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Art Crime Black Market Fueling Organized Crime, Terrorism

Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Ulrich Boser is the author of "The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft," which comes out in paperback next week.  Boser looks into the infamous robbery specifically, and more broadly takes a look at often-overlooked global problem of art crime.

1.) The Gardner Heist [USA Today]

• March 18, 1990: robbers stole $500 million in art from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum - a dozen artworks, including a Vermeer, three Rembrandts and five Degas. 

• Twenty years later, still no sign of the art and no solid leads on who perpetrated the crime

• Boser took up the chase after inheriting the case files of art-theft detective Harold Smith, who pursued the Gardner "caper" (as Boser repeatedly refers to it) for years until his death in 2005.

2.) The Dark World of Art Crime [FBI]

• Art and cultural property crime - which includes 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.

• To bring these criminals to justice--the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 13 Special Agents to investigate, supported by three Special Trial Attorneys for prosecutions and mans the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world. 

3.) Terrorism and Art Crime [Israel News Agency]

• "Perhaps the best documented case of stealing property and valuables to finance terrorism was when the Sir Alfred Beit Art Collection was stolen by the IRA in 1974," said Dick Ellis of Swift-Find, who previously served as General Manager of Christie's Fine Art Security Services and created the Art and Antiques Squad at the Scotland Yard. This was the world's largest art theft for terrorism with the IRA carrying away canvas after canvas of Rubens, Goya and Vermeer.

• The theft was calculated at $32 million at the time - today that value would be $100 million.  It is noted that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta attempted to peddle stolen art to pay for his terrorism training.

4.) There's an Think Tank for That [ARCA]

• The Associate for Research into Crimes Against Art is an interdisciplinary think tank/research group on contemporary issues in art crime. This international non-profit organization studies issues in art crime and cultural property protection, runs educational programs, and consults on art protection and recovery issues brought to them by police, governments, museums, places of worship, and other public institutions.

• They hold events and conferences around the world and you can even complete a master's degree in International Art Crime Studies. 

5.) The Book - The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft [Amazon]

• Out in paperback the week of March 15th

• The reviews: "A vivid portrait of the high-stakes world of art crime." (Associated Press); "Artfully done... Grade: A Minus." (Boston Herald); "Boser cracks the cold case of the art world's greatest unsolved mystery." (Vanity Fair); "Boser has produced a captivating portrait of the world's biggest unsolved art theft." (Wall Street Journal)

Check our our podcast interview with author Ulrich Boser here.

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