Police Are Searching for Celebrity Wildlife Photographer Peter Beard, Who Has Gone Missing in Long Island

Peter Beard, a legendary
wildlife photographer and fixture of the New York social scene, has
gone missing from his home in Montauk. At age 82, Beard has
dementia and is considered by East Hampton police to be
“vulnerable” and possibly in need of medical attention.

He was last seen on Tuesday at
4:30 p.m. wearing a blue pullover fleece and black jogging pants,
according to a missing persons alert issued by authorities. Nejma
Beard, his wife and studio manager, reported him missing two hours
later.

A “full court” search” was
launched that night, said East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael
Sarlo. The department employed drones, search dogs, county-operated
planes, and other resources in the search, which continued through
yesterday, according to the East Hampton
Star,
which first reported the
news. 

As of this morning, Beard was
still missing.

Beard rose to fame in the early
1970s with the publication of his first book,
The End of the
Game, which documented
African wildlife and the deaths of thousands of elephants in Kenya.
By the end of the decade, he was a bona fide celebrity known as
much for his downtown New York lifestyle as for his sepia-toned
shots of exotic animals.

Good friends with Andy Warhol
and rock stars including Mick Jagger and Lou Reed, the photographer
also had well-publicized relationships with Candice Bergen, Lee
Radziwill, and numerous models—including Cheryl
Tiegs, to whom he was
married from 1982 to 1986.

In 2017, his portrait of a pair
of cheetah cubs sold for $672,500 at Christie’s New York, setting
an auction record for the artist.

The police chief said officers
are still “patrolling trails, roads, and access points” in East
Hampton.

The post Police Are Searching for Celebrity Wildlife
Photographer Peter Beard, Who Has Gone Missing in Long Island
appeared first on artnet News.