An accused art thief caught in a criminal sting that aired on a reality show says he had an agreement with a Long Island mansion owner to sell the swiped paintings — and the TV network has the footage that can set him free.
In court documents that were to be filed Monday night, house painter Joselito Vega said the caught-on-camera theft of artwork worth $100,000 from a Kings Point estate — including a small Picasso etching — was just a misunderstanding that could easily be cleared up if CBS shared video from its short-lived “Brooklyn DA” show.
Vega, who was arrested in 2012, said he was approached by Michael Schulhof, who hired him to do some painting in his mother’s stately home.
“Up until his arrest, Vega didn’t believe that there was anything wrong or illegal with this arrangement,” Vega’s lawyer Timothy Parlatore said in the filing.
Parlatore said proof of the arrangement was in Vega’s car, which he said was searched, on camera, after Vega’s arrest.
The lawyer said prosecutors failed to turn over the vehicle evidence, and CBS has refused to share the footage.
The drama played out over the course of the first three episodes of the much maligned documentary series on then-DA Charles Hynes’ office, which aired as Hynes was running for re-election.
The CBS web site calls the episodes “a high-tech undercover sting involving a famous art collection.”
Calls to the Schulhof estate were not immediately returned.
Vega, of Easton, Pa., claims he was duped by a greedy homeowner who had promised one of the paintings, which was insured for $200,000, to the Guggenheim Museum upon his mother’s death, in what the defendant said was an insurance scam.
Matriarch Hannelore Schulhof died in 2012.
The recorded theft was Vega’s second trip to the house to do work. He was “hired” again after an inventory first revealed missing artwork, and he became a likely suspect.
Investigators set up hidden cameras in the Gold Coast mansion and set out artwork to entice him. Vega was videotaped stealing another three pieces of art, authorities said.
A spokesman for the TV series “Brooklyn DA” declined to comment.