“Afghan Girl,” a widely viewed portrait that graced the cover of National Geographic magazine, was one of dozens of images worth more than $650,000 that were allegedly stolen from an internationally renowned photographer with an Exton studio.
On Tuesday, June 2, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced the arrest of Bree DeStephano, 32, of York, a five-year manager of fine art print sales at Steve McCurry Studios, LLC (SMS) in Exton. DeStephano was terminated from her position as soon as the criminal allegations surfaced in November 2013, Hogan said.
“The theft of intellectual property, like photographs, is an ever-growing problem. In order to take photographs like the ‘Afghan Girl,’ Steve McCurry was exposed to extraordinary risks, tremendous costs, and spent years of his career,” said Hogan in a press release. “Then the defendant casually abused her position of trust to make some easy money, without a thought to the damage to Mr. McCurry.”
Between May 2012 and November 2013, DeStephano stole various limited edition photograph prints from SMS, the criminal complaint said. This ongoing theft involved a conspiracy to dispose of the stolen prints by conspiring with Brandon Donahue, who was the manager of Open Shutter Gallery in Durango, Co.
DeStephano had 50 prints valued at $628,000 shipped directly from the SMS Long Island City Studio in New York to her at the Exton studio, where she altered SMS inventory records and print edition numbers, the complaint said. DeStephano would then ship the prints to Donahue, who would sell them and the two would split the profits, the complaint said.
She also stole 233 of McCurry’s books and other items valued at $23,196.14, selling them through various aliases on the Internet, the complaint said.
Hogan said McCurry and his staff did an excellent job of reporting this theft and cooperating with the District Attorney’s Office so that during the 1 ½-year probe, investigators could “uncover the scope of the defendant’s thefts and recover photographs and prints.”
DeStephano was arraigned and released after posting a bond for her $250,000 bail, according to court records. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 22 in Exton district court. Donahue will be charged by Colorado authorities, who have worked extensively with the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.
Hogan said that anyone with any further information about the case should contact Chester County Detective Martin Carbonell at 610-344-6866.
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