ANCHORAGE (CN) - An undercover wildlife agent investigating a man for selling walrus tusks stumbled upon polar bear hides, stolen art by Lucien Pissarro and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and felons with machine guns, federal prosecutors say.
The game agent turned up a scheme to trade endangered mammal parts, including two polar bear hides and 230 lbs. of walrus tusks, according to a forfeiture complaint, a superseding indictment and Jesse Joseph's Leboeuf's guilty plea.
The U.S. Attorney's Office seeks forfeiture of five stolen works of art found at Leboeuf's home in Glennallen, Alaska. Leboeuf is also known as Wayne G. Christian.
According to a Bloomfield Police Report, the stolen art includes a chalk study, three watercolors and an oil painting: "Study of Alexa Wilding," by Rossetti; "Milton" by Pissarro; "Nests at Kilmurry," by Mildred Anne Butler; "Castle and Figures in a Farmland," by William Payne; and "Landscape and Cattle on the Thames," by Henry Garland.
All were originals and/or signed; most were produced in the 19th century and had been auctioned to private sellers at Christies and housed at museums in America and London, according to the police report and the federal complaints. Three of the five works had been reported stolen by a private owner, Nicolette Wernick, and were valued at $68,000, according to the police report and complaint.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Jeffrey Meehan discovered the stolen art in September 2010 while investigating Leboeuf and Loretta Audrey Sternbach for Lacey Act violations: illegally selling walrus tusks and other wildlife. Sternbach is named as a defendant in the superseding indictment, as is Richard Blake Weshenfelder.
According to the forfeiture complaint: "On or about December 11, 2010, Leboeuf described five stolen art paintings he possessed, concealed and stored in his house, to a USFWS undercover agent. He told the agent how the paintings were stolen by his half-brother, later identified as Mario Murphy, and some other 'cousins,' from the Wernick Collection approximately five years before. Leboeuf gave the agent photographs of the artwork which on the back had notes referencing the name of the artist and title as well as an estimated value. Leboeuf wanted the undercover agent to find a buyer for the stolen artwork. He promised to pay the agent a finder's fee if the agent brokered the sale of the artwork."
A month later, "On or about January 4, 2011 Leboeuf again told the agent about the stolen artwork he possessed, concealed, and stored in his house. Leboeuf told the agent that he had received the stolen artwork from his half brother, Mario Murphy, who transported the stolen paintings from back east to Alaska," according to the forfeiture complaint.
Agent Meehan stated in an affidavit that Leboeuf showed the paintings to agents in his living room, pulling them from black plastic bags in a cardboard box. He told the agents paintings were worth $30 million but he would settle for $1 million, according to the affidavit.
The Fish and Wildlife Service then obtained and executed a search and seizure warrant.
Leboeuf, Sternbach and Weshenfelder were indicted in April 2011. All pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Lacey Act and/or violating it, and illegal possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, according to court documents.