Saturday, January 2, 2010

Fake Art Theft Made Even Spicier By CIA Link

According to Reuters, police announced today that thieves had stolen about 30 paintings from a private villa in the south of France, including a work by Pablo Picasso. For some reason, thefts of high-end artwork fascinate me. Do you remember that about three months ago, two men sharing a rented $4-million home in a gated community near Pebble Beach, California, announced that their uninsured $80 million collection of Rembrandts, a Van Gogh and a 'previously undiscovered' Jackson Pollock had been stolen while they were away on vacation. If true, it would have been the second largest art heist in history. But just two weeks later, the local police, frustrated by the victims' lack of cooperation and by their ever-changing stories, announced publicly that they thought the whole claim was a hoax and that the two men never even owned the artwork.

Well, that story just gets better. On December 29, a 34-page memo written by one of the 'victims,' 31-year old Angelo Amadio, was apparently delivered to the Monterey County District Attorney. The rambling complaint characterizes the Monterey County Sheriff's Department as "bad actors," and alleges that they have failed to investigate the art heist thoroughly because of Amadio's friendship with a woman named Sage Ratcliff, who is under separate investigation for passing bad checks. And then, just when you think the story can't get any stranger, in it pulls the CIA. Yup, the CIA, that old chestnut. It alleges Ratcliff's stepfather has ties to the CIA and that her father is a deputy with the sheriff's department, and insists the cronyism in the sheriff's department is the reason his artwork is still missing. Amadio also claims he was threatened at gunpoint by men with CIA ties, or ties to the sheriff's department.

I have to admit that, in a perverse way, I sort of admire how brazenly Amadio seems to be doubling and tripling down on the crazy. First, you report one of the biggest art heists in history, including an 'undiscovered' canvas by Jackson Pollock. That alone is transcendently insane, if false. Then, when pressed by skeptical investigators, you say that all record of your ownership was stolen, too, in the same theft. Then you triple down with the alleged CIA connection and murky threats at gunpoint.

It's all very convoluted. (I left out many, many other twists and turns, too.) It may be easier to follow if you watch a 4 minute piece about this from a local TV news station by clicking HERE. (It includes video of the two "victims" as well. The other man is a 62 year old retired professor named Dr. Ralph Kennaugh. The two are variously described as "business partners" and just "partners.")

11 comments:

  1. Who are you nice that you post your name? Your credibility is zero and you don't know what your talking about. Are you Don Ratcliff, Fired Sheriff Mike Kanalakis, or one of his goons? Get a life loser and stop arm chair commenting. Your should be writing about police corruption, the fact that there was never an investigation, civil rights violations, and defamation. But thats not what you have done. Could it be your one of the fools in charge of Mike Kanalakis's failed bid for re-election of Monterey County Sheriff? Likely. Your a bigot, liar, and fraud. Did you bother contacting the victims or their attorney? No. Just spewing lies and misinformation. Hope you get sued too for defamation. Did you know the people that threatened Amadio at gunpoint actually went to an incorrect home believing it was his, first? No, because again there was never an investigation. Mike Kanalaks stop writing and or making others spew your lies!

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    1. A couple of thieves to be sure.

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  2. What about an update that the victims Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh have shown that the art was real and there was a theft and no insurance? Why would a Doctor with a perfect medical record lie about this? No motive. The only thing here was the Nazi style propaganda spewed by Don Ratcliff or Donald Ratcliff of Salinas, CA or Monterey, CA to his Gestapo enforcement unit and it's commander former Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis, Detective Mark Stevens, and Cmdr. Mike Richards. What money can buy you. Bigots, liars, and frauds is what they are. They did not do their jobs and for a friend, campaign supporter, man who donates his million dollar helicopter "Don Ratcliff" to the Sheriff, lied to the public and victimized the victims of this crime.

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  3. Gotta love the governmental corruption and lies... Then the victims of this crime continue to be re-victimized by a corrupt sheriff and his millionaire friend Donald Don Ratcliff. The fact is this blog is B.S. and only intended to hide what happened to the victims of this crime.

    See the truth at: www.PebbleBeachArtHeist.com

    Angelo Amadio is a victim of Donald Don Ratcliff and yes Nick Noack who in fact is a retired CIA agent. How dare Angelo Amadio question their money, motives, and power. See court records in a lawsuit filed in Monterey against these men. The CIA agent sent Angelo Amadio an email threatening him should Angelo Amadio continue to help a client at the a law firm where he clerked. The client had retained the firm to investigate the Sheriff, Don Donald Ratcliff, and Nick Chickering the CIA agent for wrongful arrest. Angelo Amadio was the lead investigator.

    What happened when he ignored the threat by the former CIA agent, Don Donald Ratcliff of Monterey / Salinas, CA and the Sheriff. His lifes work was stolen, fine art, valued in the millions. And you got it. He then was forced to call the very people he was investigating who had threatened him in the weeks prior to the theft, and ask for help. Good luck Angelo Amadio. We all see the lies and B.S. of the Sheriff, Don Donald Ratcliff, and Nick Noack here. Your not the first and wont be the last person to fall prey to these corrupt goons.

    Find the art get $5,000,000.00 details at: www.PebbleBeachArtHeist.com

    Good luck Angelo Amadio the public finally sees the truth and we are behind you.

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  4. What kind of supreme silliness is going on here? All this fuss over a bunch of prints worth maybe a few hundred bucks?? Even if the Miro lithos and the Rembrandt and Matisse etchings are authentic--the rest is worthless crap no matter how authentic--we're still only talking ten or twenty thousand, tops, not hundreds of thousands and certainly not millions.

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  5. The Redoubtable Mrs MalagassyJuly 26, 2011 at 8:29 PM

    From the photos these jokers have posted on their website purporting to depict the artwork in their various residences, only the so-called "Rembrandts" (etchings both of them, if not outright reproductions) and some nondescript late 20th century schlock are evident. I certainly don't see any Miro lithos or Matisse etchings anywhere on the walls of those sad middle-class interiors. Even if the allegedly stolen artwork actually belonged to these guys, it's still only graphics, with a combined auction value in the low thousands, certainly not the millions these gents claim. As for the alleged "Pollock"--well, anyone even remotely familiar with the real thing can sniff out that steaming pile a mile away.

    From the way these clowns--and the media-- carry on about their "collection," you'd think
    they'd lost the contents of the Fondation Maeght, the Menil, or the Guggenheim, not a dreary stack of what may well be knock-offs best left tucked away in dusty file cabinet. Truly a folie a deux.

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  6. Are either one of these guys behind bars for the costs alone? Not to mention all the times taken out of peoples lives. I hear they have relocated West Hollywood. Kennaugh has not aged well for 62. Looks like a turkey.

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  7. Angelo Amadio has been a scam artist for years. From selling cars that aren't his to ripping people off as a shady dog breeder. Any scam to make rent. A true rentboy in every sense.

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    1. This is Don Ratcliff commenting for sure

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