Portland woman guilty in sculpture theft case
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 10:46 AM PDT
PORTLAND (AP) — The alleged mastermind behind the theft of four bronze sculptures from a Portland estate was found guilty of aggravated theft and other charges.
Kathryn M. Loundree, 37, will be sentenced next month. The other members of the scheme are either in prison or awaiting sentencing. The most time any one of them has received is a little more than three years. Prosecutors said Loundree, struggling to support her unemployed boyfriend, hatched the plan to supplement her $9.25-an-hour job as a security guard. One place she patrolled was the estate of the late philanthropists Jean and Howard Vollum, a co-founder of Tektronix.
The thieves thought the four massive sculptures could be easily taken.
They stole a pickup and parked it nearby. But by the time they wrenched the heavy sculptures free and dragged them through the woods, the truck had been towed away by police.
That setback forced them to beg for a truck from friends, and they ended up leaving two sculptures behind. Those sculptures were later found on the Vollum estate but moved from their original spots and heavily scratched.
The sculptures they hauled away were an untitled welded metal piece made in 1970 by Portland artist Tom Hardy and a 1967 cast bronze titled ‘‘Mother and Child’’ by the late Frederic Littman.
Officials said the case broke after a worker at a Portland metal recycler became suspicious when he noticed what appeared to be a hand in a bucket of scrap. The thieves ended up destroying an estimated $81,000 worth of artwork to pocket $264 in scrap metal. Defense attorney James Britt argued during last week’s four-day trial that Loundree was being unfairly accused by her co-defendants — David Dahlman, Erin McConnell, Rodney Remmick and Anthony Starns.
