Pair Arrested After Paintings 'Lost' in Fire Turn Up in Galleries

Four oil paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries may have undone an arson and insurance fraud scheme designed to collect more than $1 million, authorities said Wednesday.

State investigators have arrested Max Astan, a 61-year-old Mission Viejo resident, on suspicion of conspiracy, insurance fraud and intimidating a witness after a house he owned in Granada Hills burned down in June 2008. They also arrested his tenant, Van Nuys real estate agent Maryann Khosravizadeh, on suspicion of arson and conspiracy.

After the fire, Astan filed an insurance claim, saying he had kept Persian rugs and other personal belongings in the house, including two 17th-century oil paintings and two 18th-century paintings valued at $147,500.

But L.A. firefighters blamed the fire on arson. And Astan's insurer, Travelers, soon became suspicious about the paintings, which happened to be on display at two Southern California art galleries at the time of the blaze. 

Astan "merely photographed the four paintings while they were on display for sale at an art gallery 20 miles from his Mission Viejo home," investigators alleged.

Three months after the fire, Travelers secretly bought two of the paintings.

Astan also claimed $937,822 to replace the house itself, which his insurer denied in February 2010. Khosravizadeh was paid $239,100 in insurance claims following the fire.

In March 2011, state fraud detectives searched Astan's Mission Viejo home and allegedly found opium and evidence for the fraud case. Last Friday, Astan was arrested at his home and booked into Los Angeles County Jail.

Khosravizadeh was arrested Tuesday.