Thursday, December 10, 2009

Son of artist Frank Frazetta arrested for stealing his father's paintings

Sadly, Frank Frazetta Jr., the son of renowned SF&F artist Frank Frazetta, has been arrested for stealing 90 of his father’s paintings, worth about $20 million, from a family-owned museum located in the Pocono Mountains region of northeastern Pennsylvania. If you can believe this, the son and two accomplices used a backhoe to break into the museum. A family dispute seems to be at the center of the theft. This story is being reported at the local, national and international level.

Several of Frank Frazetta’s paintings were used as the cover art for later editions and reprints of the legendary Barsoom series of Mars novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Pictured: John Carter of Mars and Martian princess Dejah Thoris. Artwork by Frank Frazetta.

[via Mike Glyer of the fanzine File 770]

2 comments:

Dr. Charles Forbin said...

That's a real shame. His wife, who by all accounts was a model for much of his work, passed away in July. Then this, which seems like an act of mental illness.

Republibot 3.0 said...

Jeez-oh-Pete, that's weird, but not neccisarily crazy. I don't know anything about Frazetta's family life. Could be the kid was frozen out of the estate or something, and was desparate to get cash, or maybe a picture was just promised to a favorite niece or something, and he wanted it for himself. Coming from a large family, this kind of stuff (unfortunately) happens all the time when someone passes away, and the inevitable feeding frenzy starts.