The owner of two Colourist paintings stolen 16 years ago has expressed her frustration at the collapse of a legal case about the theft.
Still Life with Tulips and Fruit, by George Leslie Hunter, was stolen from the home of Elizabeth Young and her later husband Harry, along with a still life by another Scottish Colourist, FCB Cadell.
The valuable paintings were stolen from the owners' home at Candacraig Gardens, in Strathdon in 2001.
The two paintings were believed to have each been worth a six-figure sum, but were re-discovered ten years ago.
However last month, when the case over the theft came to court, two people, former friends of the Youngs, Penelope Thomas-Smith and her husband Phillip Thomas-Smith, had the case against them dropped after a legal debate.
The collapse of the case has left Mrs Young without redress for the theft.
She told a Sunday newspaper: "I am more than appalled. It's disgraceful. The police did their best and are very upset. The outcome makes me want to vomit."
Mrs Young added: "I don't understand how the court could get in a little huddle and make a decision without witnesses or evidence being put forward.
"I don't understand how they can even be allowed to do that."
The Thomas-Smiths live in Bulgaria and were arrested last year.
The couple who left the village after the paintings were stolen in July 2001 and moved to Northern Cyprus.
Mrs Thomas-Smith organised weddings in the Young’s Victorian summerhouse in the Candacraig walled garden.
At Aberdeen Sheriff Court two weeks ago, the couple had not guilty pleas accepted by the Crown following a legal debate.
The pair were not in attendance at the hearing.
A spokesman for The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said: “As with any case, the decision to prosecute was taken after full and careful consideration of all the facts and circumstances and the evidence available at that time.
“It is the duty of the Crown to keep cases under review and due to a change in the evidential position the Crown decided to discontinue proceedings.
“The Crown reserve the right to re-raise proceedings should the evidential position change.”
The two paintings were left to Mr Young by his mother, an art collector who bought the works in the 1960s.
The paintings went missing after the Youngs went away for a weekend break.
Mrs Young said: "We were devastated. It was very up and down emotionally. It definitely affected Harry badly. He lost trust in people."
In 2006, the stolen Hunter was spotted in an auction sale and was recovered, and the Cadell was subsequently also discovered.
However, neither painting was insured, and the Cadell had to be sold to cover recovery costs.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here