Featured Coverage
Robert Mardirosian —
Documented
"The Lost Cézanne"
Town & Country's "The Lost Cézanne" tells the full saga of seven paintings stolen from Michael Bakwin's Stockbridge home in 1978 — including a Cézanne that would later be valued as one of the most significant works ever to surface on the stolen art market. The article reveals Robert Mardirosian, a Boston attorney, as the man who had secretly held the paintings for decades.
Photographed in his basement studio on the day he publicly admitted it, the image of Robert — known as Romard — became the face of one of the most extraordinary art mysteries in American history. Chasing Cézanne tells the story behind that story.
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Robert Mardirosian Named Asst. District Attorney of Middlesex County
Appointed by D.A. John J. Droney, Robert M. Mardirosian joined the Middlesex County District Attorney's office — a brief but formative interlude that placed him on both sides of the law before he committed fully to criminal defense.
A 1952 graduate of Watertown High School and cum laude graduate of Portia Law School (1963), he had already defended more than 2,000 clients for the Mass. Public Defenders Committee before this appointment.
Romard at Work on a Group of Sculptures
A newspaper feature documented Robert Mardirosian in his studio under his artist name — Romard — working on a series of bronze figurative sculptures. The photograph captures what those who knew him described as his natural state: absorbed, precise, fully present.
He is the kind of artist the art world never quite categorized, which may have been the point.
Young Attorney Defending the Underdog in Mass.
A profile of the young Robert M. Mardirosian — newly opened in Watertown, Massachusetts — defending men in what might seem to be hopeless cases. Admitted to the Bar in 1963, he joined the Massachusetts Defenders Committee and obtained 19 straight acquittals before becoming Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County in 1967.
The article paints a portrait of a man already operating on an international scale: a founder and director of the Irish International Bank in Dublin, with clients in Geneva, Switzerland and Paris, and a man who had represented a relative of the Shah of Iran. He was also one of the defendants' counsel in the million-dollar Brink's robbery case, in which a Boston policeman was shot and killed. All of it is woven into Chasing Cézanne.
Asst. D.A. Mardirosian Prosecutes Murder Case
Robert M. Mardirosian presented his first degree murder case in court as Assistant District Attorney — prosecuting a 20-year-old Dorchester youth convicted of second-degree murder, his second homicide in five years. The defendant was sentenced to life at Walpole State Prison by Judge Walter H. McLaughlin.
The judge remarked that the defendant "has a better record for killing than some soldiers in combat for our country, and that is a pretty grave reflection." It was Mardirosian who suggested the life term. A rare look at Bob on the other side of the courtroom.
Robert M. Mardirosian Opens Law Office in Watertown
Bob's formal announcement card — elegantly printed — declaring that he is now engaged in the general practice of law with offices at 40 Mount Auburn Street, Watertown, Massachusetts.
A simple document marking the beginning of a private practice that would take him from the courtrooms of Middlesex County to the art world of Geneva, Paris, and the South of France.
Mardirosian Passes Exam; To Open Law Office Here
The newspaper announcement of Bob passing the 1963 Massachusetts Bar Examination — a milestone years in the making. He had attended Portia Law School in the evenings while working with his father at Trimont Motors in Cambridge, graduating cum laude in 1963.
Married to Madeleine Seferian, with two children — Marc, 8, and Andrea, 7 — he opened his offices at 40 Mt. Auburn Street in Watertown Square, intending to engage in the general practice of law. The beginning of everything.
Lowell Man Acquitted of Setting Fatal Fire
Another acquittal for Robert M. Mardirosian — this time defending a Lowell man charged with setting a fatal fire. The case, tried in East Cambridge, added to a courtroom record that included 19 straight acquittals early in his career.
The case is woven into Chasing Cézanne — one of many high-stakes trials that defined Bob's reputation as a defense attorney who took on the cases others wouldn't touch.
"Our Congratulations Go to Bob Mardirosian"
A community notice celebrating Bob's appointment as Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County — noting that he had entered the legal profession at a comparatively advanced age, studying law in the evenings for many years while working at a Cambridge automobile agency, before graduating and passing his bar exam.
"Despite his relative inexperience, his staunch, determined, and able defense of defendants in local courts soon had many attorneys among the spectators." A second career — pursued with complete dedication, and rewarded in full.
An Invitation from F. Lee Bailey
F. Lee Bailey — one of the most celebrated criminal defense attorneys in American history — personally invited Robert M. Mardirosian to cocktails marking the opening of his new law offices at the Penthouse Suite, One Center Plaza, Boston, on Thursday, June 20, 1968.
A follow-up note, postmarked Boston June 7, 1968 and addressed to Robert M. Mardirosian, Esquire, Assistant District Attorney, rescheduled the party to Friday, June 21st. Two small documents that place Bob squarely in the world of Boston's legal elite — a world that Chasing Cézanne brings fully to life.
Chief of Police Commends Asst. D.A. Mardirosian
A letter from Tyngsborough Chief of Police Harold L. Pivirotto to Middlesex County District Attorney John J. Droney, written after the conclusion of the Christopher Pistone-Albert Giorgio armed robbery and kidnapping case — a trial four years in the making.
The Chief wrote: "I feel that Assistant District Attorney Robert M. Mardirosian did an excellent job in the preparation of the case for trial." Though the jury returned a Not Guilty finding, the Chief was clear that it was not attributable to any failing of the Commonwealth's representatives. A rare primary source document — a window into the caliber of man Robert Mardirosian was in the courtroom.
"Nobody's Gonna Break In and Steal Your Masterpiece, Romard!"
Bob found this cartoon and made it his own — adding his artist name Romard and the voice of Madeleine, who tells him nobody is going to break in and steal his masterpiece. Bob, in bed with a rifle, replies: "Keep quiet Madeleine."
Hanging on the wall in the cartoon is his self-portrait — Artist with a Glass of Wine — a painting that figures prominently in Chasing Cézanne. That Bob would doctor a cartoon to cast himself as a man guarding his art says everything about him.
$4.5m Award for Gas-Blast Burns
A Middlesex Superior Court jury ordered Cape Cod Gas Co. to pay more than $4.5 million to a 27-year-old Waltham man severely burned in a 1974 Hyannis gas explosion — thought to be one of the largest personal injury judgments ever rendered in Massachusetts at the time.
The plaintiff, James Jijarjian, was treated for five weeks at the Shriners Burn Institute in Boston and required eight more operations to regain the use of his hands. The 13-day trial before Judge Frank Good underscored Robert Mardirosian's reach far beyond criminal law — a formidable presence in the courtroom on any side of any case.
Atty. Robert Mardirosian Will Represent Bond
Robert M. Mardirosian flew to Grand Junction, Colorado to represent Stanley Bond — one of five defendants in the armed robbery of a State Street Bank branch in which a Boston policeman was shot and killed. Bond had been apprehended in Grand Junction after a flight from Denver, and was being brought back to Massachusetts to face charges of interstate flight to avoid prosecution.
The article chronicles Bob's already remarkable reach: clients across New England, New York, California, Paris, Teheran, and Geneva, Switzerland; a founder and director of the Irish International Bank in Dublin; and one of the developers of a $10 million Boston East high-rise complex. A man of many worlds — all of it woven into Chasing Cézanne.
Atty. Mardirosian Will Speak to Watertown-Belmont AGBU Nov. 14
Robert M. Mardirosian was invited as the featured speaker at a dinner meeting of the Watertown-Belmont Chapter of the AGBU — the Armenian General Benevolent Union — his topic: General Law, with a specialty in Criminal Law that was already taking his cases nationally and internationally.
The article notes his membership in the Federal Bar, First Circuit, his admission to practice before the United States Supreme Court and the United States Tax Court, his role as Assistant District Attorney for Middlesex County, and his election to the Board of Directors of the Coolidge Bank and Trust Co. — a portrait of a man already moving in several worlds at once.
Cardinal Among Guests at Anniversary Party for the Robert Mardirosians
His Eminence Richard Cardinal Cushing was among those celebrating Atty. and Mrs. Robert M. Mardirosian on the occasion of their 14th wedding anniversary — joined by some 50 relatives and friends on May 10th.
At the time, Robert maintained law offices in both Watertown and Boston, and was serving as an assistant district attorney for Middlesex County. Also present were Utilities Commissioner Edward G. Seferian and former town counsel John J. Curran.
