The University of Rochester’s police have made an arrest in the attempted theft of a work of art from the Andy Warhol exhibit at Memorial Art Gallery.
George R. Haag of Rochester was charged with second-degree attempted grand larceny, a felony, the gallery and university said Thursday. He will be arraigned on the charge Thursday.
The Memorial Art Gallery still hasn’t said what artwork from the Warhol exhibit Haag allegedly tried to steal. But by the letter of state law, the charge against him means the artwork was valued at $50,000 or more.
The arrest was made following an investigation by the University of Rochester Department of Public Safety.
At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 31, Haag allegedly removed the artwork in question from a gallery wall, according to the news release. He was reportedly intercepted by a member of Memorial Art Gallery’s security staff as he attempted to leave the gallery space.
The artwork was secured and Haag left the building.
An evaluation of the artwork found it to be undamaged and it has remained at the museum, according to the news release.
The exhibit, “Season of Warhol,” is a collection of the late artist’s paintings, prints, films, photographs and helium-filled balloons. It runs through March 28.
Jeremy Moule is CITY’s news editor. He can be reached at jmoule@rochester-citynews.com. Rebecca Rafferty, CITY’s life editor, contributed to this story. She can be reached at becca@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Feb 1-28, 2021.
