Thieves stole architectural gems from USC in a heist that remained hidden for years
By HARRIET RYAN and MATT HAMILTON
FEB 03, 2019 | 6:00 AM
The Hollywood Hills home of Samuel and Harriet Freeman, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is under the care of USC. (Los Angeles Public Library)
The thieves seemed to know exactly what they were looking for.
They entered an unmarked warehouse on a South Los Angeles side street, moved through a warren of file cabinets, yellowing papers and jettisoned desks, and breached a small storage room.
Inside was a cache of furniture designed by two of the most celebrated American architects of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler.
The thieves made off with two of Wright’s striking floor lamps and a cushioned chair believed to have been designed by Schindler — a haul with a potential value of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Six years after the heist at the USC warehouse, the identities of the perpetrators remain a mystery.
There is a second puzzle: Why didn’t the university report the theft to police at the time or seek the public’s help in recovering the irreplaceable pieces?
Detectives only learned of the larceny in recent weeks, after an anonymous letter to the Los Angeles Times revealed the crime.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House is seen in 2019. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
Ninety years ago, the lamps illuminated one of the most breathtaking living rooms in L.A. The residence belonged to Samuel Freeman and his dancer wife, Harriet, an avant-garde couple who had commissioned Wright to turn a steep and narrow plot in the Hollywood Hills into a showplace.
The architect, already famous and enjoying a midlife sojourn in California, ringed the living room with tall windows that provided dramatic views down Highland Avenue and of the surrounding hills.
The furniture he fashioned for the room included the 6-foot-high cast iron and glass lamps. His protege, Schindler, later worked on the house, adding his own unique furnishings.
For decades, the Freemans’ eclectic crowd of artists, scientists and leftists savored the home and its decor. “Casablanca” actor Claude Rains was a regular at the couple’s so-called salons, and Harriet Freeman feted legendary choreographer Martha Graham at a dinner party in the living room.
Samuel Freeman died in the living room in 1981. Harriet suffered a stroke and spent her final months in a bed in the living room. She died in 1986. Childless, they left the home and furniture to USC, hoping the university would treasure the property as a site for meetings, classes and historic preservation.
The patterned cement blocks from the Freeman House. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in the early 20th century. Los Angeles Times
Preservationists quickly learned that maintaining the Freemans’ home, like other Wright designs in L.A., would be a major challenge. The residence’s hallmark — patterned cement-block walls that recalled Mayan temples — proved uniquely unsuited for California’s seismic environment.
The Freeman House suffered severe structural damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Tiles tumbled from the house and broke. It took the university years to secure more than $1 million in restoration funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other sources.
Around 2000, in advance of the work, USC moved the contents of the home, including the Wright and Schindler furniture, to the architecture school’s rented warehouse. The brick facility on 24th Street, formerly a city power station, has a cavernous interior with at least one separate, locked room.
(continued)
By HARRIET RYAN and MATT HAMILTON
FEB 03, 2019 | 6:00 AM
The Hollywood Hills home of Samuel and Harriet Freeman, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is under the care of USC. (Los Angeles Public Library)
The thieves seemed to know exactly what they were looking for.
They entered an unmarked warehouse on a South Los Angeles side street, moved through a warren of file cabinets, yellowing papers and jettisoned desks, and breached a small storage room.
Inside was a cache of furniture designed by two of the most celebrated American architects of the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler.
The thieves made off with two of Wright’s striking floor lamps and a cushioned chair believed to have been designed by Schindler — a haul with a potential value of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Six years after the heist at the USC warehouse, the identities of the perpetrators remain a mystery.
There is a second puzzle: Why didn’t the university report the theft to police at the time or seek the public’s help in recovering the irreplaceable pieces?
Detectives only learned of the larceny in recent weeks, after an anonymous letter to the Los Angeles Times revealed the crime.
Frank Lloyd Wright's Freeman House is seen in 2019. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
Ninety years ago, the lamps illuminated one of the most breathtaking living rooms in L.A. The residence belonged to Samuel Freeman and his dancer wife, Harriet, an avant-garde couple who had commissioned Wright to turn a steep and narrow plot in the Hollywood Hills into a showplace.
The architect, already famous and enjoying a midlife sojourn in California, ringed the living room with tall windows that provided dramatic views down Highland Avenue and of the surrounding hills.
The furniture he fashioned for the room included the 6-foot-high cast iron and glass lamps. His protege, Schindler, later worked on the house, adding his own unique furnishings.
For decades, the Freemans’ eclectic crowd of artists, scientists and leftists savored the home and its decor. “Casablanca” actor Claude Rains was a regular at the couple’s so-called salons, and Harriet Freeman feted legendary choreographer Martha Graham at a dinner party in the living room.
Samuel Freeman died in the living room in 1981. Harriet suffered a stroke and spent her final months in a bed in the living room. She died in 1986. Childless, they left the home and furniture to USC, hoping the university would treasure the property as a site for meetings, classes and historic preservation.
The patterned cement blocks from the Freeman House. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in the early 20th century. Los Angeles Times
Preservationists quickly learned that maintaining the Freemans’ home, like other Wright designs in L.A., would be a major challenge. The residence’s hallmark — patterned cement-block walls that recalled Mayan temples — proved uniquely unsuited for California’s seismic environment.
The Freeman House suffered severe structural damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Tiles tumbled from the house and broke. It took the university years to secure more than $1 million in restoration funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other sources.
Around 2000, in advance of the work, USC moved the contents of the home, including the Wright and Schindler furniture, to the architecture school’s rented warehouse. The brick facility on 24th Street, formerly a city power station, has a cavernous interior with at least one separate, locked room.
(continued)
