By Eoin Callan article found at: http://news.ft.com/
Published: January 27 2006 18:04 | Last updated: January 27 2006 18:04
The recent round of contemporary auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's had the
same frenzied atmosphere as early 2000 when dotcom initial public offerings made
a new generation of multi-millionaires.
But criminals lurking in the background have been taking note of the trends,
according to Dick Ellis, the former head of Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques
squad.
The works are rarely destined for individual collectors or private display.
"The professional art thief does not steal to order - that is a myth,"
Mr Ellis said.
Instead, art is often stolen for use as collateral in arms and drugs deals or
as a commodity that can be exchanged between criminal organisations.
Mr Ellis led the recovery of Edward Munch's original Scream and Metsu's Love
letter, which was stolen in Ireland and turned up in Istanbul, where it was
being used as collateral in a large heroin deal.
The supplier had provided the heroin up front, while the seller agreed to pay
for the drugs once they had distributed enough heroin to raise the cash, a
common transaction in the drugs trade. The painting was given to the supplier as
surety on the deal.
Art works often circulate in criminal networks in this way for years, only
turning up by chance when police raids aimed at other illegal activities uncover
them. But it is not uncommon for insurance companies to pay a ransom for the
return of valuable works, and this underpins their value as illicit goods.
Three men were jailed last month after trying to ransom a Rembrandt
self-portrait in Copenhagen. The piece was stolen from a Swedish museum with two
paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir by armed robbers. It had been in the hands of
international drug traffickers for four years. All three paintings have since
been recovered.
"It is a global business," said Mr Ellis, estimated by the FBI to
be worth billions, though there are no official statistics and national crime
figures do not detail art burglaries.
As thefts rise, the industry has been reaching out to collectors and high net
worth individuals through the Art Management Group, an umbrella body of industry
stakeholders that Mr Ellis assists with security and recovery.
Owners of modern sculpture have been among the victims of the recent increase
in thefts of contemporary works, said Mr Ellis, who recently recovered several
statues lifted from English stately homes after tracing them to the US.
This trend may also lie behind a recent string of thefts of more than 20
bronze sculptures revealed by British police this week.
Henry Moore's Reclining Figure was hoisted by crane from a supposedly secure
facility in England last month and this week police said one of three figures
making up The Watchers, a bronze sculpture by Lynn Chadwick, had been stolen in
south-west London.
Police fear the sculptures may be melted down for scrap to cash in on high
copper prices.
But Mr Ellis says it is more likely they were destined for overseas. Police
often try to talk down the value of stolen objects in order to frustrate
criminal attempts to shift them, he says.
"If you look at the care and planning that went into the Henry Moore
heist, it is clear this was not opportunistic. It was not an itinerant driving
past with a lorry."
"The Henry Moore is more likely sitting in a shipping container at this
moment," he added
Deliberate
Orgasm Duet