Artist’s Daughter-in-Law Accused of Theft

The daughter-in-law of the Op Art pioneer Victor Vasarely has surrendered her French
passport a:er being accused of stealing artwork from a storage site in Chicago that was
being rented by a dealer, Agence France-Presse reported. The arBst’s daughter-inlaw, Michèle Taburno-Vasarely, said the painBngs that she was trying to take belonged to
her and that she feared that the gallery owner, Thomas Monahan, was planning to steal
them from her. Mr. Monahan said he had indeed been storing thousands of pieces for Ms.
Taburno-Vasarely but became concerned about how she had obtained them when he
heard of an inquiry now under way in France. He said his lawyer had advised him to hold
on to the works unBl righHul ownership could be established. Prosecutors asked a county
judge to postpone Ms. Taburno-Vasarely’s case unBl July 16 and said they intended to
seek a grand jury indictment on felony the: charges. She was arrested on June 22 when
the authoriBes discovered her trying to move the bubble-wrapped painBngs from Mr.
Monahan’s unit into an adjacent one. She was released on a $125,000 bond two days
later. Mr. Vasarely died in 1997