Phivos Istavrioglou (Steven Hirsch)
LAW & HOARDER: Phivos Istavrioglou, lured to New York, is charged with stealing this Salvador Dali painting. (Steven Hirsch)
A European fashion publicist was busted at JFK for allegedly swiping a $150,000 Salvador Dali painting from an Upper East Side gallery last year, authorities said yesterday.
Phivos Istavrioglou, 29 — who is in charge of international media relations at the French-owned Moncler sportswear company — was cuffed Saturday as he walked off an American Airlines flight from Milan.
He pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges that he yanked the “Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio” off the wall of the Venus Over Manhattan gallery in June and waltzed out the door.
A few days after the heist, Istavrioglou anonymously mailed the 1949 painting back to the US from Greece, authorities said.
“Surveillance video of suspect was all over news and when he realized the hunt was on, the defendant blinked and he rolled the Dali in a matter fitting of a college dorm room poster and mailed it back to the state of New York,” said assistant district attorney Jordan Arnold.
Detectives posing as representatives from a well-heeled gallery owner lured Istavrioglou back to New York with promises of a job.
“This is about the Dali, isn’t it?” he allegedly asked cops who grabbed him off the plane.
“The evidence against him is overwhelming,” Arnold said.
Istavrioglou, who has also written for fashion magazines and was a regular on the Manhattan club scene, told cops the theft was spur of the moment, sources said.
He said he didn’t visit the gallery with an intent to steal, but took the painting because security was so lax.
“The Dali has been returned to its rightful owner undamaged. My client pled not guilty,” said Istavrioglou’s attorney David Cohen.
Gallery owner Adam Lindemann was relieved.
“A surreal ending to a surreal theft, we are happy this case is now closed,” Lindemann said.
Istavrioglou was held on $100,000 bail and is due back in court next Tuesday.