An Ohio man has agreed to take responsibility for his role in trying to help sell a stolen Andy Warhol print valued at at least $175,000.
Brian Alec Light is expected to soon plead guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen goods, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California announced in a press releaseTuesday, Oct. 1.
The 58-year-old is slated to make his initial appearance in federal court Oct. 28, according to federal prosecutors.
In the 25-page plea agreement reviewed, prosecutors allege that a thief – identified only by the initials J.O. – stole a Warhol Lenin Trial Proof print, depicting the Soviet political leader, from a Los Angeles County home in early 2021.
Federal prosecutors released these photographs of the stolen print, complete with Andy Warhol’s signature in the bottom left corner of the piece.
U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California
The owner of the print contacted both law enforcement and a gallery in West Hollywood, Calif., where he had purchased the piece, per the plea agreement which Light signed on Sept. 18.
Days later, the thief allegedly took the print – which features a disembodied painted sketch of Lenin with face and hand separated by gray space – to a local pawn shop to sell.
The owner of the pawn shop – referred to in the plea agreement as G.B. – then allegedly reached out to Light “for help selling the artwork,” which prosecutors say Light knew to be stolen.
Light then allegedly reached out to an unnamed auction house, and the print was eventually sent to Dallas, Texas, for inspection and sale on March 1, 2021, per the plea agreement.
The auction house – which planned to include the piece in its Spring 2021 auction – also reached out to the same West Hollywood gallery that had initially sold the work for its opinion on the piece.
The gallery “immediately recognized the piece as the stolen piece of art,” and informed the auction house that it was stolen and reached out to the FBI, per the plea agreement.
On March 8, 2021, an FBI agent interviewed Light, who claimed that he had purchased the print for $18,000 in cash and had a receipt from the sale. In the plea agreement, Light acknowledges that he “submitted the fake receipt to the FBI to affect the FBI’s investigation.”
Light later allegedly emailed to the FBI the purported receipt, writing: “I Brian Light bought an A Warhol Painting from [a person] on Feb 4 2021 for $18,000 in Culver City CA.”
He faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
