Be careful who you let in your house, particularly if you have original works by Victor Vasarely.
A Florida woman was ordered held on a $10,000 bond after she stole works from a legally blind man – Gilbert Jackson – that she supposedly cared for, including an original Vasarely work valued at approx. $30,000 – $35,000. Maureen Stuteville, 46, appeared in court remotely via video before Florida Judge John Hurley. She faces a charge of exploitation of a disabled elderly adult.
Maureen Stuteville has been accused of stealing numerous high value art works from the blind man she ‘cared’ for
In early December (2013), Jackson realised that his original Victor Vasarely work was missing from the house. Stuteville told him the painting was somewhere in Boca and later said it was at an art gallery. Days later Jackson asked to get his painting back, and Stuteville told him he would have to give her $3,000 and an automobile before she would return the painting, according to the report.
After Jackson’s friends discovered an invoice to an antique gallery in Dania Beach, Stuteville admitted to a friend that she had sold the Vasarely work, together with other expensive paintings and sculptures that Jackson owned. The gallery owner acknowledged that he had bought the works but had no idea they were stolen. He said Stuteville was a regular visitor and had told him that she was selling the works to pay for the car of her adoptive father with cancer.
Stuteville claims Jackson asked her to sell the works. Jackson claims otherwise. I have a feeling I know who to believe on this one.
Vasarely theft by Olly
Vasarely’s concepts inevitably needed to be interpreted into three-dimensions. The illusionist effects created in his two-dimensional imagery suggested a relief quality and viewers often resisted the temptation to touch Vasarely’s paintings and graphic works to verify that they were indeed, flat. Consequently, the evolution into sculpture for Vasarely was a very natural one.