Art Theft

Guide Note

Art Theft encompasses individual thefts of art work, state sanctioned art theft, and the smuggling of antiquities. Occasionally, thefts are "commissioned" by private collectors who desire a certain piece. After a commissioned theft, the art work vanishes and is usually never seen again. Stolen art, obviously, cannot be publicly displayed so the price thieves receive for it is much lower than market value. Some art is so valuable, however, even a discount of 95% to the fair market value can net a large profit for the thieves.

Fast Facts

1. Interpol estimates black market art business at $6 billion annually
2. Approximately one piece of art is reported stolen each day from a museum somewhere in the world
3. The FBI has 12 special agents and three attorneys dedicated to Art Theft

1. Nazis systematically looted European collections during World War II
2. Many prominent pieces of art were lost
3. Some pieces surface from time to time
4. Many stolen pieces were probably assimilated into private collections after the war
5. 2007: Several paintings stolen by Herman Goering were discovered in a Swiss bank vault

1. Basically, it's art representing the cultural heritage of a country end up in another country's national museum
2. Not formally sanctioned by state governments
3. Provenance and repatriation become matters of dispute
4. British Museum in discussion with Greece about the ownership of artifacts removed from Greece in 1816
5. Many antiquities disappeared from Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 Invasion

• 1473: Last Judgment triptych by Memling
• 1878: Gainsborough's The Duchess of Devonshire
• 1911: The Mona Lisa
• 1934: Panels from the Ghent Altarpiece
• 1945: Quedlinburg medieval artifacts (1945)
• 1946: Alfred Stieglitz Gallery
• 1967: University of Michigan
• 1969: Izmur Archaeology Museum
• 1990: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
• 1994: Mather Brown's Thomas Jefferson
• 2004: Edvard Munch's The Scream
• 2007: São Paulo Museum of Art
• 2008: Emile Bührle Foundation in Zurich (2008)