By Khalida Sarwari
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a ransom note containing a death threat found at a Pebble Beach home where artwork worth an estimated $27 million was stolen Friday.
The burglary happened sometime between 1 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Friday at the home of Angelo Benjamin Amadio and his housemate Ralph Kennaugh at 4027 Sunridge Road.
One of the residents found a typewritten ransom note Tuesday afternoon demanding money for the return of the art and containing a death threat to the victims, Cmdr. Mike Richards said.
Amadio said the suspect or suspects appeared to have entered through an unlocked guest bedroom window and fled with the artwork before he and Kennaugh, a retired radiation oncologist, arrived.
“Whoever did this knew us and knew our collection,” Amadio said in a telephone interview Tuesday morning. “There are probably no more than five or six people who knew about our collection.”
Amadio said he has lived at the home for about four months and is in the process of starting an alternative asset investment company.
Amadio said he and Kennaugh are offering a $1 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the art pieces — if they are returned anonymously and undamaged. The reward offer could be increased to $5 million if information received leads to the arrest of the perpetrators, Amadio said.
Among the art stolen are Rembrandt works “Woman Making Water” and “St. Jude Praying.” Amadio said many of the pieces have never been on the market, including a Pollock painting valued at approximately $20 million and works by Van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Matisse.
Amadio said he and Kennaugh have accumulated about 300 substantial pieces of art worth an estimated $70 million over a period of two or three decades.
Along with the artwork, business records and a hard drive were also stolen, in addition to about 20 to 30 items valued at roughly $100,000, including lithographs, prints and vintage posters, Amadio said. Approximately 100 of the most valuable pieces remaining in their collection are being removed from the house and stored in an insured, secured facility.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is pursuing leads in the case, Cmdr. Mike Richards said. He said while the FBI has not yet been
contacted, “We many contact outside resources at a point when we feel it’s necessary.”
Anyone with information on the burglary is asked to call sheriff’s Detective Mark Stevens at (831) 647-7690.