Art Crime

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Recently one of our Local Artist Gert J van Maanen has notified Virtu - Art that fraudulent copies of his artwork were available for sale via a website in Swizerland. Fueled with a need of more information our Roving reporter set off into the Dark Data Mines of the internet to discover the world of Art Crime - Then and Now and maybe even draw some conclusions.... Global Information Known about the Extent and Intent of Art Crime: ART CRIME Every year over 10,000 works of art are reported stolen around the world, adding to a total which hovers around the 100,000 mark. The FBI estimates that the market in stolen art is worth around $5 billion. Recent striking cases include portraits by Rembrandt and Renoir taken from the National Museum in Sweden and the theft of a Cezanne oil painting from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on New Year's Day 2000. These paintings have yet to be found. Sunday, February 17, 2008 - By Barbara McCarthy, armed men in ski masks committed one of the biggest art heists in history with a €130 million haul from a Swiss gallery. The robbers, who are still at large, took off with a Paul Cezanne, a Edgar Degas, a Vincent van Gogh and a Claude Monet from a private collection in Zurich. It happened a week after two Pablo Picasso paintings worth €3 million were stolen from another exhibition near Zurich. Art crime and the theft of iconic objects is becoming more popular, but selling on such hot property is not easy. Few people could afford them and legitimate collectors wouldn’t touch them. Even so, art crime is big business. According to the FBI, the stolen art industry is worth over €4 billion annually. Interpol has about 30,000 stolen works listed on its database, while in Britain alone each year, almost €700 million worth of art is stolen. Art theft in Ireland is rare, said James O’Halloran, managing director of Irish fine art auctioneers, James Adam & Sons. Art theft certainly isn’t news to law enforcement officials all around the world. Since we’ve been lining up to gaze at paintings and sculptures, thieves have capitalized on the allure of the visual arts. But today more and more headlines cry "Art theft on the rise," especially in the wake of a recent string of rather bizarre sculpture thefts. And large figures aren’t the only pieces in danger. According to Thomas Galbraith of the Art Loss Register in New York, there were twelve significant thefts of valuable art reported in the United States and the UK in January 2006 alone. Yearly almost 10,000 art thefts take place around the world. Many high-profile pieces have been stolen in the last five years, including Munch’s The Scream in 2004 and a rare gold-plated statue known as the Cellini salt cellar in 2003. Art theft has indeed become a big business CIRCA. Irish Comment Someone may steal a painting off a hotel wall or take a painting from a private estate and not know its true value,” he said. But Ireland is not bereft of great art robberies. The most famous of these have taken place at Russborough House in Blessington, which has seen four since 1974. The most famous Art Theft which caught our attention in Ireland, occurred in 1986, when a gang led by the infamous Martin Cahill made away with 18 paintings including a famous Goya piece. Most were recovered in Britain and Belgium. That aside, theft in private homes is quite rare, said O’Halloran. Forgeries are more commonplace in Ireland. We regularly see pictures where there is something wrong. As soon as that happens, we ask the person who brought it to us to backtrack to its previous owners. Insurance companies do insure private art in Ireland as part of household insurance. In recent years, the value of art has increased in this country. Around €50 million-worth of art is traded in Ireland officially annually, although there are private deals which take place in galleries, for which the figures are not available, said O’Halloran. Apollogallery.ie Often, art changes hands six or seven times down the line. Then, decades later, it gets purchased by a private collector who may not know that it has been stolen or that it is still stolen. Art Crime Now and Then Art fakery is a peculiar beast. Sometimes driven by pure greed. Sometimes it's driven by misplaced artistic admiration -- these thieves don't steal for profit, but because they covet art objects for their personal enjoyment. It wasn't just art that got faked. The Shroud of Turin, considered by many the cloth that cloaked Christ's body after his crucifixion, was crafted in the 14th century, according to carbon-14 dating. Nonetheless, the faithful still venerate the shroud, arguing for its authenticity against the scientific evidence. On August 21, 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings in the world, was stolen right off the wall of the Louvre (famous museum in Paris, France). It was such an inconceivable crime, that the Mona Lisa wasn't even noticed missing until the following day. Who would steal such a famous painting? Why did they do it? Was the Mona Lisa lost forever? Everyone had been talking about the glass panes that museum officials at the Louvre had put in front of several of their most important paintings. Museum officials stated it was to help protect the paintings, especially because of recent acts of vandalism. The public and the press thought the glass was too reflective. Louis Béroud, a painter, decided to join in the debate by painting a young French girl fixing her hair in the reflection from the pane of glass in front of the Mona Lisa. Why steal famous paintings? When thieves stole two Van Goghs and one Cezanne from a Rome museum. Police recovered the paintings from the thieves' apartments. But why steal famous paintings? Stolen paintings this famous could never be publicly displayed in a museum or rich person's home, which means they can't just be resold at Sotheby's. They may be worth millions, but how can a thief turn them into cash? One way is to sell to private buyers. Of course, these buyers cannot display or resell the painting -- they are true aesthetes, willing to buy art just to look at it. Sometimes a collector will even commission a criminal to steal a particular artwork. (This is what Italian police initially suspected, since by stealing the Van Goghs and the Cezanne, the bandits passed up several more valuable works.) A second way is to exact a ransom from the owner or owner's insurer. Third, if the painting isn't really famous, the thief can raise money by offering the stolen canvas as collateral for a loan. Even reputable banks don't always check the provenance (record of its ownership) of items they take as collateral. Finally, drug traffickers and other ne'er-do-wells may use paintings as a sort of international currency that is easy to transport and hard to counterfeit. Some Links associated with this article Gert Jan van Maanen Gallery Fraudulent copies ThePost.ie Stolen art industry worth Euro 4bn annually CIRCA Apollo Gallery Art and Cultural Property Law A Guide ARCA This Week in Art Crime Internet Public Library: Crime Art A T T A C K Can Science help solve art crime Art attack High Tech finding phony art The Art Loss Register Famous Art Crime Mona Lisa Stolen Museum Security Network protection against malicious intent 'The Scream' Theft stunned Norway Art Crime Index World's Most Wanted Art Back to Top
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