MANHATTAN, NY – Leon Zinder, 48, of Forest Hills, Queens, is facing federal charges after allegedly pilfering over $600,000 worth of valuable artwork from his employer and attempting to offload it through a Manhattan flea market. The brazen scheme unraveled thanks to the sharp eye of an art dealer who grew suspicious of Zinder’s increasingly flimsy backstories.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. announced the complaint against Zinder this morning. Zinder was arrested at his Queens home and is expected to appear in Manhattan federal court later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine H. Parker. Bharara stated, “As alleged, Leon Zinder stole works of art worth more than $600,000 from his employer and then sought to sell them through a flea market in Manhattan. This Office, working with our law enforcement partners at the FBI, have helped recover and return countless works of stolen art and artifacts to their rightful owners. And today, we do so again, as well as seeking to hold the alleged thief accountable.”
The feds say Zinder worked as an art handler for a New York-based company managing an extensive collection of art, including a significant number of Native American and African ethnographic pieces. Between July 2010 and April 2012, authorities allege he systematically stole at least 13 artworks from company facilities. He then began peddling the stolen goods starting in September 2015, spinning tall tales to an unsuspecting art dealer operating out of a lower Manhattan flea market.
According to the complaint, Zinder fabricated stories claiming the artwork came from the estate of a deceased sheriff’s widow in Phoenix, Arizona, or from a cheap storage-unit close-out sale. Among the stolen pieces he attempted to sell were a Fang Reliquary Guardian Head statue valued at approximately $85,000, a Native American mask valued at $75,000, and a Pende mask worth around $5,000 – all lifted from the Company’s Greenwich, Connecticut facility and transported to Manhattan. The dealer, initially charmed by the “deals,” eventually realized something was deeply amiss.
“As we allege in our case, Leon Zinder stole African tribal and Native American art from his employer over a two year period then fabricated stories…to establish a consignment sale relationship with an unsuspecting art dealer,” explained Sweeney Jr. The dealer, recognizing the inconsistencies, contacted the FBI, turning over most of the stolen artwork and assisting in the investigation. The recovered pieces are now being returned to their rightful owner.
Zinder is charged with one count of interstate sale of stolen property. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain derived from the crime or twice the victim’s loss, whichever is greater. Bharara thanked the FBI’s Art Crime Team for their work. Anyone with information related to this case is urged to contact the FBI’s Art Crime Team at (212) 384-1000 or through the FBI’s tips website: https://tips.fbi.gov/.
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Key Facts
- State: New York
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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