A WINDOW cleaner stole paintings worth more than £500,000 from the home of renowned Scots artist Alan Davie after he died, a court has heard.
Daniel Pressland regularly cleaned the windows at the painter’s home and knew there was an insecure window that wouldn’t close properly on the first floor.
It is alleged that after Mr Davie died, aged 93, in April 2014 the window cleaner stole 31 paintings in a series of break-ins at Gamels Studio in Rush Green, Hertford.
The painter was born in Grangemouth and went to the Edinburgh College of Art in the late-1930s. During his life, his works were shown at the Tate Gallery and he was rated the finest abstract British painter of the post-war era A court was told yesterday the last break-in occurred in April 2015, and police caught Mr Pressland after neighbours alerted the authorities.
Prosecutor Sarah Morris said there were three of Mr Davie’s paintings in the back of Mr Pressland’s transit van. Two were worth £70,000 each and one was valued at £50,000, making the total haul worth £190,000.
The jury was told that during an interview with the police Mr Pressland told them he kept his ladders in the painter’s garage and, having gone there to collect them, saw the three works of art which he assumed had been “put out there for the rubbish.”
She said: “He said he had taken them away as a favour and he thought he would use them for skateboard ramps for his son.”
The story was outlined to the jury by Ms Morris at the start of a trial at St Albans Crown Court.
The window cleaner is accused of stealing paintings from the artist’s home over a year between 2014 and 2015 and passing them to an auction house for sale.
Mr Pressland, 42, of Billericay, Essex, has pled not guilty to two offences of burglary, two offences of converting criminal property and two offences of transferring criminal property.
With him in the dock was 42-year-old Gavin Challis, of Nazeing, Essex, who pled not guilty to possessing two paintings by Alan Davie found at his home.
Ms Morris said that after his arrest, a phone belonging to Mr Pressland was examined by the police and, because of text communications found on it, Mr Challis was arrested.
One message found from Mr Challis to his co-defendant read: “Alright mate, how much do you want for one of your big pictures. I need one for my hall.”
At his home, said the prosecutor, two paintings by Mr Davie were found there worth in total £26,000.
A statement from the artist’s daughter Catherine Davie was read to the court in which she said her father had been painting since the 1930s. “I would say he was very well known in the art world and he had lived at Gamels for over 60 years,” she said.
Victoria Long, a director with the London art gallery Gimpel Fils, told the court the gallery had acted for Mr Davie for 50 years. Mrs Long said the gallery kept a list and catalogued all the works completed by the artist during his lifetime.
She told the jury the gallery had in storage “thousands” of works of art created by Mr Davie.
Mrs Long said that, after his death, she carried out an “audit” of paintings and drawings in his home so the gallery’s records could be updated. She said there were paintings in rooms all over the house – his bedroom, an upstairs living room, the landing, a hallway, the bathroom and even the lavatory.
She confirmed that, of the 31 works removed from the house in the break-ins, nine had been recovered. They included the three alleged to have been found in Mr Pressland’s van and those recovered from the home of Mr Challis.
The trial continues.
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