Art News

Stolen Painting Believed to Be a Modigliani Held Clue to Serbia War Crimes Arrest

BELGRADE (REUTERS).- Desperate for cash after years on the run, Goran Hadzic tried to sell a stolen painting believed to be a Modigliani and supplied the vital clue for capturing the last major Yugoslav war crimes fugitive. Serbia’s president announced the arrest of Hadzic, a Croatian Serb wartime leader indicted for crimes against humanity during the 1991-95 Croatian war, on Wednesday. In a later news conference, Serbia’s chief war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said the 52-year-old was arrested in a forest near the village of Krusedol after investigators followed the trail of a painting attributed to Amedeo Modigliani, the Italian 20th century figurative artist. “The breakthrough was information that he (Hadzic) wanted to sell a stolen Modigliani painting as he was running out of money,” Vukcevic told a news conference. Earlier this year Serbian tabloids reported that the painting, allegedly titled “Portrait of a Man,” had been discovered in the home of a friend of Hadzic