Whit Rummel-THE ACCIDENTAL PICASSO THIEF

In 1969, a Picasso painting titled Portrait of a Woman and Musketeer vanished from Logan International Airport’s loading dock in Boston and ended up in the home of Merrill “Bill” Rummel, a forklift operator. Unaware of its contents, Rummel took the crate home, later discovering that it contained the painting and hiding it in his closet. As the missing Picasso drew the attention of the FBI and the Winter Hill Gang, Rummel and his fiancée panicked. Could this accidental Picasso thief avoid both the mob and the FBI?What happened next was a sort of reverse heist. Stealing this painting was easy—it was actually an accident.The tricky part was devising a foolproof plan to return it without getting arrested or killed. This book, co- authored by Whit Rummel Jr. and best-selling author and art crime expert Noah Charney, tells the full story and looks at incidents of art theft in the United States, putting this quirky crime into context.ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Whit Rummel Jr. is an award-winning screenwriter and film maker. After graduating with a Master’s in Film from Boston University, he began his career as a documentarian. His first project, TATOO, was a quirky 16mm film about heavily tattooed people that aired nationally on the PBS series, Independent Focus. He went on to establish WHITCOM Associates, a Boston-based production house specializing in innovative programming for corporate and commercial clients. His first screenplay, Secret Boy, was awarded the Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was contracted by Disney Toon studios to script an animated feature calls Pigs Might Fly.