Guess? Jeans co-founder seeking lost art

NEW YORK, April 6 (UPI) -- Guess? Jeans co-founder Georges Marciano has gone to court in New York as he tries to recover 300 pieces of missing art, court documents show.

The fashion guru is following up on a 2007 Los Angeles lawsuit with a New York-based legal action aimed at recovering missing portions of his art collection and an unspecified amount of his personal funds, the New York Post reported Sunday.

Marciano is attempting to recover documents from a New York shipping company, Modern Art Services, a firm used by Christie's auction house, as part of his lawsuit against his former employees.

Marciano alleges six employees used his personal e-mail accounts to steal hundreds of his artistic works and hid money stolen from him in 61 bank accounts, court documents show.

Lawyer William Briggs said the fashion executive initially was concerned he was a victim of identity theft, but soon learned the problem was much worse.

"But as he began to unravel it, the situation came apart like a spool of yarn," Briggs told the Post.

Among the artistic works allegedly stolen from Marciano's collection were artwork by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and Marc Shagall.