Retd. Professor nabbed for stealing David
Paynter's paintings
2015-11-17
A retired Professor who had been entrusted with 19 paintings worth of Rs. 37 million drawn by renowned artist David Paynter was arrested by Police Financial Crimes Investigations Division for not handing them over to the University of the Visual and Performing Arts according to Paynter’s last wish.
A retired Professor of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts Albert Dharmasiri who had been entrusted with 19 paintings of David Paynter to be handed over to the university according to Paynter’s last wish had not done so.
Instead the Professor had kept seven precious paintings to himself and sold 11 others to various people for large sums of money, Police Spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said.
The FCID acting on a complaint lodged by the University of the Visual and Performing Arts conducted an inquiry and took the Professor into custody.
The police found 18 paintings following the inquiry and the Professor was produced before the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate yesterday.
The Nuwara Eliya Magistrate ordered to release the Professor on a cash bail of Rs. 5,000 and a surety bail of Rs. 100, 000 and ordered to appear again on February 29, 2016.
The Magistrate ordered the police to hand over the drawings to the Dean of the University’s Visual Arts Faculty. David Shillingford Paynter (1900 –1975) was a renowned Sri Lankan born painter who’s most celebrated works, his murals were painted in the chapels of Trinity College, Kandy and St. Thomas’s College, Mount Lavinia. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)
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Paynter's paintings
2015-11-17A retired Professor who had been entrusted with 19 paintings worth of Rs. 37 million drawn by renowned artist David Paynter was arrested by Police Financial Crimes Investigations Division for not handing them over to the University of the Visual and Performing Arts according to Paynter’s last wish.A retired Professor of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts Albert Dharmasiri who had been entrusted with 19 paintings of David Paynter to be handed over to the university according to Paynter’s last wish had not done so.
Instead the Professor had kept seven precious paintings to himself and sold 11 others to various people for large sums of money, Police Spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said.
The FCID acting on a complaint lodged by the University of the Visual and Performing Arts conducted an inquiry and took the Professor into custody.
The police found 18 paintings following the inquiry and the Professor was produced before the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate yesterday.
The Nuwara Eliya Magistrate ordered to release the Professor on a cash bail of Rs. 5,000 and a surety bail of Rs. 100, 000 and ordered to appear again on February 29, 2016.
The Magistrate ordered the police to hand over the drawings to the Dean of the University’s Visual Arts Faculty. David Shillingford Paynter (1900 –1975) was a renowned Sri Lankan born painter who’s most celebrated works, his murals were painted in the chapels of Trinity College, Kandy and St. Thomas’s College, Mount Lavinia. (Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana)
