Two family members of late renowned Jamaican painter Barrington Watson say thieves broke into their house on Saturday evening and stole 10 paintings worth tens of millions of dollars.

The robbery has left Watson’s former wife and son — who asked not to be named — rattled and worried as it was committed while they were at home and had fallen asleep after smelling a strange odour.

A few of the stolen paintings — including one that was featured in the Bob Marley movie
One Love — were done by Watson, who died in 2016.

The stolen works, the former wife said, were not insured.

“My son and I were here. I was out on the verandah until about 5:00 pm, then I went inside. I locked the grille to the house. The main gate entrance was opened because my son was going to lock it later in the night. I was watching TV in my room and he was in his room. When he came out at about 7:00 pm, he came into my room and said I didn’t lock the entrance grille. I came out and looked and I saw the chain and padlock on the ground. It was frightening,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Monday morning.

“We started looking around and we saw that paintings were missing. One was right here on this verandah wall. Everything else other than the painting remained the same — untouched,” she said, pointing to the wall and stating that the painting is too large for one person to lift.

“They lifted off the painting on the verandah, which two people have to lift. Then they went into the foyer and took another big one off the wall. Stacked close to that one were several other smaller paintings on the ground,” she added.

“From the start of the hurricane season we just took down most of the paintings that were hanging out here and put them inside,” she explained.

The mother said that what has worried her most is the fact the robbers struck at a time when she and her son were at home and before the time they would normally go off to bed.

“We could be dead,” she said, sharing that the thieves must have seen her as she had fallen asleep watching television.

She told the Observer that she recalled a strange odour in the air before she fell asleep.

“They could see me from where they were taking off the painting off the wall. I was sitting in my chair. One interesting thing is that I smelled something funny… I went to see if my bedroom window was opened, but it was closed… They definitely could see me because my night light was on as well as the TV light,” she said.

“I never heard any car drive in, and I usually hear everything out there from my bedroom,” the woman added.

“We called the police and the detectives came from Matilda’s Corner and they were given photographs [of the stolen paintings]. About three or four paintings were from Barrington Watson, one was by Lois Lake-Sherwood, and others were from other painters. I don’t think they really went into any other part of the house. I think they came specifically for those paintings,” she said.

“The very big one that they took was in the Bob Marley movie. It was nicely framed. We have had it for donkey years. It is called Orange Park and it is a painting of where we used to live in Yallahs,” she told the Observer.

“The interesting thing is that people hardly steal paintings here in Jamaica. We feel invaded. That is frightening and worrying more than anything else because material things come and go. We do miss the paintings, because we are used to having them around and seeing them, but this makes us feel vulnerable now.”

Amid her unease she offered words of advice to people who are in possession of expensive artwork and other valuables.

“One of the things we can do, that I have been thinking of since Saturday, is that people can put tracking devices on valuables, even if you are not going to use them. Put trackers on things like your artwork and furniture. We really need to take more precaution at home, like having cameras, even if it is expensive,” she said.

Additionally, she advised people buying artwork to ask questions such as how the person selling the pieces got them and have them show proof of ownership.

Her son was not so open in speaking on the matter, other than to share that he felt violated.

“It’s just messed up. It just annoys me that someone can invade your personal space just like that,” he told the Observer.

Watson, regarded as one of Jamaica’s greatest artists, was educated at Kingston College, Royal College of Art in London as well as several other major European art academies, including Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris and Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

He returned to Jamaica in 1961 and quickly rose to prominence as a major artist in post-Independence Jamaica.

In 1984 the Government made him a member of the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander, and in 2006 he was vested with the country’s fourth highest national honour, the Order of Jamaica.

The Institute of Jamaica awarded him its Gold Musgrave Medal in 2000, and in 2012 the National Gallery of Jamaica honoured him with a major retrospective which was presented as part of the gallery’s Jamaica 50 programme.

Two of his sons, Basil and Raymond Watson, are renowned sculptors.