Cincy Fringe production replays saga of Cincinnati's stolen Rembrandts

CINCINNATI — One of Cincinnati's strangest moments — in both art and television — is given new life in a play debuting at the Cincy Fringe Festival in Over-the-Rhine.

"The Rembrandt Job" tells the story of some bumbling thieves, an eccentric West Side real estate broker, the Taft Museum of Art board chair, a legendary WCPO news man, and two stolen paintings.

And as strange as it sounds, it's historically accurate.

"It's just inherently comical," said playwright Kevin Crowley, "Everyone involved was so hapless and it has this sort of Keystone Cops — if you're of a certain age you know the Keystone Cops — sort of element to it."

Crowley, a teacher at SCPA, has been part of Cincy Fringe for eight years as a writer and actor. He said he was drawn to true local stories that play on nostalgia and the strange.

"I started investigating this story and wrote about 20 pages and it just sat on my computer screen and then I submitted it to the Fringe Festival knowing if I got in, I'd have to finish it because that's the kind of writer I am," he said.

The play tells the true storyof a theft from the Taft Museum of Art on December 18, 1973.

Two burglars with guns tied up an unarmed night watchman making his rounds outside the Taft Museum. He was the only guard on duty.

Two days later, a West-Side bar owner and real estate broker named James Hough called legendary anchor Al Schottelkotte and said the thieves had contacted him to be their intermediary. They demanded $300,000 from the museum or they would set fire to the paintings.

Hough said the thieves wanted to be sure they wouldn't be double-crossed, so they wanted Schottelkotte involved. Schottelkotte had Cincinnati's most-watched newscast for decades and a reputation of trust.

Hough said he had Portrait of an Elderly Woman at the Regis Lounge, on Harrison Avenue, just outside of Cheviot.

When Schottelkotte walked into the bar, about 10 p.m., the painting was covered in a quilt and propped against a wall. The patrons stirred when Schottelkotte arrived, and when Hough removed the quilt, they gathered around to see what the fuss was all about.

Schottelkotte called Taft Museum Committee chairman John Warrington and told Warrington to call police and meet him at WCPO. Schottelkotte drove the painting and Hough to the TV station.

Ultimately, Warrington agreed to pay $100,000 and the thieves led investigators to the second painting in a bar in Clermont County.

The three men in their early 20s were identified as Carl E. Horsley, Henry Dawn and Raymond McDonough. They were small-time crooks who had done jobs together, police said, but they were drawn to the Taft by the Rembrandt exhibit, which had been highly publicized.

Hough ended up facing the most serious charges — extortion and grand larceny — and was sentenced to three to 20 years. Hough was paroled after four years and filed for bankruptcy a decade later.

And, after decades passed, art experts decided that the stolen Rembrandts were not Rembrandts after all but copies made by his students. The Taft Museum no longer displays them.

"It's so comical," Crowley said. "I think theater is a real unifier and I think at this time in this country that's something we really really need."

"The Rembrandt Job" plays twice more during the festival - June 10 and 11 at Gabriel's Corner in Over-the-Rhine. More information about the festival and tickets to the shows can be found on its website.