a plan to fail spencer reinhard painting

The Kentucky Theatre This ultimately led to the life changing events chronicled in the 2018 film American Animals. The books were much heavier than the boys had projected, and the pair could handle only three at a time. If not, we were going to get caught and it was going to be a crazy story., And now that weve diverted from that path, we feel liberated, Warren tells me, waving his arms around the room. [This librarian] doesn't know what we're carrying, but she's like, Where did these kids come from? Eric says. I want to say living that kind of lifethe country clubs, sitting in a classroom and listening to two girls argue about turning down a BMW S.U.V. Afterward, they returned to the Hilton for an early night. I love that my kids will grow up seeing both worlds and experiencing both cultures. The other was short and quiet, wearing a yellow jacket two sizes too large and a matching scarf. Warren and Spencer readied themselves early without waking the others, silently showering, shaving, and putting the finishing touches on their outfits. Spencer, meanwhile, was accepted to Transylvania on an arts scholarship, his sights firmly set on a career in graphic design. Number one on that list was failure to create a business plan. Warren had run up the side of the hill and frantically ran off. Having told their parents that they were going on a ski trip to West Virginia, that weekend they loaded the loot into Erics Ford Explorer and took off on the 12-hour drive to New York for their Christies appointment. The painting, in digital form, would become a popular screen saver on the F.B.I. In seeking to find a voice of ones own the obstacles are myriad, and often many succumb to the inevitable pressures of life and abandon their practice. The guys hung out together when they could, with Warren frequently conjuring up fantasiesthrough billowing clouds of marijuana smokeof post-heist life for them in the Mediterranean, complete with sleek catamarans and topless women. Chas backs up [the van] and almost hits the woman as Eric comes around to the door. Several weeks before Spencer was approached by Warren about the fake-ID business, he had been on a freshman-orientation tour of Transy, including the library and its exceptional collection of rare books and manuscripts. Warren had run up the side of the hill and frantically ran off. He scored a joint before checking into a hole-in-the-wall and falling asleep. Gooch agreed to reschedule for 11 the next morning. We figured, All right, well, now we just got what we thought would be impossible . I see Warren and Eric bust out of the back door, Spencer says, describing what he saw unfold from his lookout position. Add to cart Category: Prints Additional information They simply ignored him, and the four returned to Lexington. She agreed. When they arrived on campus in the replacement G.T.A.V., they couldn't find a parking space anywhere near the library. Spencer was born in 1984 in Lexington Kentucky. Once the boys were inside the library, students stared at the ridiculous old-man disguises. Ive met with them, Eric continues. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. My world view actually expanded. The meeting lasted no more than 15 minutes, but still, it was a turning point because the men explained to Warren a crucial step of selling rare books, stolen or otherwise: appraisal by a legitimate auction house. Speculative plans became actual plans, the plan became a dry run, the dry run became a crime - a botched affair that . According to the revised plan, they would ditch the old-man disguises and only Warren and Eric would enter the library. When Halloran inquired about them, Spencer spoke up and offered to fetch them from the car. Starting with a 1970s Pierre Cardin canary-yellow blazer that had belonged to his grandfather, he wore a dress shirt with an ostentatiously large collar and a gold silk scarf. Phase 1 begins at the bungalow when all four get into what Warren designated the G.T.A.V., or the Go-to-and-Away-Vehicle, all disguised as old men. By one o'clock that afternoon, the 227-year-old liberal-arts college was swarming with campus police, uniformed Lexington Police, plainclothes detectives, and forensic teams, as well as local news. Frightened and alone in an unfriendly neighborhood and weighed down with priceless books, Warren and Eric barreled down the street, frantically trying to hail a police cruiser to rescue them. Late one Thursday afternoon in mid-February, the two friends bought a bag of weed and drove the 700 miles to Manhattan in Spencers Acura Legend. We had a few pitchers, feeling each other out. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. And that's when I came up. I took my zip ties and I put them around her feet and put them around her arms. It was about at that point that Gooch remembers Warren saying, Quit struggling, B.J., or do you want to feel more pain?. During our interview Eric told me, He was like just a weight on us. Because this is so much bigger than anything weve done before.. He was told to look for a bearded, heavyset man in a solid-blue sweater. It Was Catastrophic: Inside Prince Andrews Misguided Bid to Explain Away Epstein, In the wake of Jeffrey Epsteins arrest and apparent suicide, Prince Andrew moved from the fringe of a swirling underage-sex scandal toward its white-hot center. Spencer Reinhard and Warren Lipka had grown up together in adjacent subdivisions on Lexingtons south sidefully planned residential tracts wedged in between the city and the gradually receding horse country that rings it. The fourth, Charles Chas Allen II, had been transferred to a federal medical center in Lexington.) Between studying for his first semesters finals, working out, and painting, Spencer made time to scope out the Special Collections section of the Transy library, reporting back to Warren weeks later that there was zero security other than an old lady librarian named B.J. Just days before their arrests the three even took in a movie: Oceans 12. Like if we ever get caught, we're talking about international issues, way past interstate commerce or whatever the hell it is.. All rights reserved. Afterward, they returned to the Hilton for an early night. Phase 3 is the escape, which involves switching the G.T.A.V. because she wanted a new Range Rover, like, what? There were all sorts of theories as to why they had done it: they were drug addicts; they had amassed large gambling debtsor Lipka's father had, and the boys did it to save the family's honor (the variant most popular with the local papers). An American Animals coloring book, as well as original drawings Skip to content Spencer Reinhard Home After Audubon Prison Period Abstract Abstract color series Post prison Abstract About Shop Commissions Contact Menu Home After Audubon Prison Period As a precautionary measure, they left the books in the car. 's all-time most significant art-theft cases. Seeing something in the wayward Warren, the preppy grifter pitched him the idea of selling fake Kentucky drivers licenses in the U.K. dorms. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Because this is so much bigger than anything weve done before, Eric says. To have time to properly apply the disguises, he tried to reschedule his art-history final for later in the day on the 16th, but was unsuccessful. To be such a big part of her life has been a joy. Warren jumped at the opportunity and recruited another adrift freshman, his old high-school soccer teammate Eric Borsuk, as a partner. The partnership flourished, with Warren as the face of the operation and Eric in charge of ID production, until the two had an argument over $2,000 that went missing from Erics drawer. When summer break began, the three returned home to the subdivisions of South Lexington. The untold story of the Transy Book Heist is one part Ocean's 11, one part Harold & Kumar: four Kentucky college kids who had millions to gain and nothing to lose. [Warren's] like, Come on up, Eric remembers. More important, the basement was secluded. He was still enrolled, but only nominally, and remained on the fringes of campus life. All four were brought to Lexington police headquarters and individually interrogated by F.B.I. Returning five minutes later with a rolling red suitcase in tow, Spencer opened it on the conference table. Chas cursed Warren as an incompetent, and condemned the other two as burnouts, demanding that the three figure out a way to get the books appraised so they could move on to the next phase of the plan. is parked in front of the library and the four are in 1st Position at bottom of stairs of library.. What I found incredibly valuable about prison was the multiculturalism. A week later came a terse reply, telling Terry that, if he wanted to sell something, he was going to have to come in person to Amsterdam, as that is where I do business. Both Spencer and Warren were thrilleduntil they realized it would require traveling with a passport. The two boys sought cover from the cops in the sprawling grounds of the housing projects. When an agent called, he got a voice-mail recording, This is Spence. He said his name was John. I guess when we did that she went upstairs to check on B.J.. agents were sitting behind them the whole time, listening to their every word. He feared being restricted in any way. Spencers life story and his practice are indelibly linked, thus the works he has created are a highly personal meditation on the journey Spencer Reinhard experienced. Suddenly without Eric's mock-ups, software, and equipment, Warren thought of Spencer. Spencer's life story and his practice are indelibly linked, thus the works he has created are a highly personal meditation on the journey Spencer Reinhard experienced. Just days before their arrests the three even took in a movie: Ocean's 12. He was just so unbearable. I was in interaction with people from nearly every country in the Americas, he reflected on the time spent between prisons in Kentucky and Texas. sent a team to interview Melanie Halloran, who told the agents about her meeting with Mr. Stephens and Mr. Williams. Although the two hadnt really been in contact in the first few months of school, Warren knew that Spencers artistic talents would be an asset. It is more important to get a plan down, as flawed as it may be, and then continue to work on it as the entrepreneur would work on their business over time. American Animals is a 2018 heist film written and directed by Bart Layton.Starring Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, and Ann Dowd, it follows four college friends who plan a heist of their library.It tells the story of an actual heist which took place at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky in 2004.. American Animals premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film . Hosted by When she asked for contact information, Spencer gave her his cell-phone number. Hes probably thinking I blamed him for [stealing] the money, which I never really did. Before rendering her decision, the judge made preliminary findings that each of the boys was equally culpable, that the value of the books stolen would include only those physically removed from the building, and although Gooch suffered no bodily injury, the stun pen was in fact a dangerous weapon. He said, You do that and you are free then to give them to us when you can. O.K., great. So we go back down to the bottom floor just to get away from her. Phase 2 ends when the loot is loaded into the G.T.A.V. He thought he was much better than everybody else, and he got to the point where he wasn't like us. The plan will continue to grow and mature as the leader goes forward. . To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. And Eric calls to him. We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. is parked in front of the library and the four are in 1st Position at bottom of stairs of library.. The truth is, but for one big mistake, they probably would have gotten away with it, an L.P.D. It was definitely a terrifying thing. Donald Trump to Evangelicals: You Cant Break Up With Me Because Im Breaking Up With You First, Reality Is Submerged in Fantasy: The Villages Is a Boomers UtopiaAnd Demographic Time Bomb. Behind the main building and through three blastproof security doors is the prison visitors' room, where I meet separately with Likpa, Reinhard, and Borsuk for a series of interviews almost a year into their sentence. Attempting perfection in writing a business plan will only lead to one end result: the business plan will never be written. Each has a different style of facial hairmuttonchops (Lipka), a Fu Manchu (Borsuk), a Tom Selleck (Reinhard)which Lipka informs me they had carefully trimmed for my visit. Aside from harming B. J. Gooch, Spencer, Warren, and Eric maintain that they have no regrets. The two men followed the librarian into the Rare Book Room, and John closed the door behind them. So we go back to the guy in Lexington and we say, Listen, we want to go somewhere, we want to go out of the country, and we need documentation, Warren explains. Seeing something in the wayward Warren, the preppy grifter pitched him the idea of selling fake Kentucky driver's licenses in the U.K. dorms. During a meeting in the basement, Warren convinced the other two that they were going to need a fourth, principally to help haul the nearly 250 pounds in Audubon folios out of the library. But after stewing in the magnitude of the potential dollar amount involved, and once convinced of the ease of the heist, the logic of the appraisal, and the legitimacy of Warrens Amsterdam connections, they say, he threw his lot in with the others. The plan for the actual robbery sets out three distinct phases. Warren sectioned off a bedroom by hanging bedsheets from the rafters and furnished it with an old mattress and a tangerine easy chair he had picked up from Goodwill. (Spencer had had to do a rush job on them because his art-history final had run long.) The other was short and quiet, wearing a yellow jacket two sizes too large and a matching scarf. Shop - Spencer Reinhard A selection of some of my works available in limited edition print. Undeterred, Warren introduced himself as Terry, firmly shaking hands before sitting down. Spencer received a commission to paint murals at a local school and kept up his soccer training, Eric started a lawn-care business with his friend Chas Allen, and Warren landed a job at a local day camp. As a precautionary measure, they left the books in the car. Photographed by Nan Goldin at the tender age of 19, just about to release his Tony Richardson film. The meeting initially hit a snag when Barry was put off by the boys youth. He's probably thinking I blamed him for [stealing] the money, which I never really did. After a short wait, a young Christies employee, Melanie Halloran, came out to apologize, as Mr. Leckey, due to an impending public auction, would be unable to see them. Because of the expense, only Warren made the trip, touching down at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport on a Saturday morning in early March 2004. Nothing like a six year prison sentence to get the creative juices flowing. . The severity of the requested sentences was predicated on the dual propositions that, although the Audubon volumes had never been physically removed from the library, according to the letter of the law they were nonetheless stolenincreasing the monetary value of the crimeand that the Black Cobra Stun Pen used to subdue B. J. Gooch not only inflicted physical harm but was in actuality a dangerous weapon. Worse still for the defendants, B. J. Gooch's ordeal had become a cause clbre among librarians, many of whom wrote letters to the judge arguing against leniency. Meanwhile, Eric lined up the G.T.A.V. In fact, wedged in their backpacks was nearly three-quarters of a million dollars worth of books and manuscripts: an 1859 first edition of Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection ($25,000), an illuminated manuscript from 1425 ($200,000), a set of the two-volume 15th-century horticultural masterpiece entitled Hortus Sanitatis ($450,000), 20 original Audubon pencil drawings ($50,000), and Audubons A Synopsis of the Birds of North America ($10,000). Wearing a heavy coat, gloves, and a wool cap, Beckman signed the visitors' log. LET'S START WITH 10 DAYS OF . When Halloran inquired about them, Spencer spoke up and offered to fetch them from the car. as we left we were going to make an anonymous phone call so they knew she was up here, Eric continues. Though I showed artwork briefly with Ann Tower Gallery, my career as an artist has been limited to private sales and commissions, including contributing a mural to PRHBTN in Lexington in 2018. Like many aspiring art students Spencer believed that the academic community he was joining would inspire and enlighten him, exposing him to new experiences and methods. Ezra Millers Messiah Delusions: Inside. They take you in the Special Collections and show you these books, Spencer remembers, including Transy's prized Birds of America, by John James Audubon, a four-volume set of life-size engravings the pioneer wildlife artist completed in London in 1838. The meeting initially hit a snag when Barry was put off by the boys' youth. In early 2006, they began serving their sentences in federal prison, with no possibility for parole. opens the door for me and Im just like, Holy shit. I quickly came up with some fake name and started walking in and Im like, Oh, shit, this is gonna happen at any moment. So while Im shutting the doors I look back and Warren took her to the ground. Thats what we were doing, kind of living this little Matchstick Men, college kind of life.. Undeterred, Warren introduced himself as Terry, firmly shaking hands before sitting down. Warren was already busily working out the problem, returning for advice to his underworld contact: What if we had some artwork that we wanted to sell? Warren remembers asking him. We felt bad., Warren and Eric rode the elevator to the basement, but they couldnt find the fire exit. Not what I expected, not what I wanted it to be, Warren says. Fuck Biden, Dont Tread on Me, and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times. Wedged in among the other houses on Beaumont Avenue, a quiet residential street near the U.K. campus, is a beaten-down yellow cinder-block bungalow, with two bedrooms on the second floor and two on the first. There were all sorts of theories as to why they had done it: they were drug addicts; they had amassed large gambling debtsor Lipkas father had, and the boys did it to save the familys honor (the variant most popular with the local papers). We will be stronger, better, wiser for going through this together, the three of us. So we get the passport from the dude, plane tickets. We can never go back if we wanted toI would rather have not been busted, but all I can say is it feels right in here, and before, in college, it just never did., I remember talking to Eric and Warren one day and I was like, So what, theyre going to put us in jail, says Spencer. Both boys were spitting images of Mr. Stephens and Mr. Williams. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Spencer had underestimated his friend's resolve. Eric rented a proper bedroom upstairs, while Spencer moved back into the dorms at Transylvania. [Warrens] like, Come on up, Eric remembers. Shift + Tab to replay. The next morning, all nerves, he left for the meeting site, a caf within walking distance. We need to just get over this stuff, Eric tells me, explaining how Warren re-entered his life after their falling-out the previous semester. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. We can never go back if we wanted toI would rather have not been busted, but all I can say is it feels right in here, and before, in college, it just never did., I remember talking to Eric and Warren one day and I was like, So what, they're going to put us in jail, says Spencer. Reinhard is here for a monthlong working visit at the invitation of Bianca Bartley and Zuar Jarrett, the programme director and chairman, respectively, of the recently launched creative initiative in St Mary targeting local and foreign artists spanning various disciplines. It immediately had kind of sparked my imagination, like a fantasy., O.K., so we're sitting in the car, smoking weed, Warren recalls, and then Spencer said, I just took a tour in that library, and there's shit sitting there you wouldn't believe. Spencer was born in 1984 in Lexington Kentucky. She described one of the young men as about six feet tall, with bleached-blond hair, well dressed in a nice suit, and very talkative. After a brief discussion they chose Chas Allen, a handsome, clean-cut U.K. business major who had started the lawn-care company with Eric the previous summer. It was very punishing, that first couple of months in college. It was only a tennis final, Eric says, but that final that day was actually harder than I thought it was going to be. Warren sectioned off a bedroom by hanging bedsheets from the rafters and furnished it with an old mattress and a tangerine easy chair he had picked up from Goodwill. And so I see Warren go back. They jump in the van and peel out around the loop.. In fact, they all tell me that as the planning picked up in the months before the heist, the three of them came to believe that it was their best and perhaps last chance to create a viable life for themselves after college. He took a cab to Dam Square, an old hippie hangout in the center of the city he had read about on the Internet. The reality however was rather more mundane, he sensed that his studies were little more than a continuation of his high school. Frank Spencer Broker at Keller Williams Realty Published Feb 20, 2017 + Follow This past week we held a training outlining the 21 . The reaction to the plan was generally positiveshortly after Thanksgiving, they moved forward. A female detective went undercover as a Transy student, tailing Spencer while a team staked out the yellow bungalow. Once safely back in Lexington, the two created a Yahoo account and sent off the e-mail in which they claimed to have unspecified rare books in their possession, using the name Terry, as instructed. See, we have no choice now but to create something new, someplace else. Though they attended different high schools, both were varsity captains, and both made all-state. The minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky, 125 miles from Lexington, houses approximately 1,200 inmates in multi-story cellblocks encircled by concentric layers of razor-topped fencing and fortified guard towers. Frightened and alone in an unfriendly neighborhood and weighed down with priceless books, Warren and Eric barreled down the street, frantically trying to hail a police cruiser to rescue them. Artistically, it offered me the freedom to make the work I wanted to make without concern for my audience. Warren called Gooch back to change Walter Beckman's appointment to three P.M. On the morning of December 16, Warren's carefully scripted plan began to unravel almost immediately. Far from being social outcasts, they had been popular athletes, and two were on some form of college scholarship. It'll show up on your profile and if approved, on this page. Spencer, meanwhile, was accepted to Transylvania on an arts scholarship, his sights firmly set on a career in graphic design. By far the most common theory around town was that the heist had been just a frat prank that spun way out of control. Theyre all slim and dressed identically in cheap sneakers and a khaki uniform emblazoned with their incarceration numbers, and all have hair down to their shoulders. Mass Market Paperback. The F.B.I. As reported by People, poor planning and a fumbling execution including one member, Reinhard, leaving his home phone number at an action house eventually led to their capture. For added anonymity, Warren bleached his hair blond that night. We had a few pitchers, feeling each other out. and having to sign a fucking book. By hitting the ball back into Warrens court, Spencer thought he would keep that thrilling flicker of criminality burning for a bit longer, while fully expecting there to be an insurmountable obstacle somewhere down the road. In his talk, Spencer speaks to how he found a unique, unexpected sense of freedom and honesty in his art, not constrained by societal influences or monetary pressures. By five P.M., Warrenas Beckmanwas back on the phone with Gooch explaining that he had missed his appointment because he had been out of town on business. Late one Thursday afternoon in mid-February, the two friends bought a bag of weed and drove the 700 miles to Manhattan in Spencer's Acura Legend. The painting is a kaleidoscope of images, including what appears to be a computer, a cell phone, a bong, the Transylvania library, and loose sheets of notepaper, floating above a desiccated one-eyed young man in a watch cap, kicking back on a beat-up couch with a blue dog on his lap. The Real Spencer Reinhard : To have this, this need to know what is on the other side of that line, and realizing the only way to actually do that is to cross it, there's never a point in your life after that where you haven't already crossed that line. He loved that it had been made the screen saver on the F.B.I. I wouldnt trade it for anything., Looking ahead, the artist divulged that he is due to have a show next year in Los Angeles and has much to produce. So we get the passport from the dude, plane tickets. Im not going to lie. Several weeks before Spencer was approached by Warren about the fake-ID business, he had been on a freshman-orientation tour of Transy, including the library and its exceptional collection of rare books and manuscripts. Then, everything becomes meta. The thieves left no fingerprints behind, and there were almost no witnesses. Mr. Beckman now wanted these books appraised. sent a team to interview Melanie Halloran, who told the agents about her meeting with Mr. Stephens and Mr. Williams. believing that they had escaped with next to nothing. Opposite him there is another young man, fully fleshed and with a neat haircut, resting in a chair, staring into space. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to a Lexington Catholic alumnus who was making an easy living in identity theft. Warren and Chas left the other two and staggered to the nearby China Club, a tacky West Side nightclub, which they knew about from the famous Rick James episode of Chappelles Show. That was the plan. Warren called me one night and hes like, We need to get together. Even if we wanted to, they wont let us. I still feel like I have a long way to go to reach my full potential, and I think Jamaica will be an integral step in that direction., American visual artist Spencer Reinhard, an artist-in-residence at Blue Macaw in Boscobel, St. Mary, The ornithologist in Spencer Reinhard takes gaze. They stuffed some of the smaller books Gooch had pulled out for them into their backpacks. So we go back down to the bottom floor just to get away from her. In their senior year the two became local celebrities after a dramatic photo appeared in the Lexington Herald-Leader showing Lexington Catholic star goalkeeper Lipka and Tates Creek forward Reinhard battling midair during a playoff game. Ad Choices. Spencer assembled a small wardrobe of fake beards, gray wigs, and costume glue. If we go in there theyre not going to suspect that we stole these. Improvising on the plan, he kicked Eric and Warren out on the street, believing three men in a gray minivan would draw too much attention. The minimum-security Federal Correctional Institution in Ashland, Kentucky, 125 miles from Lexington, houses approximately 1,200 inmates in multi-story cellblocks encircled by concentric layers of razor-topped fencing and fortified guard towers. Warren and Chas left the other two and staggered to the nearby China Club, a tacky West Side nightclub, which they knew about from the famous Rick James episode of Chappelle's Show. On the morning of December 16, Warrens carefully scripted plan began to unravel almost immediately. She offered to take his place. Chas cursed Warren as an incompetent, and condemned the other two as burnouts, demanding that the three figure out a way to get the books appraised so they could move on to the next phase of the plan. Warren had been convinced after spotting a suspicious man loitering near the yellow bungalowwhen he stepped outside, the man disappeared into an unmarked white van with tinted windows and sped off. After researching auction houses online, Warren singled out Christie's in New York. Warren also ordered four stun guns over the Internet. He focused above all on painting, gaining admission into a prestigious Lexington arts program.

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