In 1982, a dubious crew of local career cat burglars and con men plotted to rob Andrew Wyeth.  Former newspaperman Bruce Mowday wrote about the art heist gone wrong in his new book “Stealing Wyeth”, writes Amy Stark for Main Line Today.

When Bennie LaCorte saw a Wyeth original fetched about $600,000 at a New York auction house, he decided to round  up his cohorts, steal a Wyeth original and make that their retirement fund.

He tapped Frank Matherly  and William Porter.

The plan was to steal one painting out of the Granary, where Wyeth kept his paintings.

Porter gets there and the alarm isn’t even set. He just walks into the Granary and instead of one, he brings out 15 paintings and stacks them against a tree—seven by Andrew, six by his son, Jamie, and two from well-known artists Henry Casselli and John Crawford.

The paintings never left the U.S. Some went down to Tennessee with Porter.  He hid the art in junkyards and trash bags buried in the ground.   A few stayed in Pennsylvania.

Within a year, with the help of informants and the FBI, the paintings were back.

Read more about this Chadds Ford art heist here.

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