Among the stolen works found in Mark Lugo's Hoboken, N.J., apartment was a $350,000 Fernand Leger painting from the lobby of the Carlyle Hotel, authorities said.
Lugo, 31, who had served time for stealing a Picasso sketch from a San Francisco gallery, faces grand larceny charges in New York in the Carlyle case and for allegedly making off with five artworks from the Chambers Hotel on Fifth Ave.
“They don't think he intended to sell them. He wanted to display them," a source close to the case said of Lugo, who has worked in high-end Manhattan restaurants as a wine steward.
The investigation is continuing because other artworks and high-priced wine were found in Lugo’s home when a search warrant was executed in July, officials said.
Lugo, who served 138 days behind bars in California after pleading guilty in the gallery case, faces up 15 years if convicted of grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
In New York, Lugo is accused of taking the 1917 Cubist work "Composition with Mechanical Elements” from the iconic Carlyle Hotel on the upper East Side in June.
Lugo became a suspect in several art thefts in New York after the San Francisco crime, in which he walked into the Weinstein Gallery, casually took the drawing "Tête de Femme" off the wall, and moseyed out into a taxi.
Police found about $500,000 worth of stolen artwork in Lugo's Hoboken apartment, including another stolen Picasso. It was all displayed prominently.
In New York, the charges against Lugo include the theft of a $350,000 Fernand Leger drawing from the Carlyle Hotel, and the theft of five works by South Korean artist Mie Kim from the Chambers Hotel, each worth $1,800.
It's not known whether Lugo has a lawyer in New York or whether the New York investigation will continue into other crimes he's thought to be related to.
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