Last August, the art world stifled a collective scream of frustration when two paintings were stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway. One of the Edvard Munch iconic Scream (1893) pictures was heisted, along with a Madonna (1893-4). Recent news has seen the arrest of four suspects, and Norwegian police are confident that convictions will follow. However, the works themselves remain missing.
According to the FBI, ‘The illicit trade in art and cultural artifacts is a major category of international crime. This includes theft of individual works of art, illegal export of objects protected by international laws, and pillaging of archaeological sites. Art theft is an international problem requiring cooperation at all levels of law enforcement.’
Arts Hub Global goes behind the scenes to look more closely at an issue that has the potential to affect every museum, gallery and collector.
Art crime through the ages
Unfortunately there is nothing unusual about the Munch case – it is simply a link in a long chain of thefts that go back to ancient times. The looting of invaluable cultural artefacts following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 was decried around the world, and, since time immemorial, the spoils of war have included priceless cultural treasures.
For a brief overview of the problem throughout history, from the Crusades to Iraq, this article from Rotten.com, is worth perusing:
The Sydney Morning Herald has also looked at the broader subject in the light of the Munch thefts:
Tim Hoffman admits to lifting most of the material in his lighter piece on the problem written for the University of Southern Maine.
A grab-bag of interesting links can be found in the Museum Security Mailing List of June 22, 2000.
Munch and more
News earlier this month has seen the arrest of a fourth suspect in the Munch case.
To read more about these thefts, this item from Norway’s Aftenpost was published last October and contains further links. No progress in Munch theft case. Aftenpost October 4, 2004.
For more recent news on the arrests and police investigations, the following articles will bring you up to date:
We can only hope that the paintings will eventually be located and still in good condition. Some comfort may be gained in the recent recovery of seven items of stolen art in Italy, including Picasso’s View of Cannes, which had been missing since its theft from a private collection in 1992. For details of this case, see this article from the BBC.
The fame of the Scream image, which has entered popular culture and is recognisable even by people who have never visited a gallery, ensured that this particular theft received international attention. Not so well known is the fact that London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, affectionately known as the V&A, has been the victim of a string of thefts over the last few months.
In Boston, art experts and law enforcement officers alike are still scratching their heads 14 years after the theft of priceless artwork from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The latest theory brings the IRA into the picture, so to speak.
Hotbeds of activity
Art crime activity is a global business, but certain countries attract specific markets and trades, just as in other, legitimate, activities. While antiquities and fine art are the hot items in continental Europe, a few years ago the finger was pointed at Great Britain as being the centre of illegal traffic of rare books and manuscripts.
And many problems have come with political change in Russia.
It’s the old rule of economics – supply and demand. There are plenty of unscrupulous collectors only too willing to obtain the objects of their hearts’ desire by whatever method is most expedient, with little regard for propriety and the law. The illicit trade of fine art and antiquities is rife, and crosses all borders. But so do attempts to tackle the problem, where international cooperation and the dogged pursuit of leads over many years often produce results long after all hope has been abandoned.
A 1998 article in Archeology magazine, From Cyprus to Munich, by Mark Rose (April 20, 1998) follows the trail of looters from the 1974 troubles in Cyprus to the arrest of a ringleader in Munich in 1998. Police were greatly assisted by the evidence of a Dutch dealer.
Tracking down the culprits
The good news for art lovers is that there is as much activity on the opposite side of the law, where law enforcement agencies and private companies are working fervently to track down the culprits and repatriate stolen works. More and more organizations are devoted to the tracking and recording of stolen cultural goods, many of them taking advantage of the global reach of internet and online technologies.
The Illicit Antiquities Research Centre (IARC) was established at the University of Cambridge in 1996 to ‘monitor and report upon the detrimental effects of the international trade in illicit antiquities’.
When we think about the biggest of the big in fighting crime, including art crime, the FBI and Interpol would come at the top of the list.
Interpol is a crucial player in the international tracking and repatriation of stolen works of art, and has developed a CD-ROM on the subject. The Interpol website is a great source of information about the trade, and the methods used to address it:
‘The theft of cultural objects affects developed and developing countries alike. The two countries most affected by this phenomenon are France and Italy. The illicit trade in cultural objects is sustained by the demand from the arts market, the opening of borders, the improvement in transport systems and the political instability of certain countries.
It is difficult to gauge the extent of the trade for two reasons:
1. The theft is very often not discovered until the stolen objects are found on the official arts market.
2. Countries send very little information to Interpol and many do not keep statistics on this type of criminality.”
‘International organizations must lead the way in this fight, and since 1947, Interpol has been specifically involved. The first international notice on stolen works of art was published in that same year. Since then, the techniques have evolved greatly and Interpol has developed a highly efficient system for circulating information in the form of a database accessible to Interpol member countries, as well as the more widely available Interpol Stolen Works of Art CD-ROM.
‘The CD-ROM is designed for police and customs services, museums, auction rooms, antique dealers, collectors and art lovers in general, and lists about 20,000 works of art and cultural property items such as paintings, sculptures and tapestries, with search possibilities based on different criteria: title of the work, name of the artist, description of the work or its dimensions and technique used. The CD-ROM is available in English, French and Spanish.’
Interpol also has some FAQs on the topic.
Although the FBI has no specific unit devoted to the investigation of stolen art, it does maintain a National Stolen Art File (NSAF) with criteria for inclusion clearly stated on its website href=”http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/aboutus.htm”>FBI Art Theft Program.
A meeting in Lyon, France, in February of the Interpol Expert group (IEG) on stolen cultural property, has resulted in six recommendations for international cooperation.
At the policy level, a paper presented at the Art Crime Conference, convened by the Australian Institute of Criminology in Sydney, in December 1999 could provide some guidelines for future policies and practices to curtail this lucrative and damaging trade.
Unfortunately, there is recent news that Britain is not prepared to keep the money flowing. British government scraps key database. Art Magazine.
Fakers and forgers
Of course, art crime involves more than theft – forgery is also an issue.
The bibliography in this article, Can science help solve art crime? has some useful leads on the science of solving such crimes through the ages
Art Forgeries by Dr Owen Facey, Benchmark, the Forensic Access Newsletter, is a little more detailed:
Art crime is as old as art itself, but it remains to be seen if our increasingly globalised world affords the culprits more opportunities, or allows those on the right side of the law to tighten the net. One thing is for sure: Munch’s Scream won’t be the last.
