Muguet de Paris » Art Crime

Art Theft at the Salon

Jane del Monte — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:52:11 +0000

Even before its official opening, the Salon du Collectionneur got off to a rather inauspicious start for one Paris antiquaire. On Wednesday, two ancient Chinese bronze statuettes, with an estimated value of 500,000€, were stolen from the stand of Christian Deydier, whose gallery, specializing in Asian art, is located on rue du Seine.

The theft occurred during setup of the stand on Wednesday, two days before the official opening. Little is known about the circumstances of the crime, but it appears that the thief (or thieves) acted within a two-hour time frame.

During last night’s pre-opening activities, a guard had been installed at the stand. One can expect heightened security during the course of the Salon.

The Brigade de repression de banditisme is in charge of the investigation. There has been no comment so far from M. Deydier. I’ll keep you posted as information becomes available.

The Salon opened to the public today and will continue through 20 September.

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

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The Unfortunate Affair at the Hôtel Salé

Jane del Monte — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:23:55 +0000

On quiet little rue de Thorigny in the Marais stands the Hôtel Salé, an hôtel particulier constructed between 1656 and 1659 for Pierre Aubert de Fontenay, who had gained his fortune collecting the tax on salt (whence the name, “salé,” or “salted”). Since 1985, it has housed the Musée Picasso, which contains the most comprehensive collection of the master’s works and covers all his periods.

Yesterday morning, a museum employee, in doing his daily inventory, made a disturbing discovery. In a display case formerly occupied by a notebook of sketches and drawings by Pablo Picasso (with an estimated value of €8 million), there was nothing. Empty.

According to police, the theft probably occurred between Monday night and Tuesday morning (the day the museum is closed to the public, although this Tuesday it was exceptionally open to residents of the neighorhood). There were no signs of a break-in, nor were alarms set off. Preliminary information indicates that the sketchbook was kept in an unlocked display case located on the first floor.

A dispatch from the Ministry of Culture describes a small notebook, 16 x 24 centimeters (approximately 6.30 x 9.45 inches), with a red cover bearing the inscription in gold letters, “Album,” containing 33 sketches and drawings executed by Picasso between 1917 and 1924. According to this source, the display case in question could only be opened with the aid of special tools.

The investigation is being conducted by the Brigade de la Répression de Banditisme, the arm of the Parisian police specializing in traffic and theft of works of art. Police sources characterize the security in the museum as weak, due to current renovation work, and surveillance may also have been impeded by an immense installation of a work by the sculptor Daniel Buren.

A daring, cleverly planned crime, or one of opportunity, no less daring? At this point, it’s hard to say. I’ll keep you posted as information becomes available.

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

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It’s a Crime!

Jane del Monte — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:06:59 +0000

Far from the glamorized version served to us by Hollywood, where an elegant, clever gentleman-thief relieves the rich of their often ill-gotten gains, art crime is in reality a big business, the third largest criminal enterprise in the world, ranking just after drugs and arms. In fact, the proceeds are often laundered and used to buy the latter two or funneled into terrorist activities. The perpetrators are usually low-level criminals who have been hired by someone in organized crime. They make a small percentage, with most of the profit going to the middleman.

I’ve been reading up on it, not because I’m entertaining the idea of a career change, but as part of a project I’m doing. The stories are fascinating, often funny, as in the case of the 84-year-old gentleman in England, known in the press as “The Artful Codger,” who managed to deceive institutions for more than 17 years, earning more than £850,000 through the family business.

His son produced counterfeits of such virtuosity that one piece was authenticated by both the British Museum and Christie’s. The father would then go off in his wheelchair to art houses or museums with the goods that he claimed to have found or inherited, accompanied by the “proper” documentation. Their downfall came via lack of attention to detail, when they tried to sell three Assyrian marble reliefs. British Museum staff noticed a spelling error, and then realized that the horses were wearing 20th-centuryharnesses and that the stone originated in Wiltshire.

We hear of the high-profile cases, such as the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911 or that (considered the largest art theft in U.S. history and still unsolved) of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where thieves entered, disguised as police officers, and made off with a Vermeer, three Rembrandts, and works by Manet and Degas, as well as others. However, most art crime goes unreported.

There are several reasons for this. Museums are often reluctant to show their vulnerability and risk not getting donations in the future. Experts don’t like to admit that they have been fooled by forgeries. A number of thefts are commissioned. Dealers and collectors have engaged in fraud to inflate value and inflate costs.

In the case of antiquities, which account for 75% of art crime, the looters are often locals who moonlight as tomb raiders. The recovery rate here is especially low, as the freshly unearthed pieces have never been seen by experts nor photographed nor documented, and thus their existence is unknown, so they are not listed as stolen.

Art crime is estimated to bring in more than $6 billion a year, but it is difficult to be more precise, as most police departments have historically not differentiated between art crime and other types of crime. As of 2004, the FBI mans an art crimes unit comprised of 13 agents and three trial attorneys. The Italians have devoted the greatest amount of resources to the problem, with 255 agents dedicated to art recovery.

As to the victims, they are individuals; dealers and auction houses; museums; and churches are especially vulnerable, by nature accessible to the public and rarely able to afford the security and insurance to which a museum has access. But, in the end, with the disappearance of a part of our cultural heritage, it is we who are the victims.

There are many sites dedicated to the subject. A good place to begin, if this interests you, is that of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, a Rome-based think tank founded by Noah Charney, a young American art historian (www.artcrime.info).

Jan del Monte, blogging from the rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, France

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