Some called it the perfect crime. Others compared it to the Thomas Crown Affair. Now police have a new way to describe the art heist that recently saw a multi-million-dollar collection of Andy Warhols stolen from a prominent Los Angeles art collector: fishy.

A month after thieves allegedly broke into philanthropist Richard Weisman's mansion, spiriting away millions of dollars worth of modern paintings, detectives have unveiled a new person of interest to their ongoing investigation: the crime's supposed victim.

News that they were seeking to interview Weisman, a wealthy investment banker, came as he admitted taking the bizarre decision to waive an insurance policy on the 11 stolen Warhol paintings. The move means he will forfeit $25m that he was due to be compensated for the theft. But it will also prevent insurance investigators from digging into personal records and interviewing family and friends about the circumstances of the mysterious
incident.

Weisman claimed he would find such an investigation embarrassing and inconvenient, telling reporters that his insurance company's loss adjusters would inevitably ask awkward questions about whether the heist was staged as part of an elaborate insurance fraud.

"They turn you into a suspect. I just finally told them, 'I'm not going to go through it for three to five years. Forget it'," he told the Seattle Times. "That's the only reason, and it's a good enough reason."

Weisman, who strongly denies any fraud, claims he is wealthy enough to be able to withstand the financial loss from the abandoned insurance claim. Chartis, his insurance firm, has withdrawn a $1m reward for the safe return of the paintings.

To a casual observer, however, the move begs a very simple question: if Weisman wasn't prepared to claim compensation for the stolen paintings, why did he insure them in the first place?

"It is curious," said investigator Mark Sommer, who heads the LAPD's specialist art theft unit. "We'd like to talk to him about it."

When the heist was first reported in September, it stunned the art world because of its seeming audacity, and the distinctive nature of the work that disappeared. The 11 stolen Warhols included ten silkscreen paintings of sports stars – among them Pele, Mohammed Ali, and Jack Nicklaus – plus a portrait of Weisman that the collector commissioned himself in 1977. Strangely, the thieves left dozens of more valuable works of art on the walls, and left not a shred of evidence.