Elmont Online

An Ulster County man pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to federal charges that he stole a British painting belonging to the son of the late writer Susan Sontag and sold it for $47,000 at auction.

Charles W. Hofmann, 46, of Lake Katrine pleaded guilty to the two charges, possession and interstate transport of stolen material in admitting he stole an 18th-century portrait by Allan Ramsay. He had been indicted in May.

U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels, who presided at Wednesday's hearing, set sentencing for Jan. 4. Hofmann faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each count. But under an agreement signed by Hofmann's attorney and the prosecutor on the case last week, the U.S. attorney's office promised to recommend a prison term for Hofmann, who has no criminal record, of between 10 months to 16 months.

In return, Hofmann pledged to forfeit $34,200 -- the amount he pocketed by auctioning the stolen painting -- to the federal government -- and reimburse another $34,200 to Sotheby's, the auction house he used to sell it.

In November 2006, Sontag's son, New York writer David Rieff, hired Hofmann to move the contents of four storage units from the Kingston area to New York City. The items, including dozens of other paintings and valuable photographs, belonged to Sontag, who died in 2004, and her former husband, Philip Rieff, who died in 2006.

Hofmann contended David Rieff gave him permission to take any material Rieff did not want transported to New York City and the Ramsay portrait was one of those items. Rieff denied Hoffmann's claim.

Hofmann took the painting to Sotheby's auction house in New York to have it appraised. There he was told that it would best be auctioned at Sotheby's house in London, where, with Hofmann and his mother in attendance, it was sold for $47,000 in 2007.

Sotheby officials contended the sale was the first one in memory in which the auction house sold a stolen piece of artwork. The auction house said it accepted Hofmann's claim of ownership.

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