Stolen Benjamin Creme art worth $800K discovered in family’s storage facility

A California resident uncovered more than $800,000 in stolen artwork by famed Scottish artist Benjamin Creme tucked away inside a dead relative’s belongings, authorities revealed.

The unidentified resident had taken the relative’s items out of a storage facility and brought them home to the LA suburb of San Fernando, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a Tuesday statement.

While rummaging through the belongings, the person found nearly 1,300 prints by the Scottish abstract expressionist. A quick search of a law enforcement website revealed that the lithographs had been stolen, authorities said.

The finder contacted police in late September, cops said.

“The family took the stuff and had it stored in their house for several years when they finally started going through it and discovered the art was stolen,” said LAPD Det. Steven Franssen. “They immediately packed it up and took it to the police station.”

The signed and numbered prints include “Flame-Coloured Deva,” “Shakti II” and other colorful works by Creme, who died in London in 2016 at 93 years old.

Earlier this week, authorities returned the prints to their owner — lithographer Michael Flaum, who made them.

“He was extremely shocked when we called,” Franssen said. “He didn’t even believe it was the police department at first.”

Back in 2012, Flaum realized that those prints — and 974 others — had been stolen from a locker where he kept them.

He was thrilled to have at least some of the missing works returned.

“I was just thrilled to get them back,” Flaum said, “I’m so happy for the family.”

Creme’s early works included landscapes, but he created more colorful abstracts by the 1940s.

Starting in the ‘60s, he began focusing more on the metaphysical — and became well known for his belief that the second coming prophesied by many religions would come in the form of an omniscient person known as Maitreya the World Teacher.

With Post wires

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