a plan to fail spencer reinhard painting

I was not in my ordinary largely white existence anymore. Cops entered the basement, a dank pit reeking of marijuana, and found Warren sprawled out on a mattress. Afterward, Warren and Spencer briefed the others, and the four went to lunch, where, the boys say, Chas insisted they spend another night in New York and attempt to see Mr. Leckey the next day. I was nervous. from an unsuspecting friend and got his hands on zip ties, a wool cap, electrician's tape, and bedsheets. He looked like he was dressed from a thrift store, Halloran told the agents. Lifting a technique straight from the film Reservoir Dogs, Warren assigned code names based on color: Mr. Green (Spencer), Mr. Yellow (Warren), and Mr. Black (Eric)as in the film, emotions turned testy when he assigned Mr. Suddenly without Eric's mock-ups, software, and equipment, Warren thought of Spencer. They said that this set, Birds of America, sold for $12 million. I said, Twelve million dollars, just sitting there? The thieves left no fingerprints behind, and there were almost no witnesses. What they would tell me, then, is their version of eventsand the only complete account of the planning, execution, and aftermath of the heist. With a long, thin face and bleached-blond hair and sideburns, he appeared younger than Gooch had expected. We figured the more obvious [we were], the less likely [we would be suspected]., As it was already nearing the end of the school year, and there was a lot of planning yet to be done, they agreed to postpone the theft until at least the fall. They checked into the Hilton Hotel in Midtown, Warren signing in under the nom de guerre Harry Ballsania name backed up with one of their fake Kentucky driver's licensesand paying in cash. That was the plan. Eric would stay on the main floor while Warren subdued Gooch in the Rare Book Room. The press invariably described them as good boys from good familiesupper-middle-class kids afforded every opportunity, the ones with the most to lose. And one thing led to another and we were just like, Let's put this behind us. And once we get past all of that, we started talking about this plan that he and Spencer have. It was just funny because weve been in a lot of places that theyve been, Eric says. You know, most people look at that painting as if it was a plan destined to fail, but at the same time, we were planning to fail., In a few years we'll be released. Forensically examining Instagram accounts, interviews, and police reports, author Kathleen Hale reconstructs their relationship, and ultimately Petitos murder. The L.P.D. They said that this set, Birds of America, sold for $12 million. I said, Twelve million dollars, just sitting there? Thats what we were doing, kind of living this little Matchstick Men, college kind of life.. In exchange, Barry slipped him an e-mail address with instructions to sign off any communication with the name Terry. They also noticed a group of people lingering in the Rare Book Room. Warren was already busily working out the problem, returning for advice to his underworld contact: What if we had some artwork that we wanted to sell? Warren remembers asking him. Indeed one might consider these years to be a catalyst with which he could find his unique vision. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to a Lexington Catholic alumnus who was making an easy living in identity theft. (Throughout the interviews with the three, it became clear that Chas was the odd man out among the group. [This librarian] doesn't know what we're carrying, but she's like, Where did these kids come from? Eric says. Because the boys made the highly unusual decision not to accept the prosecutors offer to testify against one another during sentencing in exchange for leniency, they were each sentenced to identical seven-year terms. In terms of the dollar amount involved and the extraordinary circumstances, the theft was one of the most significant in its history. Back at Warren's later that afternoon, the boys were transfixed by local coverage of the Transy Book Heist. According to the news, it appeared that neither Gooch nor anyone else was able to provide the police with an accurate description of the boys. They had reserved a room in the same Midtown Hilton that Spencer and Warren had stayed in nearly a year earlier. Warren and Chas left the other two and staggered to the nearby China Club, a tacky West Side nightclub, which they knew about from the famous Rick James episode of Chappelles Show. Reinhard is here for a monthlong working visit at the invitation of Bianca Bartley and Zuar Jarrett, the programme director and chairman, respectively, of the recently launched creative initiative in St Mary targeting local and foreign artists spanning various disciplines. They got security around that? Nonchalantly, very nonchalantly, I mean, just kind of shooting it between us. When she asked for contact information, Spencer gave her his cell-phone number. agents were sitting behind them the whole time, listening to their every word. Realizing that the only way out was through the main floor, they took the elevator up once again and carried the books into a back stairwell that led to another exit. Among the prisoners are three of the four unlikely masterminds behind the Transy Book Heist: Warren Lipka, Spencer Reinhard, and Eric Borsuk. Like, they were doing something serious, talking about the heist, going over the plan, and somebody would make a joke. Barry described himself as an older man with a long ponytail and said he'd be wearing a green scarf. He loved that it had been made the screen saver on the F.B.I. The other two would wait around the block in the S.U.V. We weren't, like, hardened criminals, so we kind of had to really put up a front. Warren deepens his voice: How ya doing? That kind of stuff. After an awkward back-and-forth, Warren finally handed the man the $500. Well all be . At only $200 a month, the price was right, as Warren was broke after having shut down his and Spencer's fake-ID business and dropping out of U.K. for the semester to focus full-time on the heist. Warren jumped at the opportunity and recruited another adrift freshman, his old high-school soccer teammate Eric Borsuk, as a partner. Once Warren had pulled the cap over Gooch's eyes, the two laid a bedsheet on the ground and began piling on the seven Audubon folios they intended to steal (the four-volume Birds of America plus three volumes from another Audubon series). 2023 Cond Nast. He was just so unbearable. . See also I was expecting to play soccer quite a lot, but the coach was a completely different person once I got on the team, he tells me. Each has a different style of facial hairmuttonchops (Lipka), a Fu Manchu (Borsuk), a Tom Selleck (Reinhard)which Lipka informs me they had carefully trimmed for my visit. from an unsuspecting friend and got his hands on zip ties, a wool cap, electricians tape, and bedsheets. The next day, they worked off their hangovers by checking out Ground Zero before strolling into the bustle of Chinatown for lunch. When Warren arrived, he saw a man fitting that description seated with three other men. They take you in the Special Collections and show you these books, Spencer remembers, including Transy's prized Birds of America, by John James Audubon, a four-volume set of life-size engravings the pioneer wildlife artist completed in London in 1838. The press invariably described them as good boys from good familiesupper-middle-class kids afforded every opportunity, the ones with the most to lose. Spencer, meanwhile, was accepted to Transylvania on an arts scholarship, his sights firmly set on a career in graphic design. Copyright 2023 The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited. Because no one would go to Christie's with stolen books to get them appraisedthat's how we did a lot of stuff, like, we would smoke weed directly under the [security] camera on the Transy campus, park a car right underneath it and then smoke for like an hour. Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Eric Borsuk and Charles Allen II were all between the ages of 19 and 20 at the time of the robbery. A few minutes later, a short, dark-haired young man, also dressed in a winter coat, cap, and gloves, entered the library. We'll all be still young, Warren says. They were skeptical, Warren recalls. He scored a joint before checking into a hole-in-the-wall and falling asleep. The phone number was registered to a Gary Reinhard of Lexington, Kentucky. Afterward, he was to call Eric up to haul the books in two trips to the G.T.A.V., which was to be driven by Chas. That afternoon they worked their way back uptown, to scope out Christies steel-and-glass headquarters before their Tuesday appointment. you know, it's. it was. In the case of 67-year-old Alan Slattery of the U.K., it prevented a robbery from even happening. Eric couldn't get hold of his friend's car, leaving Chas to borrow a Dodge Caravan his mother was fortuitously selling the next day, the boys say. Donald Trump to Evangelicals: You Cant Break Up With Me Because Im Breaking Up With You First, Reality Is Submerged in Fantasy: The Villages Is a Boomers UtopiaAnd Demographic Time Bomb. I want to say living that kind of lifethe country clubs, sitting in a classroom and listening to two girls argue about turning down a BMW S.U.V. Calculated, mathematical, loose, painterly, spontaneous, 2021 Spencer Reinhard all rights reserved, Please send me the price list, I am interested in purchasing an original Reinhard. Spencer, meanwhile, was short, wiry, distant, and in many ways Warren's opposite: an over-scheduled, over-achieving, diamond-tipped drill of a kid who excelled at whatever he set himself to. Once safely back in Lexington, the two created a Yahoo account and sent off the e-mail in which they claimed to have unspecified rare books in their possession, using the name Terry, as instructed. Inside were the books, wrapped in sheets and pillowcases. Warren was like, I've talked to these guys. The meeting ended after 30 minutes, and Ms. Halloran escorted the two out, assuring them that shed be in touch after conferring with her superiors on the best way forward. Aside from harming B. J. Gooch, Spencer, Warren, and Eric maintain that they have no regrets. I think we all knew that we wanted something different, and we had to break away from where we were living. The meeting initially hit a snag when Barry was put off by the boys' youth. Before rendering her decision, the judge made preliminary findings that each of the boys was equally culpable, that the value of the books stolen would include only those physically removed from the building, and although Gooch suffered no bodily injury, the stun pen was in fact a dangerous weapon. By early November the boys were selling fake IDs at a hundred dollars apiece, and had apparently branched out into more lucrative identity manipulations. Wedged in among the other houses on Beaumont Avenue, a quiet residential street near the U.K. campus, is a beaten-down yellow cinder-block bungalow, with two bedrooms on the second floor and two on the first. Spencers journey as an aspiring artist may at first appear wholly inimical to achieving that end, though significantly the challenges he faced are far from unique to most aspiring artists. I'd heard about them before, but I didn't know anything about them. Eric Borsuk, Spencer Reinhard, Charles 'Chas' Allen IIand Warren Lipka hatched a grand plan to steal rare books from their uni library Credit: KKYT. That night Chas snapped, they say, fearing the Christie's book appraisalthe Jesus bolt holding Warren's entire heist plan togetherwas in danger of falling through. During our interview Eric told me, He was like just a weight on us. We can never go back if we wanted toI would rather have not been busted, but all I can say is it feels right in here, and before, in college, it just never did., I remember talking to Eric and Warren one day and I was like, So what, they're going to put us in jail, says Spencer. His malaise was likely exacerbated by his parents' impending divorce amid his mother's allegations that his father, Big Warren, the celebrated coach of the university's women's soccer team, had gambled the family into bankruptcy. His work and practice demonstrates not only the redemptive power of art but the struggle of all artists to articulate and convey their voice and message in an increasingly noisy and distracted world. Spencer Reinhard and Warren Lipka had grown up together in adjacent subdivisions on Lexingtons south sidefully planned residential tracts wedged in between the city and the gradually receding horse country that rings it. (Spencer had had to do a rush job on them because his art-history final had run long.) Bam. Around Halloween, Warren drafted a working plan, which he presented to the other three in the basement. In fact, wedged in their backpacks was nearly three-quarters of a million dollars worth of books and manuscripts: an 1859 first edition of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection ($25,000), an illuminated manuscript from 1425 ($200,000), a set of the two-volume 15th-century horticultural masterpiece entitled Hortus Sanitatis ($450,000), 20 original Audubon pencil drawings ($50,000), and Audubons A Synopsis of the Birds of North America ($10,000). town of bernalillo fiestas, Told the agents, Eric says press invariably described them as good boys from good familiesupper-middle-class kids every. 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