Mark Lugo, the Hoboken resident accused of stealing a Picasso sketch from a San Francisco gallery, must really love art: Police raided his NJ apartment and found 11 stolen artworks, many of them from Manhattan galleries. Among them was a Fernand Léger 1917 drawing, "Composition aux element mecaniques," worth $350,000, and another Picasso, the 1933 etching, "Sculpteur et Deux Tetes," worth $39,000. In fact, "Sculpteur et Deux Tetes" was taken from the William Bennett Gallery in Soho last month!
A law-enforcement source told the AP, "There were about six of them displayed on the wall of the apartment. His whole apartment was filled with wine books, upper-crust living, paintings." Lugo had worked at Per Se and was once a sommelier at BLT Fish; back in April, he was also charged with stealing $6,000 in wine from a Wayne, NJ wine dealer.
Lugo is being arraigned today for his alleged San Francisco heist (he was tracked down after surveillance footage of a suspect carrying the sketch was released) and is being held in lieu of $5 million bail. His lawyer says he thinks his client has "psychological issues."
