Youngworth has demanded that he and Connor, both jailed on other convictions, be freed and given the $5 million reward in exchange for the paintings. The FBI has had little to say to the press, but a museum source says, ““This is the best lead that we’ve ever had.’’ In addition to the paint chips, ““the ragged edge [of the canvas in the photos] created by the knife that removed the canvas from the frame did in some ways match up with the remnant of the canvas left within the frame itself.’’ But no one is congratulating the Herald for brokering negotiations between the cons and the Feds. ““They’re really stepping into deep doodoo now when they’re paying a consultant,’’ says legal expert Alan Dershowitz. ““What the Herald did was to legitimate art theft.’’ Says the museum source, ““We’d rather be talking to Sotheby’s, but we have no choice.''
