Two St. Louis-area men plead guilty in art heist

ST. LOUIS -- Two St. Louis-area men have pleaded guilty to conspiring in a heist of works by some of the world's most notable artists, valued at up to $4 million, that were traced to buyers in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and St. Louis.

The two men stole original paintings, prints and sculptures while employed at Fine Arts Express, a suburban St. Louis business -- now defunct -- that specialized in safe storage of art and other valuables, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis said Thursday.

Donald Roland Rasch, 44, and Biron Valier, 37, both of suburban St. Louis, each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to a felony count of conspiracy to transport stolen goods in interstate commerce. Rasch pleaded guilty Aug. 25. Valier, the business' manager, pleaded guilty on Thursday. Each faces up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. Sentencing is scheduled for November.

Rasch, his attorney John Rogers said, has "at all times ... accepted responsibility for his actions, expressed remorse and cooperated with the authorities by returning all of the artwork that was in his possession."

Valier has cooperated with authorities and returned everything he took, his attorney Bill Margulis said. When Fine Arts Express went into bankruptcy, Valier was left to run things in the business' final months, he said.

Both men are out on bond.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway, FBI Special Agent Roland Corvington and Bridgeton Police Chief Walter Mutert provided the following details:

A Florida couple in between residences had stored 133 pieces of fine art -- their nest egg -- at Fine Arts Express in Bridgeton, a suburb of St. Louis, in 1994.

The works included original art by Henri Matisse; abstract expressionist painters Willem De Kooning and Mark Rothko; Georges Braques; Bulgarian artist Christo Javacheff; Salvador Dali; Pablo Picasso; Milton Avery, dubbed the "American Matisse"; Ukrainian cubist sculptor Alexander Archipenko and other acclaimed artists.

In June 2002, Valier and Rasch, described as savvy about the art world, stole the art work from storage, dividing the pieces up.

From June 2003 until the following summer, Rasch sold eight pieces valued at $500,000 to a St. Louis art collector for a mere $50,000. In August 2002, Valier put his pieces on consignment with a St. Louis art gallery. Both men represented to the buyers that they had title and legal authority to sell the fine art.

From August 2002 to September 2004, seven of Valier's pieces were sold by the gallery and shipped to buyers around the U.S. and abroad, including a Mark Rothko piece which alone had a value of $1 million.

Their scam was blown when a buyer became suspicious of the men's title to ownership and contacted Bridgeton police through a private attorney.

The enormity of the heist began to unfold, and Bridgeton police asked the FBI for help.

Eighty-eight stolen pieces, valued at between $3.5 million and $4 million, were recovered. Another 45 pieces, valued at several hundred thousand dollars, are still outstanding.

Hanaway said Rasch and Valier did cooperate in the recovery of some pieces, but are not providing additional information. She said they deny the pieces still outstanding were ever stored at Fine Arts Express. Rightful ownership of some of the stolen works, later sold to third parties, is being disputed in civil lawsuits, she said.

Corvington said a special FBI team that specializes in stolen art helped locate the works. The investigation will resume if more information surfaces.

The FBI formed the team last October, after the looting of Iraqi art pieces in the early days of the Iraq War, magnified the need for such a specialty. Corvington noted that the rate of recovery of stolen pieces of art is generally low.