Theft of Marvel exec's art reads like a comic book caper

Being ripped off by a dishonest contractor is a homeowner’s dread.

But what if that contractor took it a step further by, say, moving into the house he was supposed to fix, then breaking in and stealing a quarter of a million dollars in art after he was thrown out?

Sparta police say that’s exactly what Francesco Bove, 64, did after he was contracted by a top Marvel Comics executive to repair water damage at his township home. Now Bove, a Brooklyn resident, is awaiting extradition after New York City police arrested him Tuesday on charges of theft and burglary.

Bove snatched the art, valued at more than $239,000, from Joseph Quesada, Marvel’s chief creative officer and former editor-in-chief, arrest documents said. Bove was described as an artist in a series of New York Daily News articles chronicling an attack by a pair of pit bulls two years ago outside a Bronx church that left him so badly mauled a priest gave Bove his last rights.

Authorities said Quesada hired Bove as a handyman earlier this year, and asked him to repair the ruin caused by a burst water pipe. But Bove had other ideas, according to an arrest affidavit written by Sparta police Det. Jeffrey McCarrick.

Bove covered the property’s security cameras with towels, McCarrick wrote, then he moved himself and his girlfriend into Quesada’s house.

But Quesada’s wife noticed something was amiss when she remotely checked the security cameras and found nothing but blacked-out screens, the affidavit said. She called the security company, which told her the cameras were working fine, the affadavit said. So she asked a friend to physically check on the house.

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The friend found the covered cameras and said it looked like someone was living there, according to the affidavit. Quesada immediately called Bove, who admitted he and his girlfriend had been staying at the house, it said. Quesada, who told police he had never given Bove permission to move in, fired him and demanded he leave.

But soon after, a friend called Quesada to ask why he was selling a portrait of his wife. Quesada didn’t know what his friend was talking about, the affidavit said, but he did recall he kept that specific portrait in Sparta. Fearing the home had been burglarized, Quesada and his wife went to the house and found their art collection missing.

Police said the trove included comic books and original comic book art. The comic book art, experts say, is in especially high demand — as the industry digitizes, there are fewer original drawings of the stories and characters later pulled to life in comic books.

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Quesada, who declined to comment Tuesday, called around and found an art dealer who paid Bove $5,000 for several pieces, the affidavit said. Bove claimed Quesada gave him the pieces because they were water damaged.

McCarrick, the detective, said Bove, who had taken a trip to Italy and since returned, later admitted he’d taken the artwork and sold it all to various New York City dealers.

Police arrested Bove at his Brooklyn residence without incident, authorities said. He has been charged with third degree burglary and second degree theft.

Lt. John Lamon, spokesman for the Sparta police, said authorities expect Bove to waive his extradition rights, in which case township detectives will likely drive to New York and pick him up.

Bove’s first appearance in Sussex County Superior Court in Newton has not been scheduled, Lamon said.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

Daily Record Staff writers Michael Izzo and Peggy Wright contributed to this report.