Reposted from Jamaica Observer

Two family members of late renowned Jamaican painter Barrington Watson say thieves broke into their house on Saturday evening and stole 10 paintings worth tens of millions of dollars. The robbery has left Watson’s former wife and son — who asked not to be named — rattled and worried as it was committed while they were at home and had fallen asleep after smelling a strange odor. A few of the stolen paintings — including one that was featured in the Bob Marley movie

One Love — were done by Watson, who died in 2016.

The stolen works, the former wife said, were not insured. “My son and I were here. I was out on the verandah until about 5:00 pm, then I went inside. I locked the grille to the house. The main gate entrance was opened because my son was going to lock it later in the night. I was watching TV in my room, and he was in his room. When he came out at about 7:00 pm, he came into my room and said I didn’t lock the entrance grille. I came out and looked and I saw the chain and padlock on the ground. It was frightening,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Monday morning.

“We started looking around and we saw that paintings were missing. One was right here on this verandah wall. Everything else other than the painting remained the same — untouched,” she said, pointing to the wall and stating that the painting is too large for one person to lift.

“They lifted off the painting on the verandah, which two people have to lift. Then they went into the foyer and took another big one off the wall. Stacked close to that one was several other smaller paintings on the ground,” she added. “From the start of the hurricane season we just took down most of the paintings that were hanging out here and put them inside,” she explained. The mother said that what has worried her most is the fact the robbers struck at a time when she and her son were at home and before the time they would normally go off to bed. “We could be dead,” she said, sharing that the thieves must have seen her as she had fallen asleep watching television. She told the Observer that she recalled a strange odor in the air before she fell asleep.

“They could see me from where they were taking off the painting off the wall. I was sitting in my chair. One interesting thing is that I smelled something funny… I went to see if my bedroom window was opened, but it was closed… They definitely could see me because my night light was on as well as the TV light,” she said. “I never heard any car drive in, and I usually hear everything out there from my bedroom,” the woman added. “We called the police, and the detectives came from Matilda’s Corner, and they were given photographs [of the stolen paintings]. About three or four paintings were from Barrington Watson, one was by Lois Lake-Sherwood, and others were from other painters. I don’t think they really went into any other part of the house. I think they came specifically for those paintings,” she said. “The very big one that they took was in the Bob Marley movie. It was nicely framed. We have had it for donkey years. It is called Orange Park, and it is a painting of where we used to live in Yallahs,” she told the Observer.

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