art theft

art theft, criminal activity involving the theft of art or cultural property, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and other objets d’art.

The perceived value of a given work, be it financial, artistic, or cultural—or some combination of those factors—is frequently the motive for art theft. Because of the portability of works such as paintings, as well as their concentration in museums or private collections, there have been persistent examples of major thefts of art. Because of the widespread media coverage that such heists often generate, the public is likely to be aware of thefts of this scale. Such was the case with the theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. The two-year search for the missing masterpiece granted the Mona Lisa an unmatched celebrity, elevating it immensely in the popular consciousness. Thefts among private galleries and individual collectors may not be as widely reported, but taken as a whole, they represent a significant part of a criminal activity that spans the globe. In the early 21st century, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that art valued at $4 billion to $6 billion was stolen worldwide each year.

When the movement of illegal art is examined as a criminal market, it is apparent that it differs from markets for goods that are illegal to produce, such as counterfeit money or illegal drugs. To realize their full value, works of stolen art must move through some portal to the legitimate market—thus, the movement of illegal art often will have a half-illicit, half-licit character. Because there are relatively narrow portals to the secondary art market, a number of preventive steps can be taken to restrict the movement of illegal art. These might include increasing the efficiency of theft registers, increasing the size and reach of catalogs of the known works of established artists, and creating action committees among commercial dealers’ associations that can act when rumours begin to circulate about the presence of stolen works in the market. Even one theft can cause enormous damage. Ultimately, vigilance of dealers and consumers will provide one of the major disincentives for those considering their possible gains through the theft of art.

One puzzle about art theft is that it often appears to be a crime with no easy rewards for the perpetrator. For most thieves, in fact, art is not a commodity of choice, either because they do not have the knowledge to negotiate the movement of art onto the market or because they seek ready cash, and the disposition of art, especially for anything close to its market value, may take many months. Another complication is the existence of registers of stolen works, such as the Art Loss Register, which further decreases the probability of the successful disposal of stolen art. Collectors or dealers who experience a theft notify these registers of their loss immediately. As a consequence, it becomes exceptionally difficult to move a stolen work of any stature onto the legitimate market, because it would be routine for major dealers and the largest auction houses to consult theft registers before considering handling a work, especially a major one.

One result of the growing difficulties in the disposal of stolen art is that many works simply disappear after they have been stolen. Works by Vermeer, Manet, and Rembrandt stolen from the Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990, for example, have not been recovered. There are three major possibilities concerning the status of such works: (1) they may find their way into the hidden collections of individuals, known in the art trade as “gloaters,” who are willing to take the risks of owning works of art that they know to be stolen; (2) the thieves may hold on to the works in the hope that it might be possible to move the works onto the market after the notoriety of the theft has died down; and (3) the perpetrators may destroy the works when they realize how difficult it is to sell stolen art and then become aware of the consequences of being caught with the works in their possession.

There are other distinctive forms of art theft. During war, lawlessness may give rise to widespread looting. Such was the case when thousands of priceless artifacts and antiquities were taken from museums and archaeological sites during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. War can also provide cover for more systematic art theft, as in the seizure of thousands of major works of art by the Nazis during World War II. In addition to so-called “degenerate art” confiscated by the Nazis in the years prior to the war, German armies plundered works from museums and private collections as they advanced across Europe. In the immediate aftermath of the war, Allied soldiers discovered large caches of stolen works hidden in salt mines, but significant pieces, such as the Amber Room, a collection of gilded and bejeweled wall panels taken from the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, Russia, have never been recovered. Works stolen by Nazis have been found in major international collections, including leading museums, and families of the original victims continue to pursue legal action to regain ownership of these works. In 2011 German police uncovered a stash of some 1,500 paintings, with an estimated value of $1 billion, in a cluttered nondescript apartment in Munich. The collection, which included works by “degenerate” artists such as Picasso, Matisse, and Chagall, had been confiscated by the Nazis and was considered lost in the postwar era.

A somewhat different form of theft involves the plunder or removal of cultural or archaeological treasures, often from countries in the developing world. Such treasures are then sold on the international market or displayed in museums. The latter practice is commonly known as elginism, after Thomas Bruce, 7th earl of Elgin, a British ambassador who acquired a collection of Greek sculptures that has subsequently become known as the Elgin Marbles. Such cases demonstrate that there may be complex moral and legal issues that arise when stolen art passes on to the legitimate art market and into the hands of buyers who purchase in good faith.