Charles Sabba Is Awarded a Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum Grant and is one of the Three Finalists

The Russo Brothers: Two of America’s greatest directors, producers and screenwriters. 

Our film for the Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum Grant, Defending the Peninsula, was chosen as one of the three finalists and was shown at the Russo Brother's Film Forum at the NIAF (National Italian American Foundation) which was held at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC. A trailer of the film was also shown at the Gala the same evening that was attended by a crowd of over 1000, including dignitaries such as Former CIA Director and Secretary of the U.S. Mike Pompeo, Italian Ambassador to the United States Mariangela Zappia, Giada De Laurentiis and many more. The Gala was hosted by Maria Bartiromo and Joe Piscopo.

We filmed on two U.S. coasts: Malibu/Pacific Palisades, California and New York and Boston; then two Italian coasts: Cerveteri, Roma and Fano. We interviewed archeologists, cultural patrimony experts, two mayors in Italy and the lawyer in Fano, Italy who is fighting to get the Lisippo Bronze of Fano repatriated to Italy (currently held by the Getty Villa)! In this film we cover the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery and Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Italian art purchasing habits through Bernard Berenson, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Euphronious Krater case, and the current legal and moral battle bewreeen the Italian Government and the Getty Villa for the ownership and return of the Lisippo di Fano (which the Getty calls the Getty Bronze). We Are honored to be in the top 7 and very happy to have an opportunity  to spread our message about Article 9 of the Italian Constitution as well as the battle for the Lisippo Bronze.

The three runner ups of the Russo Brother's 2022 grant awards were:

 

Charles Vincent Sabba, whose film “Defending the Peninsula” investigates art theft and antiquities looting in Italy and how law enforcement in both the USA and Italy work to protect the artistic and cultural patrimony of Italy’s 70% share of the world’s great art.

 

Agata De Santis, whose documentary film, Rossi & Company, explores the history of the 112-year-old Italian American gift shop in NYC’s Little Italy, and the struggle its 71 year old proprietor is having to keep its storied doors open.

Leaving the Facory (Forum Winner) by Alessia Crucitelli and Andrew James Levay.

Mr. Basil Russo and Charles Sabba at the Russo Brothers 2022 Film Forum. Mr. Basil Russo has dedicated his entire life to promoting Italian culture in the U.S.A. and fighting for Italian-American rights and social justice causes.
 

I would like to thank the Russo Brothers and their father, Basil Russo, for their generosity and for giving me this opportunity to express my cause of Italian cultural patrimony protection in film.

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This grant is an amazing opportunity and it is extremely generous of the sponsors. The Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum is sponsored by four entities: the National Italian American Foundation, the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, the Russo Brothers and AGBO.

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New Fingerprint Ink Drawings

 Here, in this new post, I will start exhibiting my latest fingerprint ink drawings that will be portraits of both criminals and investigators involved in the art theft /art crimes arena. These will be new works created in 2022 into 2023.  I travel around the globe and ask these extraordinary individuals to pose for my portraits. I will also be creating depictions of artworks that have been stolen and antiquities that have been trafficked in my “visual investigations.”******************************************

William P. Youngworth III: Massachusetts Antiques dealer and Hudson River School expert; fingerpainted in fingerprint ink on police department palm print card, 8” x 8” (20.32 x 20.32 cm), 2022. By Charles Vincent Sabba Jr. Not many people in the art world has made my life as interesting as my friend Billy has!

Mark Dalrymple: Fine Art Loss Adjuster, Fingerprint ink and pastel on police print card, 8” x 8”, 2022. Charles Sabba.  My friend Mark was the best in the business and was responsible for many important recoveries, including Leonardo da Vinci’s “Madonna with the Yarnwinder” that was stolen in Scotland in a robbery in 2003. This is a study for a full figure portrait in oil I am doing of Mark.

Introduction to this blog:

Bracelets (bling); gold spray paint and cheap rhinestones on handcuffs.

I am Charles Sabba. I am an artist, a police captain with over 28 years of law enforcement service, an art loss consultant and an investigative journalist. A large part of my artistic voice is an on going discussion of the murkier side of the art underworld. You can view my different bodies of art works by scrolling down through this blog. You can also view here my involvement in the art theft/ art crimes investigative world, my CV and artist statement, some of my articles I have written, and my complete artist biography from birth until present. This blog’s posts are set up in chapters of my artistic life from the earliest post to present (I will be blogging new art works soon):
Chapt 1: My complete artist biography from birth to present: an art life.
Chapt 2: Artists and art world habitues who had an influence on me.
Chapt 3: Biography: My art theft/ art crimes involvement.
Chapt 4: Articles written
Chapt 5: Street art and murals.
Chapt 6:  Gaeta Italy: Photos of Gaeta, Italy, the pearl of the Mediterranean (the 2nd home of the artists Cy Twombly and Charles Sabba).
Chapt 7: Sabba’s photography.
Chapt 8: Artist CV and artist statement.
Chapt 9: Art of Homo Mediterraneus and Homeric expeditions.
Chapt 10: Portraits of some artists and other creative people.
Chapt 11: Performance art.
Chapt 12: Bullet Bees.
Chapt 13: Fingerprint ink drawings.
Chapt 14: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Robbery Visual Investigation Portraits.
Chapt 15: Art theft portraits and art crimes art.
Chapt 16:  Stolen art fingerprint ink drawings.
Chapt 17: Huffington Post Article: The Double Life of Charles Sabba.
Intro.
You can also view more at my web site:
Www.yourbrushwiththelaw.com

The art theft investigative journalistic team at the New York Athletic Association located at 180 Central Park S, New York. Jill Rackmill, Charles Sabba (standing), Brian Ross, and William P. Youngworth III.

https://lawandcrime.com/ross-investigates/

https://lawandcrime.com

Chapter 17: Huffington Post: How A New Jersey-Born Cop Learned To Embrace His Artistic Side This is the fascinating story of Charles Sabba and his double life.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cop-by-day-artist-by-day-off-this-outsider-artist-lives-a-double-life_n_56956643e4b086bc1cd58b96

Bracelets; gold spray paint and cheap rhinestones on Smith & Wesson handcuffs.

CULTURE & ARTS

How A New Jersey-Born Cop Learned To Embrace His Artistic Side

Huffington Post.

This is the fascinating story of Charles Sabba and his double life.

By Priscilla Frank

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cop-by-day-artist-by-day-off-this-outsider-artist-lives-a-double-life_n_56956643e4b086bc1cd58b96

Chapt 16: Stolen Art Fingerprint Ink Drawings

Stolen Manet: Chez Tortoni; Fingerprint ink on police criminal print card done in the artist's fingerprints; by Charles Vincent Sabba Jr. 
“…In Sabba’s version of the stolen painting, the eyes of the gentleman were large and round and dark. He looked sadder and more contemplative than in the original. The fingerprint card asked for the arrestee’s name, height, weight, and social security number, but the spaces were blank except for the daubed re-creation of the stolen image, which rose above the form’s lines and boxes, as if it couldn’t be restricted by categorization. But the work could also be read as an argument that art itself was an illegal act, a way to transgress and transform, to keep ideas alive through robbery and rip-offs. Thieves swiped the original-Sabba made a copy.” –Written by Ulrich Boser in his book: The Gardner Heist; Harpers Collins; 2009. 

Stolen Rembrandt: Self Portrait, Stolen From the Isabella Stewart gardner Museum in 1990, fingerprint ink on 8"x 8" police print card, 2004.

Stolen 12th Century Chinese Gu, Stolen From the Isabella Stewart gardner Museum in 1990, fingerprint ink on 8"x 8" police print card, 2004.

Stolen Munch: The Scream;

Stolen Modigliani; Stolen in Milano, Italy on 9 Feb 1987; recreated in fingerprint ink on police fingerprint card; 8"x8."

Stolen Mario Sironi/ a orse with rider; stolen from Milano, Italia in July 1969.

Stolen Carlo Carra'. Stolen Sept 22, 2013 from Carbonara di Bari.

Boston Police Department Sketches of the Suspects in the Gardner Museum Robbery; 2010.

Boston PD Composite Sketches of the Suspects in the Gardner Museum Robbery; 2010.

STOLEN PICASSO (stolen in SWITZERLAND): TETE DE CHEVAL,

Fingerprint ink on official police fingerprint card, 8" x 8,"  2010.

Picasso Bullfight; this drawing was stolen in Toulouse, France on 17 June 2010.

Stolen Modigliani: Stolen in Paris in 19 May 2010.

Stolen Mario Sironi: stolen from Torino, Italia on Aug 18, 1987.

Stolen on 31 July 1992 in Palermo, Italy: Renato Guttuso's A Woman Pulling Garment Over Her Head,

Stolen Massimo Campigli: Five Women Out Walking; stolen on 21 Feb 1972 from Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italia

Stolen Matisse: Pastorale; Stolen from the Modern in Paris on Thursday, May 20, 2010.

Stolen Marc Chagall: L'Apparition; Stolen from Stocksund, Sweden on 19 July 1990.

Stolen Mario Sironi: Man in Profile; stolen on 2 June 1970.

Stolen Jean deBuffet I. Stolen in Firenze, Italia on 23 Giugno 1981

Stolen Jean deBuffet I. Stolen in Firenze, Italia on 23 Giugno 1981

Stolen Francesco Clemente: stolen from Fillacciano, Italia.

Stolen Rembrandt: Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Modigliani Looted by the Nazis; was sequestered in Geneva in April of 2016 after its current owner's identity was uncovered in the Panama Papers" leak. It was secretly owned by an off shore company International Art Center (IAC). The work was stolen by the Nazis from Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner, who fled Paris in 1930. The artwork is valued at 22 million euros. 

Stolen Leonardo DaVinci: Madonna With The Yarnwinder; stolen on 2003 in an armed robbery from Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland.

Stolen Modigliani: Stolen in Paris in 19 May 2010.

Verre et pichet ("Glass and pitcher): Stolen from Museum in Switzerland.

Stolen: Pablo Picasso; Dance;1956. Was stolen from the museu chacara do ceu, Rio de janeiro on Feb 24, 2006.

Stolen Picasso: Colombe (A Dove); stolen from Madrid, Spain on 15 Nov 1978.

Stolen Picasso: A La Jeunesse; Stolen in Paris, France on 1 Aug 2005.

Stolen Jean Cocteau: Two Faces; stolen on 23 Dec 1995 in Neuilly Su-Seine, France.

Stolen Cezanne: Boy With Red Vest; Stolen in Feb 2008 in Zurich. It was valued at $91 million. Was recovered in Serbia in April 2012

Edvard Munch's Madonna: Stolen on 29 March 1990 from the Gallery Kunsthuset in Oslo, Norway; Oil paint and fingerprint ink on police fingerprint card.

 Stealing the Chinese Gu from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum back in 1990.

Stolen Picasso: Coq; stolen on 1 Aug 2005 in Paris, France.

Stolen Scream Wanted by the F.B.I.; Fingerprint ink on gessoed Federal Bureau of Investigations Wanted Card; 2010.

Photo from my one man show at the Y Gallery New York in 2010 (When the Y gallery was on the Bowery).

                               

Photo from my one man show at the Y Gallery New York in September 2010 (When the Y gallery was on the Bowery).

Photo from my one man show parallel Avant Gardes: On Subversiveness and Criminality at the Y Gallery New York in 2015 (after the Y gallery moved to 319 Grand Street in the Lower East Side).

Chat 15: Sabba's Art Theft Portraits and Art Crimes Art

Vincenzo Perugia, the man who stole the Monalisa from the Louvre in 1911; fingerprint ink on police fingerprint card finger painted in the artist's prints; 8" x 8", 2016.

Art theft investigator Richard Ellis; Oil on canvas. Dick Ellis founded the Metropolitan Police's Art & Antiques Crime Unit in London, UK.

Art theft investigator Richard Ellis; Oil on canvas. Dick Ellis founded the Metropolitan Police's Art & Antiques Crime Unit in London, UK.

Art loss adjuster Harold Smith; Oil on canvas.

Edvard Munch's Madonna; Oil paint on F.B.I. Wanted poster. . Was stolen in 1990 in Oslo, Norway. Another version was stolen by masked gunmen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.

The Scream by Edvard Munch. Oil paint on F.B.I. Wanted poster. One version was stolen in 1994 from the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway. A different version was stolen in 2004 from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.

The Scream: I'll give you something to scream about; oil paint and duct tape on F.B.I. Wanted poster. 

Art Loss Investigator Harold Smith (wearing hat and eye patch); Oil on canvas.

Dada Ist Die Polizei Der Polizei (Sabba's Self Portrait); fingerprint ink on police fingerprint card which was tinted with blue pastel finger painted in the artist's prints; 8" x 8".

Museum Security Director Vernon Rapley; Oil on canvas. Vernon was in charge of the Metropolitan Police Art & Antiques Crime Unit in London and is now the director od security at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Bobby "The Art Cop" Volpe, New York Police Department Art Theft Investigator; Oil on canvas.

Bobby "The Art Cop" Volpe, NYPD Art Theft Investigator; Oil on canvas.

Michel Van Rijn Portrayed as The Merry Drinker of Frans Hals; Oil on canvas.

Wanna Buy A watch?; pastel on New Scotland Yard Art & Antiques Crime Unit Stolen Art Wanted poster.

Julian Radcliffe, director of the Art Loss Register in London. 

New England Art Thief Myles Connor; Oil on canvas.

Art Forger John Myatt; Oil on canvas.

Metropolitan Police Under Cover Detective Charlie Hill; Oil on canvas.

James J. "Whitey" Bulger: Wanted By The F.B.I.; oil paint and pastel on F.B.I. wanted card, 2002.

Cycladic Art; pastel on New Scotland Yard Art & Antiques Crime Unit Stolen Art Wanted poster.

Stolen Munch; pastel on New Scotland Yard Art & Antiques Crime Unit Stolen Art Wanted poster.

Baghdad; pastel on police fingerprint card.

John Myatt's Eyes; fingerprint ink on F.B.I. wanted person card finger painted in the artist's prints; 8"x 8", 2016.

Bobby "The Art Cop" Volpe, NYPD Art Theft Investigator; pencil on paper; 1998.

Balkan Pink Panther Gang Jewel Thief; fingerprint ink on police palmprint card finger painted in the artist's prints; 8" x 8".

BPD Composite Sketch of 1st Gardner Suspect; fingerprint ink on police fingerprint card finger painted in the artist's prints; 8" x 8".

BPD Composite Sketch of 2nd Gardner Suspect; fingerprint ink on police fingerprint card finger painted in the artist's prints; 8" x 8".

Bracelets; cheap rhinestones on gold leafed Smith & Wesson handcuffs; 2002.

Bracelets; cheap rhinestones on gold painted Smith & Wesson handcuffs; 2015.

Bling; cheap rhinestones on gold painted Smith & Wesson handcuffs; 2015.

La Stigmata; acrylic paint on bullet proof vest; 2001.

Il Giubbotto; acrylic paint on bullet proof vest; 1998.

The Black Madonna; acrylic paint on bullet proof vest; 2011.

The Black Madonna (detail); acrylic paint on bullet proof vest; 2011.

Virgo Fidelis: The Patron of the Italian Carabinieri; oil on canvas. In the private collection of Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinando Musella (worked Anti-Mafia/Terrorism Unit, then from 1996-2007 was director of the elite TPC in Rome that combats cultural crimes, art theft and illicit archaeological trafficking). I painted this in 2004 and gave it to Lt. Col. Musella after he invited me as his guest to the Italian Consulate in New York. This was after we, along with Italian version of Attorney General, addressed the United States Department of State's Cultural Property Advisory Committee in Washington DC on 23 Aug 2005 supporting a Memorandum of Understanding regarding trade in antiquities between the U.S. and Italy. 16 people addressed the committee, 11 of whom were in favor of the MOU and 5 (dirty antiquities dealers) who were opposed. In the end, this MOU was indeed adopted by the U.S. State Department. Virgo Fidelis is a title of honor and praise for the mother of God and Man and is the protector of the Italian Carabinieri.