Writing Assignment Art Theft
Art Theft
‘It’s like stealing history’, says The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Art and cultural property crime – which includes theft, fraud, stealing, and trafficking across states and international lines – is a huge and interconnected criminal enterprise with losses of billions of dollars each year.
Art theft is usually for the purpose of resale or for artnapping. As Katharine Weber, a novelist, stated, “I don’t think that…these paintings have been stolen because somebody loves them so much. I think it’s about power…” The FBI estimates that about 6 billion dollars’ worth of artwork are stolen annually. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered – about 5 to 10% - which means that very little is known regarding the scope of art theft.
The theft of cultural objects affects the developed countries, such as US, UK, Japan, France, and Italy to name a few, and the developing countries, such as India, China, and Egypt. The illegal trade in works of art is encouraged by the demand from the arts market, the improvement in transport systems, the opening of borders and political instability in some countries.
Many art thefts go unnoticed for several years, until the stolen works migrate to legal arts markets, however some of the famous heists were very well noticed. One of the biggest art heist in history was the theft of Mona Lisa at The Louvre in Paris, France in 1911. Italian workman Vincenzo Perugia was irritated to see an Italian masterpiece in a French museum, so he removed Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the wall while he was alone in the room and walked out of the museum with the painting under his smock. For about two years, the painting was missing, but its popularity grew as the French public would stand in lines to view the blank space where the Mona Lisa had lived. Two years after the painting was stolen, the Mona Lisa was recovered when Perugia tried to sell it to the Uffizi in Florence, Italy for $100,000. He said that he stole the painting
‘It’s like stealing history’, says The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Art and cultural property crime – which includes theft, fraud, stealing, and trafficking across states and international lines – is a huge and interconnected criminal enterprise with losses of billions of dollars each year.
Art theft is usually for the purpose of resale or for artnapping. As Katharine Weber, a novelist, stated, “I don’t think that…these paintings have been stolen because somebody loves them so much. I think it’s about power…” The FBI estimates that about 6 billion dollars’ worth of artwork are stolen annually. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered – about 5 to 10% - which means that very little is known regarding the scope of art theft.
The theft of cultural objects affects the developed countries, such as US, UK, Japan, France, and Italy to name a few, and the developing countries, such as India, China, and Egypt. The illegal trade in works of art is encouraged by the demand from the arts market, the improvement in transport systems, the opening of borders and political instability in some countries.
Many art thefts go unnoticed for several years, until the stolen works migrate to legal arts markets, however some of the famous heists were very well noticed. One of the biggest art heist in history was the theft of Mona Lisa at The Louvre in Paris, France in 1911. Italian workman Vincenzo Perugia was irritated to see an Italian masterpiece in a French museum, so he removed Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the wall while he was alone in the room and walked out of the museum with the painting under his smock. For about two years, the painting was missing, but its popularity grew as the French public would stand in lines to view the blank space where the Mona Lisa had lived. Two years after the painting was stolen, the Mona Lisa was recovered when Perugia tried to sell it to the Uffizi in Florence, Italy for $100,000. He said that he stole the painting