Art Theft and Fraud Crime Reports

Due: Friday, February 22nd

As you’ve probably heard or read, a major art heist occurred at the Bruerle Museum in Zurich, Switzerland last week. Thieves escaped from the museum with over $164.2 million worth of artwork by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh, and Monet in broad daylight. This is just one of many in a long history of art theft and fraud. Small and large scale operations occur all of the time, all over the world and only a small portion of the work is actually recovered. The circumstances surrounding the cases, while often resulting in tragic losses for the art world, are always fascinating, mysterious, and point out underground crime rings that are otherwise invisible to the average citizen.

For Friday, please research and be prepared to inform the class about one case of art theft or fraud that interests you. (**note that art fraud generally involves forgery of a work and an attempt to sell it as the original). There are many resources available to you online and in print, a few of which are listed below:

FBI Art Theft Department and National Stolen Art File: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/arttheft.htm
International Foundation for Art Research:
http://www.ifar.org/
Museum Security Network:
http://www.museum-security.org/wordpress/
Saving Antiquities for Everyone:
http://www.savingantiquities.org/
Interpol:
http://www.interpol.int/default.asp
Site devoted to “Fighting the Illicit Traffic of Cultural Property”: http://icom.museum/illicit.traffic.html
American Association of Museums:
http://www.aam-us.org/

Your crime report should include a description and brief history of the painting and artist, the value of the piece, commentary on the location that it was stolen from, recovery or leads (if any), and any other interesting details that you come across which make that specific instance of theft or fraud unique.