GRANITE FALLS — Federal officials arrested a Granite Falls couple this morning they suspect of breaking into homes and stealing prized art work, including an etching by the Dutch master Rembrandt.
The couple and a former art dealer from Seattle allegedly broke into the homes to steal the art and then tried to sell it, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Seattle.
One buyer was an undercover FBI agent, she said.
Agents recovered numerous stolen paintings and other art work, some missing and believed stolen since 2004. Among the recovered art work was the Rembrandt, two paintings by famed northwest artists Morris Graves and one by Mark Tobey, a renowned American abstract expressionist.
The FBI’s Art Crime Team, formed in response to the looting of Iraqi antiquities during the Iraq War, helped in the investigation.
The Granite Falls couple is expected to appear this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Seattle. The former art dealer was arrested in Bozeman, Mont.
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