Suburban man charged with stealing Guerreschi painting in Evanston
BY MICHAEL LANSU Staff Reporter/mlansu@suntimes.com December 20, 2012 8:20PM
Michael Karabatsis
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Updated: January 22, 2013 10:13AM
A suburban man has been charged with stealing a famous oil painting and several prints from an Evanston home in April, police said Thursday.
Michael Karabatsis, 51, of Glenview, was charged Wednesday with one count of felony home invasion, according to Evanston police.
Karabatsis and two still unidentified suspects are accused of posing as deliverymen to break into a home in the 2200 block of Central Street in Evanston about 8:50 a.m. April 13. There, the thieves knocked a 67-year-old man and his 68-year-old wife to the ground, duct-taped them and made off with an oil paining and three prints.
The painting and one of the prints are by Italian artist Giuseppe Guerreschi, who was known for putting on one-man shows in Chicago in the 1950s, police said. The Guerreschi works were valued between $50,000 to $100,000 each, according to the victims.
Detectives recovered the paintings at a Morton Grove consignment shop and an investigation led to Karabatsis, police said.
Karabatsis remained in Cook County Jail on $200,000 bond Thursday night, awaiting a Jan. 3 court apperance in Skokie.
