Tag: Art Theft

Antiquities Seized in Macedonia

The AP is reporting on a seizure of “dozens” of antiquities yesterday in Macedonia:

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Authorities have seized dozens of stolen ancient artifacts after raiding the homes of two suspected antiquities smugglers in southern Macedonia.

Police confiscated about 70 archaeological items, including coins, terracotta figurines, pieces of silver and bronze jewelry and amphora dating from the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C., police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said Wednesday.

They are believed to have been stolen from Isar, one of Macedonia’s largest archaeological sites in the south…

Macedonia has some 6,000 registered archaeological sites. Experts warn that since the country gained independence from Yugoslavia 17 years ago, the antiquities have become increasingly vulnerable to looters who use sophisticated navigation and excavating equipment.

I think the interesting aspect may be the difficulty the new Macedonian republic has had policing its archaeological sites. These former Yugoslav republics have had to dramatically ramp up their heritage protection after their independence. One wonders perhaps if they might begin to make calls for repatriation of objects?

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

AP: Antiquities Trade "Growing problem at US Ports"

Tamara Lush has an overview of antiquities coming through US ports:

_ On Monday, federal authorities will repatriate some 1,000 items, including a rare temple marker worth $100,000, to Iraq. On June 7, 2001, ICE agents in New York received information from the Art Loss Register that a Sumerian Foundation Cone, buried under a Babylonian temple, was being sold by auction at Christie’s New York. ICE New York agents seized the artifact from Christie’s and discovered that it, and several other items in the U.S., had been stolen from the Baghdad Museum and other locations at the end of the first Gulf War.

_ In May, four tons of fossils from Argentina — including 200-million-year-old dinosaur eggs, egg shell fragments, petrified pine cones and fossilized prehistoric crabs — were seized by federal agents in Tucson, Ariz. Authorities said a corporation based in Argentina had brought the fossils into the country. No arrests have been made, but the fossils were repatriated.

_ In February, an Army pilot was arrested and charged with stealing 370 pre-dynastic artifacts from the Ma’adi Museum near Cairo, Egypt, and selling them to an art dealer in Texas for $20,000. The artifacts, dating to 3000 B.C. and earlier, were originally discovered during excavations in Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s. The pilot, Edward George Johnson, pleaded guilty in June and is awaiting sentencing.

Lush does not follow her argument to its logical extension though. She notes the new AAM and AAMD guidelines, as well as the difficulty ICE agents and others have in establishing criminal wrongdoing. She fails to note looted antiquities can still slip through this patchwork regulatory framework because of the paucity of accurate provenance information given in antiquities transactions.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Art Theft in Los Angeles

The AP is reporting that a $200,000 reward has been offered for help in recovering 12 works of art stolen on August 23rd in the San Fernando Valley in California.

Two of the works, Peasants by Marc Chagall and Alicia Alanova by Kees van Dongen are pictured here. The works were insured, though that has potential drawbacks for the owners if the works are ever recovered.

Selling these works on the open market or at an auction house any time soon will be very difficult. As I’ve speculated before, there are four potential reasons why thieves may steal well known works of art.

The first, is that a wealthy collector admires the works, and hired a thief. This is often referred to as the Dr. No situation. This seems the least likely possibility, but the one that strikes a chord with the imagination. Writers and journalists frequently cite Dr. No as being responsible for thefts, and I admit it makes for good Bond villains, but there has been little convincing evidence that this is why people are stealing rare objects.

Second, the thief may not have known that the object was so rare as to make its subsequent sale difficult.

Third, the thief may simply be trying to kidnap the object. They could then insure its safe return for a generous reward. This is what the defendants in Glasgow are charged with in the theft of da Vinci’s Madonna with the Yarnwinder.

Finally, perhaps there is a market somewhere for these works. Perhaps it may not be all that difficult to sell these kind of works. This strikes me as the most troubling possibility, as these valuable stolen works will likely be widely-publicized and photographs will be circulated.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Court Appearance for Da Vinci Thieves


The five men accused of trying to launder da Vinci’s Madonna with the Yarnwinder have appeared in High Court in Glasgow. From the Telegraph:

The men are accused of contacting a loss adjuster, whom they believed to be acting for the insurers of the painting, and stating that they could return the artwork within 72 hours. It is alleged they said the masterpiece would not be returned unless £2m was deposited in an account at Marshall Solicitors, formerly known as Marshall Gilby Solicitors, and a further £2.25m placed in a Swiss bank account.
Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Trashed or Just Stolen?

The Boston Globe today has the story of this work, Woman and Child by Fernand Leger which has been lost.

It seems the work was sent to Oklahoma City in 2006 for an exhibition which ran until April of 2007. The work was then sent back, but many of the loaned works “remained in crates for months because the Davis construction project was still underway”. Then it seems the crate containing this work was “moved to a vault elsewhere in the building”. And then in November administrators “discovered the painting was missing when they were compiling a digital catalog.”

The story goes on to say the undisclosed insurance payout was paid. The work was perhaps thrown out or even stolen. Perhaps a little more care is required of multi-million dollar masterworks.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

More Bad News for da Vinci defendant

A solicitor accused of helping to try and launder Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna of the Yarnwinder is in the news again. Marshall Ronald is also being investigated into possible theft from clients’ accounts — a very serious crime given the vast sums of money lawyers typically handle for their clients. Via the Liverpool Echo:

A SOLICITOR accused of taking part in a £40m Leonardo Da Vinci painting robbery is being investigated for allegedly stealing from clients’ accounts.

Officials from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) visited the business address of Marshall Ronald, 51, in Skelmersdale, last week.

They shut down his company and removed documents and money relating to his former practice.

It’s probably not too surprising that a lawyer willing to violate the law in one instance — trying to launder a priceless painting — would also be inclined to perhaps mismanage client funds. Its another indication though that art crime is seldom isolated. It often has other corrolaries, whether its organized crime, violent crime, or in this case, white-collar crime.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Mardirosian Guilty

Robert Mardirosian was found guilty by a jury yesterday in US District Court in Boston. From the Boston Globe:

Mardirosian, 74, who faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison, sat impassively as each of the 12 jurors individually agreed with the verdict in response to a defense request to poll the jury.

“I expected it,” the silver-haired, mustachioed defendant told a reporter outside the courtroom afterward. But, he added, “I think we’ve got a good appeal.”

Assistant US Attorney Jonathan F. Mitchell asked US Chief District Judge Mark L. Wolf to immediately detain Mardirosian, who has been on home confinement in East Falmouth and is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 18. Mitchell said Mardirosian poses a risk of flight because he faces a potentially long sentence.

Brian Fitzsimmons, one of Mardirosian’s lawyers, countered that Mardirosian voluntarily returned to the United States from France in February 2007 to surrender to authorities and has never missed a court date. He also said his client has a good chance of getting his conviction overturned on appeal.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Returning, Recovering and Punishing


Three stories caught my eye this morning:

First, Police in Sao Paulo have recovered a Pablo Picasso print that was stolen back in June (mentioned earlier here). The police have already recovered three other works. Details are thin, but what often takes place in these kinds of recoveries is thieves or their agents will offer to sell a portion of a group of stolen works, holding the remaining works as a kind of collateral against possible arrest.

Second, the FBI in its continuing investigation into the William M.V. Kingsland collection is trying to track down the owners of 300 works. This work, Riders in a Landscape by Henry Aiken (~1840) is included in the collection. You can read more about the rather bizarre Kingsland collection here. If you have any information on the Kingsland collection, you can contact FBI Agent Wynne at 7182867302, or by email at James.Wynne “at” ic.fbi.gov.

Finally, in the Mardirosian trial, Federal District Court Judge Mark Wolf dismissed a stolen transportation charge as the NSPA does not in his view apply to a transfer between Switzerland and England. He does still face a charge for possessing or concealing the stolen works though.

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

On Art Crime

Last week Noah Charney had a very good article in ARTINFO on the four main types of art crime, including art theft, forgery/deception, vandalism, and antiquities looting. He argues art crime is increasing:

For centuries, art crime was relatively harmless, at least from the perspective of the global economy and international crime. Forgers fooled the occasional buyer, tomb raiders dug up what archaeologists didn’t have time to reach, and the occasional nonviolent thief would steal for reasons more often ideological than fiscal. Even vandalism was dismissed as part and parcel of the ravages of war.

But since the Second World War, art crime has evolved into the third-highest–grossing annual criminal trade worldwide, behind only the drug and arms trades. Most art crime is now perpetrated either by or on behalf of organized crime syndicates, who have brought violence into art theft and turned what was once a crime of passion (think of Vincenzo Peruggia‘s stealing the Mona Lisa in order to repatriate it to Italy, or Kempton Bunton‘s stealing Goya’s Portrait of the Duke of Wellington as a protest against taxes on television sets) into a cold business. Art crime now funds, and is funded by, organized crime’s other enterprises, from the drug and arms trades to terrorism. It is no longer merely the art that is at stake, and it is no longer a crime to be admired for its elegance.

I think he’s right on for the most part. I think we can apply some pressure to one of his assertions, that is often mentioned in the press. I don’t think there’s any way to state with confidence that art theft is the third-largest grossing criminal activity, as I’ve argued before. Something like automobile theft surely cracks the top 3 in terms of mere monetary value. But I do think if we incorporate the intangible or cultural value of works, then perhaps art theft (including antiquities looting) may in fact be near the third-largest.

(Hat tip: Art Law Blog)

Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com

Federal Art Theft Prosecution

The trial of Robert Mardirosian has begun. For much more on the initial arrest of the former attorney, see my earlier summary here, and more from Donn Zaretsky.

Assistant US Attorney Jonathan Mitchell argued the defendant was “caught red-handed”, while the defense attorney argued his client only wanted to collect a finder’s fee for the works.
He’s accused of theft under the National Stolen Property Act for concealing and possessing stolen works, including this work by Cezanne, Pitcher and Fruits. This and six other works were stolen from Michael Bakwin in 1978, but had been entrusted to Mardirosian by the thief. The works had been shifted all over the world from Massachusetts to Switzerland to London to Monaco. I’ll have more on the trial when the jury reaches a decision.
Questions or Comments? Email me at derek.fincham@gmail.com