Pennsylvania Man a part of the theft ring that stole Yogi Berra rings, Warhol paintings and Pollock convicted

A pennsylvania man, who was part of a group who stole Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock paintings, among other valuables, was sentenced to eight years of federal prison, after he was guilty of theft of major art.

Thomas Trotta, 49, from Dunmore, is the fourth person sentenced as part of the investigation on theft that took place for more than two decades in 20 museums, shops and institutions. The rings in the world series that once belonged to Baseball Great Yogi Berra were among the stolen elements.

Trotta was guided to pay $ 2.8 million on Thursday as part of his sentence on Thursday. He had already been closed.

His lawyer, Joe d’a Andrea, said on Friday that Trotta was “the main broken, he was the one who entered the institutions and robbed him.”

Gino Bartolai, a lawyer for the defendant Nicholas Dombek, who is waiting for the conviction after Trotta testified against him and two, said he sees eight years as a short conviction, given the numerous robberies that Trotta recognized to hire.

“The currency of the land when you cooperate is that you receive a break,” Bartolai said. – And that got – received a big break.

Bartolai said that a 54 -year -old Dombek is conviction in Thornhurst, and the other two men was not scheduled. Andrea called Trotter the main witness of the government against the three.

Many of the stolen art works and other materials remain unknown, federal prosecutors said on Friday. The thefts took place in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Dakota and Washington, DC

Trotta acknowledged that he stole Warhol Silkscreen “Le Grande Passion” and the 1949 oil painting from 1949, “Springs Winter” from the Everhart Museum in SCRANTON, Pennsylvania, in 2005, prosecutors said. In that theft, the thieves were apparently helped by a large tent that covered the rear entrance for an event, as they shattered a glass door. Pollock painting was estimated in 2023 worth nearly $ 12 million.

“Springs Winter” was borrowed at the museum from a private collector. “Le Grande Passion, owned by the museum, was created in 1984 in the commission for an advertising campaign for the Grand Passion Cognac. A museum official said on Friday that these works were not recovered.

D’Andrea said Trotter thought he knew where the paintings in Newark, New Jersey finished.

“He thought he did it,” said D’Andrea. “But when the authorities went to the place where he thought they were, they could not find them.”

Prosecutors said Trotta also acknowledged that he stole MVP rings and plates worth $ 500,000 collective from Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, New Jersey. He was also involved in the theft of a Tiffany lamp, boxing objects and horses and articles related to the baseball slugger Roger Maris and the legend of Ben Hogan.

It is believed that Berra’s rings were melted and sold far less than they were worth as baseball memories. The gold nuggets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were taken from the Mining Sterling Hill Museum in Ogdensburg, New Jersey.

“Upper Hudson”, an 1871 painting by Jasper Cropsey estimated to be $ 100,000 or more, was apparently burnt in the effort to hide the crime, according to the American prosecutor. It was taken in 2011 from Ringwood Manor from Ringwood, New Jersey.