Driver Steals $1.5m Painting

A truck driver charged with stealing a $1.5-million Jean-Michel Basquiat painting from a warehouse at John F. Kennedy International Airport has pleaded guilty to grand larceny. He was accused of removing a wooden crate containing the painting from a warehouse and driving away with it on May 4. Police identified him after reviewing video surveillance tapes. The untitled acrylic-oil painting was sold for more than $1.5 million US in November at Christie's auction house in New York and was to be shipped to the buyer in Rome. Basquiat, a darling of art critics who was praised for his strong use of colour and the social commentary in his work, died in 1988 at age 27 of a heroin overdose. Irish Art