The Foreign Policy Journal has a Q&A with “Art Hostage,” a former dealer in stolen art and antiques, who now assists with stolen art investigations.
Here are five things I learned about art crime from the article –
1. The majority of art theft is from the private citizen.
2. For every $20 million Picasso painting that is stolen, there are hundreds of paintings stolen worth $20,000.
3. Stricter penalties, such as a mandatory sentence of 10 years may be the best way to deter art thefts.
4. If someone walked into a museum and stole a Rembrandt, they would get around three to five years in prison. But if you equate the value of the Rembrandt to other commodities the penalty would be much harsher — 25 years to life.
5. Before staging a heist, thieves would consider the blank spots in security, the location, the size and movability of the articles and the estimated response time of law enforcement.
For more from “Art Hostage,” visit his blogs Stolen Vermeer and Art Hostage.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Seems different from your previous posts. Did YOU write this post, or someone else did? Anyway, I think your readers really enjoyed reading it.