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# Crimes of the Art
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/crimes-of-the-art-40/
- Published: 2015-12-01T23:27:13.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:46:49.000Z
- Description: On this week’s art crime blotter: a serial brain tissue thief strikes a museum, a suicidal man attacks a Picasso-inspired exhibition, and an art dealer's grandson sues a gallery over a $25 million Modigliani.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: News, Amedeo Modigliani, Art Crime, brain, Crimes of the Art, Lawsuits, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

![Brain tissue in jars at the Indiana Medical History Museum (photo by @robinwaites/Instagram)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/crimes-art-brains-medical-museum.jpg)

Brain tissue in jars at the Indiana Medical History Museum (photo by @robinwaites/Instagram)

[*Crimes of the Art*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/crimes-of-the-art/) *is a weekly survey of artless criminals’ cultural misdeeds. Crimes are rated on a highly subjective scale from one “Scream” emoji — the equivalent of a vandal tagging the exterior of a local history museum in a remote part of the US — to five “Scream” emojis — the equivalent of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist.*

## Brainless Thief Steals Medical Museum’s Brains

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-1.jpg)

David Charles, 23, of Indianapolis, has [pleaded guilty](http://nypost.com/2015/11/26/man-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-human-brains-from-medical-museum/?ref=hyperallergic.com) to repeatedly breaking into the [Indiana Medical History Museum](http://www.imhm.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and stealing jars of brain matter and other human tissues. Investigators recovered 80 jars of human tissue from Charles.

**Verdict:** Eighty jars!? Jeez, leave some vintage brains for the rest of us.

## Suicidal Ohio State Security Guard Attacks Art

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-4](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-4.jpg)

As yet unidentified artworks featured in the exhibition [*After Picasso: 80 Contemporary Artists*](http://wexarts.org/exhibitions/after-picasso-80-contemporary-artists?ref=hyperallergic.com) at the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University were [damaged](http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/11/29/shot-fired-inside-wexner-center-for-arts.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) when a former campus security officer entered the museum with a gun, vandalized several pieces, and then killed himself. Though the museum will [reopen](http://wexarts.org/press/wexner-center-arts-reopening?ref=hyperallergic.com) tomorrow, the exhibition will remain closed through the end of its scheduled run (December 27).

**Verdict:** This is just very, very sad.

## Jewish Dealer’s Grandson Sues for Modigliani

![crimes-of-the-art-scream-2](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/02/crimes-of-the-art-scream-2.jpg)

The grandson of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner, Philippe Maestracci, is [suing](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/25/arts/design/estate-sues-nahmad-gallery-network-for-modigliani-portrait.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) New York’s Helly Nahmad Gallery for the return of Amedeo Modigliani’s “Seated Man With a Cane” (1918), a painting that was allegedly stolen by the Nazis and was recently valued at over $25 million. The case was filed with the New York State Supreme Court, which previously ruled that Maestracci, a resident of France, did not have sufficient standing in the US to make his claim here. The latest suit was filed by the US-based administrator of Stettiner’s estate.

**Verdict:** It’s just like Biggie said: “Modiglianis, mo’ problems.”