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Art Theft and Fraud

In 2000, international in the auction houses alone reached almost $3 billion, and prices realized for works by individual artists included a work by Picasso, which sold for $55 million; a Matisse, for $17 million; a Cezanne, for $8.5 million; and a Renoir, for $7 million. Where such wealth abounds, crime is sure to follow. In the art world, the theft of art and the faking or forging of art are the major types of criminal activity.

The Art Market

There are many forms of art, including paintings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, and works in glass. Most young artists producing such works sell directly to a local market. As they become established, they begin to work through a private dealer or gallery, where their works are sold either to customers of the dealer or to other dealers. As the reputation of an artist widens (often after his or her death), works originally sold for relatively small sums circulate back to a secondary market, where much larger sums can be obtained. It is this secondary art market—which tends to be highly concentrated in national and international commercial centers, in the premises of well-known dealers, or in the larger auction houses—that is the target for most of the criminal activity.

The degree of success an individual will have when entering this secondary art market—with either legal or illegal goods—depends on a number of factors. First, successful negotiation in the art trade requires the assimilation of considerable amount of information about art, artists, artistic techniques, and demand for art. Second, the individual must be able to gain access to works that are of some value to the market. Third, if works are to go onto the secondary market, a “provenance” for the work, indicating the work's history, is expected. Fourth, in most situations, an individual will have to obtain a position within the art market, because most established dealers and auction houses are very wary of persons who try to sell art “off the street.” Fifth, the individual must gain access to a way of selling goods into the market, through a sale by either a dealer or an auction house. The degree of success individuals have in entering the art market will depend on skill in negotiating these elements.

Art Theft

There are regular and persistent examples of major thefts of art. In late December 2000, the major public art museum in Stockholm experienced a well-organized armed theft of major works of art, including a Renoir and a Rembrandt. A similar armed theft had occurred two years previously, at the art museum in York, England. Thefts in the latter part of the twentieth century included Edvard Munch's famous Scream from the art museum in Oslo, as well as thefts from museums including the Isabella Stewart Gardiner Museum in Boston, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Zurich Art Gallery, and the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. Because of wide media coverage, the public is likely to be aware of thefts of this scale; however, numerous other thefts, which may not be widely reported, occur among private galleries and individual collectors. Some of these small-scale thefts may involve individual works, but often the scale is larger; for example, an entire special exhibit of works of a well-known artist, involving over two dozen paintings and drawings, was stolen the night before the exhibition was to open.

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