Foreign tourist arrested for stealing $40K statue from Galleries Bartoux in Miami
Stevan Milovanovic also allegedly stole a pricey bottle of wine from Miami restaurant Sexy Fish.
Law and Crime
A foreign tourist faces possible deportation after he was arrested for stealing a $40,000 statue from a Miami art gallery last month.
Stevan Milovanovic, 35, faces multiple charges across several cases, including second-degree grand theft for stealing the sculpture from Galleries Bartoux on February 28, police reports and court records obtained by Urgent Matter show.
Milovanovic was also charged in a separate case with burglary of an occupied structure and third-degree grand theft for stealing a $16,000 bottle of wine from Miami restaurant Sexy Fish that same day.
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Court Documents: Stevan Milovanovic Miami Theft Allegations
Records from the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts and the Miami Police Department.
Adam Schrader
The alleged crime spree began around noon when Milovanovic and another man, identified as Aleksandar Belic, entered Sexy Fish and were seated at a table.
After placing food orders, Milovanovic stood up from the table and entered the restaurant’s staff-only wine cellar area, stealing a bottle of 1996 La Tâche Monopole wine from a display shelf and hiding it inside his jacket.
“In an apparent attempt to avoid immediate detection, the defendant then removed another bottle labeled Ziehharmonika from a nearby shelf and placed it in the location where the stolen bottle had originally been displayed,” the police report said.
Milovanovic then exited the restaurant around 12:22 p.m., leaving Belic behind. Belic paid for his meal and left the restaurant without eating it.
Surveillance footage showed Milovanovic getting into the passenger side of a red Jeep Wrangler before the vehicle drove away. A license plate reader later captured the Jeep’s tag number, and police issued a felony alert for the vehicle.
A few hours later, Milovanovic then visited Galleries Bartoux where surveillance footage showed him entering and walking toward the back of the gallery, police said.
Milovanovic moved out of camera view at the exact location where the statue was displayed and allegedly reemerged with “a noticeable bulge” inside his black jacket, police said. He then left the building at 4:48 p.m. without paying for the statue.
At some point after midnight on March 1, a police officer conducted a traffic stop on the red Jeep. After Milovanovic was read his Miranda rights, he allegedly admitted to police that he had stolen the statue.
“When presented with still photographs obtained from the gallery’s surveillance footage depicting him entering and exiting the gallery while concealing the item, the defendant positively identified himself in the images and provided a full confession,” the police report said.
Milovanovic also allegedly admitted to going to Sexy Fish and stealing the bottle of wine from the wine cellar.
He was then placed under arrest and transported to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center for processing.
Records also show a hold for immigration authorities and two fugitive warrants against Milovanovic for alleged crimes in Colorado and New Jersey, though details of those crimes were not provided in Miami court records.
Urgent Matter has reached out to the Galleries Bartoux for more information and additional comments.
Follow along with other art crime stories at Urgent Matter’s art crime tracker.
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