Man Admits Trying To Sell $600K Worth Of Stolen Art At Manhattan Flea Market

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A man has admitted trying to sell $600,000 of stolen artwork through a Manhattan flea market, according to Manhattan's acting U.S. Attorney.

Leon Zinder, 48, from Forest Hills, stole work including a Native American mask from his employer's storage center in Greenwich, Connecticut, prosecutor Joon H. Kim said.

Between July 2010 to April 2012, Zinder worked as an art handler for a New York-based company that manages an extensive art collection consisting of thousands of individual works including a collection of Native-American and African ethnographic art.

Kim said the man stole more than 70 works of art during that time. The name of Zinder’s employer has not been released.

Zinder then sold or attempted to sell the stolen artwork through an art dealer at an unnamed outdoor flea market in Lower Manhattan. He told the dealer that he got the art from the widow of a sheriff in Phoenix, Arizona, and from a storage-unit close-out sale.

The artwork included at least three items that Zinder had stolen from his employer’s facility in Greenwich and subsequently transported to Manhattan: a Fang Reliquary Guardian Head statue valued at approximately $85,000; a Native-American Mask valued at approximately $75,000; and a Pende mask valued at approximately $5,000.

Zinder pleaded guilty to interstate sale of stolen property and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison as well as a maximum fine of $250,000.

Zinder’s sentencing date has yet to be determined.

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