Tried at Schloss Fyrmian on August 10, 1961, before the Honorable Emmanuel Z. Steinberg and a jury.

APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL

For the Commonwealth: Frederick McK. Minto, Jr., Esq.,
District Attorney

For the Defense: Graham Anders, Esq.

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Frederick Minto, I am the District Attorney, it is my job to present the Commonwealth's case to you, that is the charges which have been brought against the defendant Miss Lombardi, the young woman sitting at that table. My friend Mr. Graham Anders, sitting beside her, is defense counsel, her lawyer, and it is his job to present her defense. His Honor Justice Steinberg is presiding, will make rulings on questions of law and will charge you, at the close of testimony, with the law as it applies to the facts presented to you. And your job? Your job will be to decide questions of fact; in effect to determine who is telling the truth if there is a conflict in testimony. Your job will be to determine, after listening to all the evidence presented to you, whether this young lady did really commit the offense for which she stands charged.

Now let us get down to the charge itself. This young lady has been indicted for larceny. That is a technical name for stealing the property of another person. His Honor Justice Steinberg will later explain the elements of larceny to you, but I will just mention them to you now to outline my case. Larceny requires first of all a taking, the taking of another's property, then the asportation or taking away of the property, and finally the intent to convert the property, that is the intent to deprive the owner of his property. Now the property involved here is a small framed sketch or drawing of a harlequin, by the eighteenth century painter, Francesco Guardi, a drawing of a commedia, dell'arte actor in harlequin costume. You are all familiar with it, because you have seen it every day during the morning lecture. It hung upstairs, in the room of mirrors, the room we call the Venetian Room, on the wall directly beside one of the big mirrors. Recently that mirror was broken, had to be repaired, and in connection with these repairs this little drawing was removed from the wall so that it would not be damaged. Subsequently it disappeared. We will present evidence from which you may conclude that Miss Lombardi carried the Guardi out of the Venetian Room, concealed it somewhere in the Schloss, and then took it into town and disposed of it. Not all of this will be presented by direct evidence. If all crimes had to be proved by direct evidence, very few criminals would be convicted. Some of the evidence will be what lawyers call "circumstantial evidence" -namely, facts from which you may reasonably infer that certain things happened, even though nobody saw them happen. Now I will ask you to listen very carefully to the witnesses, to listen carefully to their testimony and also watch them, watch how they comport themselves on the stand, because it will be your job, as I said before, to resolve any conflict in the testimony, to decide, if there is such a conflict, which witness is telling the truth and which witness is not telling the truth -either deliberately or from a faulty memory. And just one more thing: My friend may raise some doubt as to the authenticity of the stolen -I beg your pardon- the missing picture. In other words, he may present evidence indicating we are not sure that it was really done by Francesco Guardi. I will object to such evidence because for this purpose it makes no difference whether it is a genuine Guardi or whether it was done by some pupil of Guardi. The point is that we had a beautiful, rare eighteenth century sketch, a small but charming work of art, indeed an integral part of the most beautiful room in this magnificent palace, and for an invited guest to make off with such a treasure -well ladies and gentlemen, I won't take more of your time so that we may proceed with the testimony. Thank you for your attention.

BY THE COURT: Mr. Anders?
 
 

Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Lombardi has a very simple defense to the charges which the District Attorney has brought against her. She did not steal this picture. She will take the stand -although under our law she does not need to take the stand- and she will tell you exactly what happened. I won't go into it all now because you will hear it from her own lips. The point is that she categorically denies having taken the picture from the Schloss, although she did remove it from the Venetian Room to save it from possible damage. Incidentally, I agree with the District Attorney that it makes no difference whether Guardi really made the drawing or not. That would have some effect on the monetary value, and in some jurisdictions there are degrees of larceny, stealing something worth thousands of dollars is a greater offense than stealing a loaf of bread, but Miss Lombardi was only indicted for simple larceny, and she vehemently denies having committed any larceny, so we will not make an issue of the picture's authenticity. Whether it really is a Guardi or not; we're all going to refer to it as the Guardi in this trial. Now, the District Attorney spoke about "circumstantial evidence" and I want to say just a few words about the burden of proof. Justice Steinberg will cover this fully in his charge to you, but I want you to have it in mind all the while you listen to the testimony this evening: The Burden of Proof is on the Commonwealth. We don't have to come in here . . . I beg your pardon, Miss Lombardi doesn't have to come in here and prove to you that she didn't take the picture. The burden is on Mr. Minto. He's got to persuade you that she did. And not only that. He's got to persuade you beyond reasonable doubt! Beyond reasonable doubt. What does that mean? That means if, when you have heard all the evidence, there is a doubt in your mind as to whether or not she did it, she stole the Guardi, then you must find her not guilty. Please keep that in mind as you listen to the witnesses. And please keep another thing in mind: As the District Attorney said, Miss Lombardi is a guest in this house. As you look at her, as you listen to her testimony, please ask yourselves whether this girl would commit such a dishonorable and despicable offense. Thank you.

BY THE COURT: All right, Mr. Minto. Call your first witness.
 
 

PAOLA HEDWIG ANNA VON SCHAUMBURG
Villa St. Hubertus
Bad Godesberg, Federal Republic of Germany

MR. ANDERS:	Mrs. von Schaumburg, I believe you stated that the Guardi has always been there. Did you mean it has always been in the Venetian Room?
WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. ANDERS:	Always?
WITNESS:	Well, I don't know what you mean. As long as I have been here . . . I don't know before that. I don't know when they bought it.
MR. ANDERS:	Since you've been here. Hasn't that Guardi been moved around, to different places?
WITNESS:	To different places? No. Always in the Venetian Room.
MR. ANDERS:	Wasn't this Schloss used by the German army as a hospital?
WITNESS:	Oh, now I know what you mean! Yes, that's right, during the war, we took the pictures out.
MR. ANDERS:	Yes. And where was the Guardi?
WITNESS:	On the other side of the lake. In the little house on the other side of the lake. I lived then in that house.
MR. ANDERS:	Thank you, I have no further questions.
BY THE COURT:	That's all, madam. You may step down now. Call your next witness, Mr. Minto.

 

ALOIS ASCHAUER
Schloss Fyrmian, Salzburg, Austria.

(Questions and answers translated by Paola von Schaumburg)
 

WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. MINTO:	When did the glazier come?
WITNESS:	Sunday afternoon.
MR. MINTO:	And did you take him up to the Venetian Room?
WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. MINTO:	And did you see the Guardi drawing at that time?
WITNESS:	No.
MR. MINTO:	You did not see it on Sunday afternoon?
WITNESS:	It was not there . . . I beg permission to explain the story.
MR. MINTO:	Go ahead. Tell it in your own words. But slowly, so we can hear the translation.
WITNESS:	The mirror was broken in an accident on Saturday evening. I cleaned the glass from the floor. I saw the picture by the Italian Guardi was too close to the mirror. The mirror could not be repaired without moving the picture. For this reason, I took the picture from the wall and placed the picture on the windowsill. I intended to take the picture downstairs and lock it into a closet I did not do it. I did not go into the Venetian Room until Sunday afternoon, when I brought up the man to repair the mirror. I saw that the picture was not in the room. I looked for it, I could not find it. I made a telephone call to Mrs. von Schaumburg.
MR. MINTO:	No further questions. Your witness.

MR. ANDERS:	Was the Venetian Room used for anything on Saturday evening?
WITNESS:	There were drinks for the gentlemen--
MR. ANDERS:	No, I mean later. After dinner. This was the afternoon of the reception, wasn't it?
INTERPRETER:	You ask the questions too fast. He does not have time to hear my translation.
MR. ANDERS:	I'm sorry. In the afternoon, we had the reception, is that right?
WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. ANDERS:	When you cleaned up the broken mirror and removed the picture from the wall, when was that?
WITNESS:	I don't know. Between six and seven.
MR. ANDERS:	When was dinner served in the Schloss?
WITNESS:	No dinner was served that evening. They had just eaten at the reception. Most of the gentlemen and ladies went to the city or on the Festung. The staff ate in the kitchen.
MR. ANDERS:	All right now, in the evening, later, when the students came back from town, was anything done in the Venetian Room?
MR. MINTO:	That's objected to, your Honor. He's way beyond the bounds of my direct examination, and I'm going to cover all this with my next witness anyway.
BY THE COURT:	Mr. Aschauer, did I understand you to say you did not go into the Venetian Room between the time you cleaned up the broken mirror on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon when you brought up the glazier?
WITNESS:	Yes, Mr. Justice.
BY THE COURT:	I'll sustain the objection.
MR. ANDERS:	No further questions.

 
 

ASTRID KÖNIGSMARK
27 Kasernengatan
Helsingfors, Finland

(Witness sworn)
 

MR. MINTO:	Miss Königsmark, were you among the group of student, who had dinner at the Festung restaurant after the reception here in the Schloss?
WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. MINTO:	Was Miss Lombardi also in that group?
WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. MINTO:	What did you do after dinner?
WITNESS:	We came back here. To the Schloss.
MR. MINTO:	Tell the jury in your own words what happened then.
WITNESS:	We just sat around outside there, just outside that door, on the terrace. It was a lovely evening. We were smoking cigarettes and talking. Then Mrs. Rasmussen came out, and she said they had been in town for dinner, and they had brought some friends out with them, American friends, and she asked us, would we like to perform our commedia dell'arte skit again, for their friends. The skit we had done at the Bierabend. Without interruption, this time. Most of the people who had done the skit were with us on the terrace. Do you want all their names?
MR. MINTO:	No, but was Miss Lombardi among them?
WITNESS:	Oh yes.
MR. MINTO:	Go ahead, please.
WITNESS:	Miss Lombardi and I went up to the dormitories and found the other players, I mean the students who had been in the play, and we found the masks we had made, and the costumes, and we brought them down. Mrs. Rasmussen told us we should do the show in the Venetian Room, because the audience would be small, and the chairs are set up in that room. We carried the costumes into the Venetian Room and we tried to arrange sort of a stage. Two of the men put up a curtain. Not a real curtain, just a wire, and some blankets hanging down.
MR. MINTO:	Now, Miss Königsmark, did anything in the Venetian Room look different or unusual when you came in?
WITNESS:	Yes. The big mirror on one wall was gone.
MR. MINTO:	Gone? How do you mean?
WITNESS:	The glass was not there. Only the big gold frame. There was no glass in the mirror at all. And the little harlequin, the little harlequin drawing, it was standing in the alcove, on the seat by the window.
MR. MINTO:	All right, now this is very important, Miss Königsmark: Did anybody touch the picture, that picture by the window?
WITNESS:	Yes.
MR. MINTO:	Well, please tell the jury who touched it, and what if anything was said.
WITNESS:	Rosanna -Miss Lombardi, when we came in the room, she went to the picture and picked it up in her hands and she said, "You know, I think this might be a real Guardi. A sketch he made for a big picture. They should not leave it lying around like this."
MR. MINTO:	She said, "They should not leave it lying around like this"? Was it "lying around"?
MR. ANDERS:	That's objected to, your Honor. The witness has explained exactly where the picture was located.
BY THE COURT:	Well, I'm not quite clear on it. Did I understand you to say the picture was standing on the windowsill?
WITNESS:	It is like a seat by the window, Justice Steinberg. People sometimes sit right in the window.
MR. MINTO:	A window seat, in other words.
WITNESS:	A window seat. It was standing against the window. Somebody might lean against it and break it.
MR. MINTO:	All right, did Miss Lombardi put the picture back where she found it?
WITNESS:	No.
MR. MINTO:	What did she do and what did she say?
WITNESS:	She said, "This will be broken here. I better put it in the library." Then she carried it out of the Venetian Room and brought it to the library.
MR. MINTO:	All right, just a minute, Miss Königsmark, please testify only to what you actually saw. Did you see Miss Lombardi take the Guardi into the library?
WITNESS:	No, I'm sorry, I saw her take it out of the Venetian Room, going toward the dining hall. She would have to cross the dining hall to get to the library. I did not see her go into the library.
MR. MINTO:	Did she come right back?
WITNESS:	No. She was gone all the time we were making ready the stage, and the people, the audience had come in.
MR. MINTO:	How long would you say she was gone?
WITNESS:	Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes?
MR. MINTO:	When she returned, was anything said about the Guardi?
WITNESS:	Oh no, we were much too busy, the people were all there, and we were behind the curtain, trying to remember exactly how we had done the thing before, who had said what lines, and there was so much confusion. Nobody thought about the Guardi.
MR. MINTO:	Do you recall any other conversations about the Guardi?
WITNESS:	You mean on that day?
MR. MINTO:	No, on any day. Did Miss Lombardi talk about the Guardi on any occasion?
WITNESS:	Yes. She spoke about it several times. She was interested. You see, she has a friend, she told me, in Italy, who is an expert in commedia dell' arte, he is a professor somewhere, he is writing a book about Italian commedia dell' arte, he has told her a lot about it, and that was how she got the idea--
MR. MINTO:	What idea?
WITNESS:	For the Bierabend. That we should dress ourselves like the pictures in the Venetian Room and make up a show, a performance.
MR. ANDERS:	I'm going to object to this, your Honor. I can't see that it has any relevancy to the charges.
MR. MINTO:	Oh, it does indeed, sir. I propose to show that this lady had a motive, a very specific motive--
BY THE COURT:	All right, I'll overrule the objection.
MR. MINTO:	Go ahead, Miss Königsmark, what did Miss Lombardi say about the Guardi?
WITNESS:	She said she would like to have it as a souvenir, for her friend.
MR. MINTO:	Which friend?
WITNESS:	I don't know his name. The man who is doing the book about commedia dell' arte.
MR. MINTO:	On what occasion did she make this remark?
WITNESS:	It was not an occasion.
MR. MINTO:	No, I mean when? Where and when?
WITNESS:	When I don't know exactly. One day, early in the session, while we were waiting for your lecture to begin, in the Venetian Room. She was sitting right under the picture, underneath where it was hanging, and she said, "Oh, Astrid, I would like to take that home with me!" and I asked her why, and she explained.
MR. MINTO:	Is that the only time she discussed it with you? I mean the picture?
WITNESS:	Well - I don't like to mention this--
MR. MINTO:	Go ahead, Miss Königsmark, it's already in your deposition to the police.
WITNESS:	Well, after the picture was missing, she said to me -this was in the dormitory- she said, "Astrid, please don't tell them that I wanted the Guardi, because they think that I have taken it. And I have not."
MR. ANDERS:	What was that last part?
MR. MINTO.	"And I have not."
MR. ANDERS:	Thank you.
MR. MINTO:	Any other conversations about the Guardi?
WITNESS:	No.
MR. MINTO:	All right, thank you, Miss Königsmark. No further questions.
MR. ANDERS:	Your Honor, if you will just allow me a moment to confer with my client. All right. We have no questions for this lady, your Honor.
BY THE COURT:	Thank you, Miss Königsmark, you may step down.

 

W. LOGAN BROCKAW M
Schloss Fyrmian. Salzburg, Austria

FROM THE AUDIENCE: No!
 

MR. ANDERS:	I think the Countess -I mean, Mrs. von Schaumburg is trying to tell you something.
BY THE COURT:	I'm sorry, madam, but that's entirely out of order, you're not allowed to call out to a witness.
MR. ANDERS:	I think what she wants to tell you, Mr. Brockaw, is that this Schloss was built a good thirty years after Fischer von Erlach died. And that it's rococo, not baroque.
WITNESS:	You got me mixed up about that.
MR. ANDERS:	That's one interpretation. Another might be that you don't know any more about Fischer von Erlach than you could have learned from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and you've forgotten some of that.
MR. MINTO:	Your Honor, may we approach the Bench?
BY THE COURT:	Yes. Counsel to side-bar. Don't pay any attention to this, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Sometimes in the course of a trial the lawyers have to confer with the judge out of the hearing of the jury. You haven't had a break yet, so I'll declare a five-minute recess.

"Whew!" Justice Steinberg took off his spectacles and mopped his face with his handkerchief. "You boys are going at this like you mean business!"

"Well, your Honor, what the hell! Graham wrote the script and now he's not sticking to it. He's off on some frolic of his own." Freddie Minto's round face glistened in the candlelight and his lower lip protruded petulantly. "I thought the point of this was to demonstrate a jury trial, not to embarrass the staff of the Academy, to show off your brilliant razor-sharp--"

"That's not my point at all," I said.

"Well, what is your point then? Why don't you stick to the script you wrote yourself?"

Justice Steinberg leaned past the candelabra. 'Well, of course I haven't read your script, Graham, but I think you're going pretty far, making this man look like a fool in front of all these people--!"

"Well, it's outrageous, sir," Freddie hissed. "We asked Logan Brockaw to give us a hand with this thing, we gave him the script to read, and what does he get for doing us a favor? He gets kicked in the teeth, for no reason that I can-"

"Speaking of teeth," grunted Justice Steinberg. "My back teeth are floating. I'm older than you fellows, and I haven't sat in nisi prius for five years. After three glasses of wine, yet! I'll be right back." He stood up, gathered his black robe, stepped off behind the dais and disappeared.

"Freddie?"

He turned toward me, scowling. Behind us, the entire Academy-faculty, students and staff and visitors, stood about in the darkness of the entrance hall or wandered out on the terrace. Everybody was talking and smoking, and nobody was paying attention to us.

"Freddie, what's going on here?"

"Huh! You tell me."

"Freddie, you can see what I'm trying to do, can't you? Why aren't you letting me at him?"

He stood there, feet apart, white shirt, regimental tie, best blue pinstripe from Old Burlington Street, vest bulging, hands in his pockets, glowering down at the dark flagstones. Then the eyes came up and met mine.

"Watch it" he said.

"What?"

"You're in the wrong corner."

"The hell I am!"

"Step out here on the terrace a minute."

The rain had stopped but a wet wind was blowing across the lake. The others had gone back into the hall. For the moment we were alone.

Freddie took a cigar from his pocket, unwrapped it with deliberation, and stuck it into his mouth. "You're putting on a little show for Bootsie Hyde and his friend from the Times."

"That's right."

"Don't do it," said Freddie, looking hard past the unlighted cigar.

"Why not?"

"Graham, considering everything, considering I knew you as a little kid and I knew your mother and all that - considering everything, I've never talked to you like a Dutch uncle, have I?"

"Everybody else--"

"I know, I know. But I haven't, have l?"

"No."

"All right well now I'm going to. You're painting yourself into a corner, and it's the wrong corner."

"What's that supposed to mean? What corner?"

"What's your nationality?"

"My nationality? What the hell do you mean by that? My nationality's Americanl"

"Were you born in America?"

"No, you know goddamned well where I was born--"

"Was your father--"

"What are you driving at, Freddie?"

"Simmer down, we've only got a minute before Steinberg gets back. I'm trying to put the thing in focus for you. You're an American, right? You've never considered yourself anything else."

"What else would you suggest?"

"Your mother was American, you lived there since you were - what? Ten years old? You pledge allegiance to the flag, you've served in the army, like all the rest of us you get sore as hell if somebody questions your citizenship, but like all the rest of us you take it pretty much for granted. Now what is this thing you're laying on here? Fun and games, to get Bootsie Hyde and all his pink friends in the White House in an uproar. Maybe a hard-breathing story in the Times. Alarm in the liberal establishment. You're trying to interfere with an operation that's been ordered on, apparently, at a very high level in the United States government."

"For God's sake, Freddie, so what? They're going to ruin the Academy if they're allowed to operate here--"

"Well, in the first place I don't see how something like this will ruin the Academy, if it's kept quiet, and in the second place, suppose it does ruin the Academy? Maybe what's involved here is more important than the Academy. How do you know? The point is, we've got a government, for all our bitching it's not a bad government, at least I don't think most of us would trade it in for another one, you've got to assume that most of these people know what they're doing most of the time--"

"You mean like at the Bay of Pigs?"

"--and you can't just go out -especially in a foreign country-- and undercut them, work against them. It . . .  I hate to say this, but it borders on treason."

"Freddie, I can't believe what you're saying! You mean to tell me that we've got to go along with whatever some guys in Washington, in their infinite wisdom . . . we've got to carry out orders from our beloved leaders, not even from elected leaders but from Armistead Devereaux, who's been aching to fight the Russians for twenty years, otherwise we're committing treason? . . . We hanged the Nazis for that, remember?"

"Bullshit!" Freddie took the cigar from his mouth and spat into the shrubbery. "In the first place we hanged the Nazis for starting the war and for murdering millions of people in concentration camps. In the second place, nobody is asking you to carry out any orders. I'm just suggesting that an American citizen abroad is perhaps under a duty to refrain from undercutting confidential activities of American intelligence agencies, even if he thinks they're misguided and wrong. . . .     If they are misguided and wrong."

"You fellows ready to go on with this thing?" asked Justice Steinberg from the doorway.

"Just one second, Manny, if you please," said Freddie over his shoulder. "We'll be right with you."

"Well, hurry up. The natives are getting restless."

We were alone again.

"One more thing, and I'll give it to you fast," said Freddie, standing so close to me that I could smell the wet cigar. "What do you think Ellsworth Boyle will say to this? If this is really Devereaux's project, you're not just playing with minor civil servants. Of course he's officially retired, but he's got more clout than half the people in the Cabinet. If somebody like that begins to worry about your loyalty, or let's just say your judgment in matters involving the national interest, what do you think that's going to do to your future? And not just your future. What about your partners? How many of Boyle's companies are defense contractors? Doesn't Ames Mahoney represent Delaware Ballistics Labs?"

"Fredie, you're blowing this thing up out of all--'

"I don't think so . . . I don't think so. You know I'm not in love with Ellsworth Boyle, with dear old C&D, and yet . . . Oh what the hell, Graham, you can't endanger the livelihood of eighty people to whom you stand in fiduciary capacity! And quite apart from that, there are just some things that people --Well, I'll come out and say it, that people in our position don't do! One thing they don't do is sabotage the activities of the United States government. Do you realize there might be a war this summer? If the East Germans keep up this pressure--"

"There isn't going to be any war this summer," I said.

"But you don't know that, do you?" said Freddie furiously.

"It's not your problem! It's Devereaux who's got to worry about it. Not you!"

He took the cigar out of his mouth again and put his hand on my shoulder. "Now, Graham, you listen to me. You've become accustomed to having your own way, you've become accustomed to success, you're an imaginative and resourceful lawyer and you think you're going to pull off a nice little coup here -so help me God, boy, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life!" He threw the cigar into the darkness and stomped back into the Schloss. I turned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of the lake and the Untersberg but it was raining again. I couldn't see anything.
 
 

BY THE COURT:	Gentlemen, on reflection I've decided that we've heard enough about this witness's knowledge of the local architecture. Have you any other questions for him, Mr. Anders?
MR. ANDERS:	No sir, but I'd like to reserve the right to recall him later, as on cross-examination--
BY THE COURT:	We'll worry about that when the time comes. Mr. Minto?
MR. MINTO:	No further questions, your Honor. Commonwealth rests.
BY THE COURT:	Mr. Anders?
MR. ANDERS:	If your Honor please, I demur to the evidence, on the ground that the Commonwealth has not presented evidence sufficient to even permit the jury to consider the case.
BY THE COURT:	Your demurrer is overruled, Mr. Anders.
MR. ANDERS:	Very well, sir. Call Mrs. Lamason, please.

 
 

ELIZABETH COOPER LAMASON
11 Remington Street
Cambridge 38, Massachusetts

 
ROSANNA LOMBARDI
226, Via Gabriele D'Annunzio
Bologna, Italy