Each day ARCA is made aware of between five and fifty art crimes, and those are only the ones which are reported.  Here is a sample of headlines from the past week in art crime.

Selected Art Crimes from the week ending Feb. 13, '08:

- Paintings worth about $91 million were stolen from a Zurich museum in an armed robbery in the second dramatic art theft in the area within days, police said on Monday. Oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet were among those stolen in broad daylight on Sunday from the private Buehrle Collection in Zurich, Switzerland's largest city and the country's financial capital, police said in a statement. The high profile heist follows the theft of two Picasso paintings -- Tete de Cheval, from 1962, and Verre et Pichet, from 1944 -- from a nearby cultural centre last week.

Statement from Noah Charney: "The Zurich thefts are classic examples of organized crime's involvement in art crime. Thefts such as those in Zurich, like the 2004 Munch theft, are smash-and-grab crimes, the goal being to harvest art objects of obvious high value. The most recent Zurich theft in particular has all the elements of organized criminal art theft--a blitz attack, running through alarms with masks and guns and stealing objects near to the exit, before escaping. Alarms work too well to avoid them, so the recent trend that we see involves thieves not bothering if the alarm goes off, as they are in and out before police can respond. The Zurich theft happened in under 3 minutes, well within the average 3-5 minute police response time in most cities. That the thieves stole objects of obvious high value (based on the signatures of the artists) and objects in a room nearest the door, suggests that this was not a carefully selected list with buyers in mind, but simply a selection of portable high value objects that were easiest to take.

Organized crime benefits from art crime in two ways. 1) For art objects and antiquities that are not well known, are reproducable, or are not registered (such as antiquities taken directly from the earth), these may be sold on an open market by simply doctoring provenance. Organized crime pays off local tomb raiders and petty criminals for such objects, which it then smuggles, launders, and sells on using its international networks. 2) For famous artworks, organized crime has for the most part realized that the only chance they have of being arrested is if they try to liquidate, sell the stolen art. This is dangerous and criminal collectors, despite popular conception, all but do not exist. The criminality of buying stolen art aside, so much of the impetus in the psychology of collecting is related to conspicuous consumption, that stripped of that benefit (as in the case of the art in question being illict), most collectors would lose interest. So organized crime orders art to be stolen to be used as barter or collateral on a closed black market, trading among other crime syndicates for an equal value of other illicit goods, such as drugs or arms. Black market value, if a criminal were to run to extremely high risk of trying to sell stolen art, is estimated at 7-10% of the actual market value. So this percentage is the closed market value of the stolen art, to be met in an equivalent value of other illicit goods. Since 1961, most art crime has been perpetrated either by, or on behalf of, international organized crime syndicates. There are tens of thousands of art crimes per year, so the problem is much more widespread than most people believe, who only take notice when there's a front page museum heist. Whether or not one has a personal relationship with art, everyone should care about art crime because the thefts we find so intriguing to read about are funding all other organized criminal activities, from drugs and arms to international terrorism."

 

- The Russian government has set up a website detailing some 46,000 of the country's artworks missing due to looting by the Nazis during the Second World War.

- The Iraqi police and American soldiers have recovered a famous 5,000-year-old marble statute buried in an orchard north of Baghdad. The long-lost Sumerian 'Sayedat Al Warkaa', known among archaeologists as the Sumerian Mona Lisa was stolen from the city's museum. The 20-centemeter marble sculpture of a female head facial curving was found unharmed from under six inches of dirt, BBC reported. While 10,000 relics are still missing, Iraq has retrieved 3,500 looted artifacts some returned by Iraqi citizens and others found in vaults around Baghdad.

 

- A recent list of the most famous art thefts in recent years:

_ February 2008: Armed robbers steal four paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet worth $163.2 million from the E.G. Buehrle Collection, a private museum in Zurich, Switzerland.

_ December 2007: Picasso painting valued at about $50 million, along with one by Brazilian artist Candido Portinari valued at $5 million to $6 million, are stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil, by three burglars using a crowbar and a car jack. The paintings were later found.

_ February 2007: Two Picasso paintings, worth nearly $66 million, and a drawing are stolen from the Paris home of the artist's granddaughter in an overnight heist. Police later recovered the art when the thieves tried to sell it.

_ February 2006: Around 300 museum-grade artifacts worth an estimated $142 million, including paintings, clocks and silver, are stolen from a 17th century manor house at Ramsbury in southern England, the largest property theft in British history.

_ February 2006: Four works of art and other objects, including paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Monet and Dali, are stolen from the Museu Chacara do Ceu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by four armed men during a Carnival parade. Local media estimated the paintings' worth at around $50 million.

_ August 2004: Two paintings by Edvard Munch, "The Scream" and "Madonna," insured for $141 million, are stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, by three men during a daylight raid. The paintings were recovered nearly two years later.

_ August 2003: A $65 million da Vinci painting is stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in southern Scotland after two men join a public tour and overpower a guide. It was recovered four years later.

_ May 2003: A 16th century gold-plated "Saliera," or salt cellar, by Florentine master Benvenuto Cellini, valued at $69.3 million, is stolen from Vienna's Art History Museum by a single thief when guards ignored a burglar alarm. The figurine is later recovered.

_ December 2002: Two thieves break in through the roof of the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and steal two paintings by van Gogh valued at $30 million. The men are convicted a year later, but the paintings were not recovered.

_ October 1994: Seven Picasso paintings worth an estimated $44 million are stolen from a gallery in Zurich. They are recovered in 2000.

_ April 1991: Two masked armed men take 20 paintings ? worth at least $10 million each at the time ? from Amsterdam's van Gogh Museum. The paintings are found in the getaway car less than an hour later.

_ March 1990: In the biggest art theft in U.S. history, $300 million in art, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Manet, is stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston by two men in police uniforms.

_ December 1988: Thieves steal three paintings by van Gogh, with an estimated value of $72 million to $90 million, from the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in a remote section of the Netherlands. Police later recover all three paintings.

_ May 1986: A Vermeer painting, "Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid," is among 18 paintings worth $40 million stolen from Russborough House in Blessington, Ireland. Some of the paintings are later recovered.

 

- Excerpts from an interview with ARCA Trustee Richard Ellis: Dick Ellis, a London-based art-crime consultant who used to head Scotland Yard's art squad, comments on this week's armed robbery at the E.G. Buehrle Collection in Zurich. He spoke in a telephone interview:

On museum security:
``Now that museums have tightened up on nighttime security, they have to know how to secure objects while they're on view, when there are people in the gallery.
``They have to make it as difficult as possible for works to be removed. The Munch painting that was stolen in 1994 (a version of ``The Scream'') was displayed adjacent to the window. It made for ease of theft.''

On gun crimes at museums:
``Gun crimes are increasing with art theft, and the trend is for criminals to hit museums and galleries when they're open to the public. Insurers stipulate secure rooms, safes and alarms, and in the U.K. the government indemnity program requires a museum to be able to withstand 20 minutes of attack.
``So criminals go when it's easy, when they're open to the public. And the trend is to use sufficient violence required to get the painting.''

On gun crimes that have been solved:
``In 2000, there was a well-orchestrated robbery in the National Museum in Stockholm. The criminals had two cars in strategic locations bringing Stockholm to gridlock and blocking police access to the gallery. They entered the gallery with arms, using the threat of violence, removed three paintings -- one of them was a Rembrandt -- and made off with them in a high-speed van.
``The first painting was recovered in a drugs operation. It had been used as an exchange for drugs. The second was recovered during an FBI investigation of a crime syndicate in Los Angeles, and the third turned up in Copenhagen.''

On the biggest unsolved art crime:
``The 1990 theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.'' Thieves dressed as Boston police officers stole 13 artworks by Vermeer, Degas, Rembrandt and others valued at a total of about $300 million.

ARCA recommends the excellent service provided by the Museum Security Network for compiled, in-depth information about art crime every day.