By Savannah Gonzales, Austin American-Statesman staff

Ruth Borinstein has been ensconced in art for most of her life. She began collecting in college, owned two galleries, and at 85, still paints – watercolors and oils – and is an art therapist.

Her extensive collection will go to her children when she dies, but perhaps without one of her favorites.

Burglars broke into her West Lake Hills home on June 23 and stole a dozen pieces of art from a who’s who of 19th and 20th century artists: Pablo Picasso, French post-impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, early abstractionist Paul Klee and Alexander Calder, an American most famous for inventing the mobile.

Borinstein initially reported only the theft of an original work by Picasso, worth between $15,000 and $20,000, but this week noticed that 11 other pieces, including seven more by Picasso, widely considered the father of modern art, were missing. Those pieces were on loan to her from dealers in New York and Los Angeles for an upcoming art show at her home, she said.

West Lake Hills police said last week that no arrests have been made and that the case is under investigation. Art thefts are uncommon for the department.

The Picasso, a black and white circus scene from the artist’s 347 Series, which Borinstein says she has owned for years, hung on the wall above her nightstand.

The art was not insured, Borinstein said.

“I have no hopes of getting them back,” she said.

A burglar or burglars entered her home during the day while she was away, she said.

“It had to be someone who knew me, knew my house and possibly knew my habits,” she said of the thieves.

She is offering a reward for information about the theft, anonymous or not, and is considering hiring a private investigator.

Borinstein, whose own work has been shown worldwide, moved to West Lake Hills 30 years ago and owned a gallery at West Avenue and West 17th Street in Austin, which later moved to Bee Cave Road. She closed the gallery six years ago when her husband, Abbie, suffered a stroke. She also owned a gallery in Beaumont.

Art theft is a growing crime, and the fourth most common criminal endeavor after gang-related crime, money laundering and drugs, said Robert Wittman, who founded the FBI’s national art crime team and is now in private art recovery.

People steal art because it’s a transportable commodity, Wittman said. “Easy to steal, but hard to sell.”

There’s no black market, per se, he said, but there are always buyers looking for a deal.

Stolen art has no provenance, or documentation of its previous ownership, Wittman   said.

Those who steal art don’t realize it’s difficult to sell, said Bob Goldman, who worked as a legal adviser to the FBI team and is now a lawyer in private practice. Expensive pieces bring a fraction of what they’re worth, he said. And if buyers are caught with stolen art, they could be charged with a crime related to receiving stolen property, Wittman and Goldman said.

Austin gallery owners said Borinstein called them to alert them of the theft and to advise them to call police if any of the stolen pieces came to their galleries.

Joe Sigel, owner of ART on 5th, described Borinstein and her husband as lifelong art lovers, not just business people. “Art was their life,” he said.