Van Gogh is Gone! A look at art theft and recovery
What happens to all the stolen art? One popular perception is that there is a “Mr. Big” holding all these items. While this is probably a myth (hopefully!), many high value items are traded by a small number of international crime gangs as an easily transported currency. There is a black market where items are traded at a fraction of their open market value. In some cases, the costs and difficulties of legitimizing a stolen item means that they are stored for years in bank vaults or under beds. Sadly some objects may be destroyed, like metal sculptures, which are melted down for their scrap value or artworks burned by thieves, fearful of their discovery. This statement, from The Art Loss Register, outlines why some owners of stolen artwork would turn to this membership database to assist them in recovering their lost possessions.
Why should we care? Amidst political turmoil and tremendous humanitarian needs, why should we worry about culture and antiquities? One answer is that “wars end, and shattered lives, communities and societies must be rebuilt.” (Nature, Vol 423, 29 May 2003) The physical fabric of the past is vital to the moral and spiritual fabric of the present and future. The idea that our children might not be able to walk into a museum, examine a piece of antiquity, and be inspired by it is unthinkable according to SAFE/Saving Antiquities for Everyone. SAFE is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving cultural heritage worldwide. It promotes respect for the laws and treaties that enable nations to protect their cultural property and preserve humanity’s most precious non-renewable resource: the intact evidence of our undiscovered past. The founders of this organization were inspired to act by the looting of the museums in Iraq.
To this end the Association of Art Museum Directors issued a report in 1988 on the need for all museums to research the provenance - the origins and history - of all their collections. AAM states, “(i)t should be the goal of member museums to make full disclosure of the results of their ongoing provenance research on those works of art in their collections created before 1946, transferred after 1932 and before 1946, and which were or could have been in continental Europe during that period, giving priority to European paintings and Judaica.” Managed by the American Association of Museums, the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal Project exists ”to provide a searchable registry of objects in U.S. museum collections that changed hands in Continental Europe during the Nazi era (1933-1945).” There are currently 28,022 objects from 166 participating museums listed in the Portal. You can sign up to get updates via e-mail when they add new museums and objects.
Similarly, all departments in the British Museum have been carrying out research into the provenance of their collections to establish whether anything could have been stolen by the Nazis prior to acquisition by the British Museum.
Art and cultural property crime, including theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines, is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually. See a list of the FBI’s Top Ten Art Crimes. To recover these precious pieces–and to bring these criminals to justice–the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 13 Special Agents to investigate. It also maintains the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties (including book and manuscripts) for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world. Go to Theft Notices and Recoveries to see thumbnails of the objects.
Virginia Museums of Fine Arts conducts research on all works of art in its collection. An important part of that research is the effort to establish the complete provenance of each object in the museum collection. In recent years, VMFA has particularly increased its efforts to ascertain the complete provenance for artworks that fall within a category relating to the “Nazi era” period: 1933-1945. Scroll down the page to a list of links for more on this topic.
The award winning documentary The Rape of Europa tells the epic story of the systematic theft, deliberate destruction and miraculous survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and the Second World War. For twelve long years, the Nazis looted and destroyed art on a scale unprecedented in history. But young art professionals as well as ordinary heroes, from truck drivers to department store clerks, fought back with an extraordinary effort to safeguard, rescue and return the millions of lost, hidden and stolen treasures. Producers have included additional information and photographs on the website. Having missed the TV broadcast of this film, I was able to rent it on DVD. Many local libraries also have it available. It’s an amazing story - one which continues to this day!
While compiling the sites for this Info Stop I happened to catch “American Greed,” a new series on CNBC that explores the worlds of scams, cons and schemes. They presented a facinating look at the unsolved $300 million art heist from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer and Manet have now been missing for almost two decades. The thieves dressed in police uniforms, but used no weapons. An unsuspecting security guard opened a museum door and in less than 90 minutes thieves stole 13 paintings. You can watch the show on the web. Watch another episode of the show profiling a theft of Maxfield Parrish paintings from a West Hollywood gallery.
Finally, lost quilts? Stolen quilts? Most quilters never consider the possibility until they experience the trauma of a missing quilt. On the Lost Quilt Come Home page, pictures of lost and stolen quilts are displayed with the hope that some missing quilts will be recovered. Don’t think it’s just grandma’s missing Log Cabin gone astray! Many of these are valuable art quilts and antiques deliberately stolen from galleries and quilt shows where they were on display.
