a 1978 art theft in Stockbridge committed by a client of Mardirosian, according to federal court records.

He is charged with trying to sell the six remaining paintings in Europe in 2005, a sale that never took place. The statute of limitations on any other charges has passed, according to court records.
Mardirosian's client, David Colvin, was shot to death in 1979 but left the seven paintings behind in an office loft owned by Mardirosian, who discovered them in 1980, according to court records.

Mardirosian, who was told by Colvin that they were stolen, did not try to return them, but instead had them stored in Switzerland. In 1999, using a shell company and lawyers, Mardirosian handed over the Cezanne in return for title to the six other, much less valuable paintings, according to records and testimony.

The original owner, 74-year-old Michael Bakwin, testified yesterday that he agreed to the 1999 deal only so he could recover all seven of his paintings, the bulk of which he inherited from his mother.
"I thought it was extortion," Bakwin said. "But if we could get the one painting back, then I would be able to get the six other paintings back."

In 1999, Bakwin hired the International Art Loss Registry and its top official, Julian Radclife, to recover the paintings in return for a commission based on the market value of the paintings, according to court records.
Bakwin recalled what it was like to have the Cezanne again after more than two decades. "I had a nice time looking at it for a while, but I had to sell it unfortunately," he said.

Also testifying was Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Judd Carhart, who in 1978 prosecuted Colvin in federal court and led the search for the art thief, a search the judge said petered out after Colvin's death. Carhart testified that he remembered little of Colvin or the art theft investigation.
The trial, before US District Court Judge Mark Wolf, resumes today.