Flavorwire

Remember the art thief who pocketed a Picasso drawing and escaped via taxi? Well, it turns out there’s more to one-time sommelier Mark Lugo’s story. The Bay Citizen reports that he collected 11 works, worth half a million dollars, stolen from New York hotels and galleries and was enjoying them privately in his apartment. Other big scores included pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Fernand Léger, lifted from the Carlyle hotel, as well as a Yoshimoto Nara and an additional Picasso sketch. William Ledford, who owns Manhattan’s William Bennett gallery, one of Lugo’s targets, said, “When the detective called me at 6:45am , I asked, ‘was this guy stealing to resell?’ He said, ‘well it looked like he was putting on his own art show.’ He had no intention to sell.” Finally — an art thief who’s in the field for the right reasons! [via ArtsBeat]