A Master’s in Art Crime (No Cloak and Dagger)

On July 22, The New York Times is featuring ARCA - the Association for Research into Crimes against Art - and its inaugural Masters in Art Crime program in the article "A Master's in Art Crime (No Cloak and Dagger)." I'm honored to have been asked to serve as the program's director for 2010, and am eager to continue the advancement of art crime studies.

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Violin Thief Extradited from France

According to the LATimes, Anthony Eugene Notarstefano, 45, "A 'career criminal' who allegedly stole two violins from the home of a Los Angeles Philharmonic musician was extradited from France on Friday to face federal charges after trying to sell the instruments to Parisian shops." The violins, one an 18th century Carolo Tononi, was valued at $225,000 and the other, a 19th century Jean Baptise Viuillaume valued at approximately $65,000 were stolen from the West Hollywood home of violinist Mark Kashper on December 23, 2007. In March 2007, French police were notified by Paris dealer when Notarstefano had tried to sell the instruments for $65,000 - a price far below their combined value. Soon thereafter, the instruments were recovered and Notarstefano was arrested by the French authorities.

This case highlights how art thieves are not the Thomas Crown Affair playboy businessmen, who steal for the sheer pleasure and rush of excitement associated with art theft. Rather, as Dr. Simon Mackenzie discusses in "Criminal and Victim Profiles in Art Theft: Motive, Opportunity and Repeat Victimisation," in Art Antiquity and Law (Vol. X, No. 4, pp. 353-370, 2005), "Most criminals are not specialists in one particular crime, rather they are opportunists. If they are career criminals, they may have a bank of core skills, but these can be adapted to different criminal activities (356)." Notarstefano had prior convictions including include burglary, petty theft and credit card fraud. Evidently, he knew better than to sell the violins in the United States, but he either had no idea of the actual value of the instruments or he was simply trying to unload them off his hands as quickly as possible. Whatever the case may be, his "bank of core skills" were not enough to prevent his being caught.

New Hampshire Art Theft Arrest Made

On Wednesday, Kirby Griffith, 26, turned himself in to the Concord (NH) Police Department for his alleged connection to the June 26 Kimball-Jenkins Estate art theft. The theft included fourteen black-and-white silver gelatin photographs by San Francisco-based artist Michael Garlington, and was valued at $42,000. Immediately following the theft, Garlington told the Concord Monitor, "I'm flattered in a sense, I guess." Evidently, he thought it was unbelievable that someone would "risk their livelihood" for his art. Intriguingly, despite signs of forced entry through a second floor bathroom window the alarm system was not triggered. Possibly, this is a sign of human error (i.e. the system was not activated), or that the alarm could have been cut (less likely I presume, but at the time of the theft the telephone company was investigating into this).

Perhaps in to show resilience in addition to solidarity with other victims of art theft (e.g. the Gardner Museum) the Kimball-Jenkins Estate reopened soon after the incident and decided, "The rest of the gallery [would] remain as the thieves left it, with steel wires hanging into empty spaces, and spotlights shining onto bare walls, where once there was art." Clearly, they recognize the visual potency of a gallery's wall-in-waiting. However, a significant difference between this art theft case and others including the Gardner is that the photographs were all insured. Ryan Linehan, director of education and operations at the Kimball-Jenkins Estate cited "lasting ramifications" on the gallery due to increased insurance costs because of the theft. For whatever reason Linehan said the Estate would not pursue civil charges, but that they would push for the "harshest sentence possible (NH class A felony code)." Maybe this gesture of leniency is an effort to avoid scaring away whoever has possession of the art.

As of July 16, the Kimball-Jenkins Estate still had a notice posted on their website announcing the theft and asking for anyone with information to come forward. Unfortunately, while Griffith has turned himself in, Garlington's photographs have yet to be recovered. One can only hope that Griffith's compliance with authorities will lead to the art's safe return.

Art Theft Statistics and the Study of Art Crime

Why research, analyze, and further develop art crime statistics? I posed this question to myself after retracting a convoluted post on Art Theft Central last week in which I attempted to compare art theft data from 2004 with that from 2008 as reported by the Art Loss Register (ALR data sources: "Rewarding Business fig. 3" from "The Art of the Steal" by David Shillingford in Foreign Policy, No. 147, April 2005 p 28-9. and "Thefts by Location as reported to the ALR" from Art Loss Register Data Dump by Marion Maneker on Art Market Monitor 23 April 2009). My original post's objective was to present a profound interpretation of the differences in the ALR's art theft by location data between the two years; however, during my research I realized the ALR's statistical data was not as compelling as I had initially suspected. Accordingly, I have begun to reexamine my intentions and motivations for developing art crime statistics and data.

In When Crime Waves, Vincent Sacco states, "The successful construction of a new social problem depends upon the ability of claims-makers to impress upon an audience of lawmakers, journalists, and the members of the general public that the problem is serious and deserving of attention. One of the ways this is accomplished is through statistical arguments that provide dramatic and compelling evidence that the problem is a sizable and growing one (65)." Admittedly, art crime is not a new phenomenon, but its recently discovered connection to other illicit trades (e.g. weapons, drugs) is in fact a new concern worth impressing upon the public. But, how does one go about this?

While $6 billion is a number often quoted when discussing the size of the illicit art and antiquities trade it is a very problematic statistic because it is so large and abstract a value that it can contribute to a consumer's "number numbness (58)," and thus make it difficult for one to "appreciate the complexity or nuances of arguments about how much crime there is (59)."

As a numerate consumer I was disappointed to find after evaluating the ALR's art theft by location data that the statistics they had produced were ineffective at providing substantial information beyond where the art thefts reported to their database have occurred. The table below illustrates how the ALR's art theft by location data from 2004 and 2008 can be interpreted in two different ways (as percentages out of the entire database or out of the estimated 10,000 thefts reported annually to the ALR) and therefore lead to a variety of different conclusions.

It was refreshing to see the ALR release new art theft data; however, by presenting these numbers without a real sense of their context they revealed little compelling statistical evidence of how art theft has impacted residences, businesses, cultural institutions, and places of worship.

As the value of art continues to rise exponentially so too will the number of thefts. Although there are a number of organizations (SAFE, ARCA, ALR) working to create awareness of art crime's key issues there is still work to be done. It was disconcerting to hear the other day that a well-respected art history professor had never heard of the Gardner theft. As exemplified in this case, there is an urgent need to not only break up the art historian's and museum curator's insular worlds, but also to broadcast to the general public - from the museum enthusiast to the sightseer - how this problem is effecting society on both the micro and macro levels.

Art Theft Austin: 8 Picasso's, Toulouse-Lautrec, Klee, & Calder

The Austin American-Statesman reported that twelve works of art including eight Picasso's, a Toulouse-Lautrec, a Klee, and a Calder were stolen from a former gallery owner's West Lake Hills, TX home on June 23. Initially, the victim reported only the theft of a Picasso (a black and white circus scene from the artist's 347 Series pictured at right, worth between $15,000-$20,000), but this week she noticed that eleven other pieces were missing. According to the Statesman, a number works of art were on loan to her from galleries and dealers from New York and Los Angeles for a show at her home. Surprisingly, none of the art was insured. I would not expect such naiveté from a former gallery owner or her associates. Additionally, how has it taken two weeks for her to realize her colleagues' art is missing in action? One might presume if she were including the loaned works in a show at her private residence, then she (and her colleagues) would have been all the more eager to confirm whether or not they had been among the works stolen.