Art Crime, Part II:
Putting a Dent in Art Crime
by
Anayat Durrani, for Fine Art Registry®
You often hear the phrase "crime doesn't pay." Well, in the business of art crime, art thieves take every effort to make an exception to the rule. As art crime remains a serious and growing criminal enterprise, efforts are underway to keep the old adage right side up.
"Art crime is the third largest grossing international criminal industry, behind only drugs and arms," Noah Charney told Fine Art Registry® (FAR®). Charney, a trained Art Historian, is near completion of his History of Art Theft Ph.D. at Cambridge University in England.
Charney has focused on how the study of art theft through history can help inform contemporary law enforcement and museum protection. He organized an international conference on this subject entitled "Art Theft: History, Prevention, Detection, Solution" in Cambridge in June 2006. The conference included international scholars, art detectives and heads of the art squads of the FBI, Scotland Yard, and Interpol.
"It [art crime] is a funding source for terrorism and represents the active destruction of history and cultural heritage," says Charney. "And yet it has never been properly studied, and very few police departments take art crime seriously. There is a huge gap in scholarship, popular awareness, and professional support."
Charney organized the conference to bring together a consortium of experts on art crime to properly address an issue that has for too long received little attention. He plans to put together a think tank to better address these important issues.
Provenance
One weapon against art crime is the accurate maintaining of provenance. Provenance is a record of the history of ownership of a work of art, antique or similar artifact, used in establishing authenticity or quality. Provenance for a work of art would be a record of its creator and each subsequent owner to the present time, accurately documented.
"If 'location, location, location' is the slogan for real estate, then a comparable slogan in the art world would be 'provenance, provenance, provenance,'" Kenneth Polk, Professor at the Department of Criminology at the University of Melbourne in Australia told FAR.
When there is documented evidence of an object's history, it can help determine if it is genuine, and has not been altered, forged or reproduced. Provenance can link the work or object to an artist and the documented history can help prove ownership.
"Provenance is an essential value in the flow of art," Johanna Keller Director of the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at Syracuse University told FAR. "In many ways, the tradition of valuing provenance does something to protect against art theft and forgeries. It also can be a tool to combat things like the Nazi seizures of Jewish art collections in World War II."
"Provenance does come
with its share of problems"
Both Polk and Keller pointed out, however, that provenance does come with its share of problems. They said fraudsters in the business of creating false masterpieces have become quite skilled at creating false provenances. However, a good dealer or curator can often spot those (although sometimes it suits dealers or curators not to question the provenance too closely, unfortunately). Polk added that another problem is that in general over the past decades there has been poor recordkeeping around art and art collecting.
"Ask most people if they have firm documentation for works they have on their walls and you are likely to find that a large percentage of them actually have very poor records about their art. This will be especially true if very many years have passed since the work has passed into private hands," says Polk.
The problem often stems from the fact that people are sometimes so excited over the availability of a new work of art, Charney says, that they tend to overlook a suspicious provenance that has periods of the history of the object left blank. He said that most every antiquity in every museum worldwide was looted at some time.
"Antiquities and objects of cultural heritage should not leave their country of origin, unless permitted by the government," says Charney. "People get into trouble when the opportunity to acquire an artwork arises, a rarity for important objects, and the buyers choose to buy without looking at or checking on provenance."
Online Registries and the Internet
This is where online registries come in. Art Loss Register is the world's largest database of stolen art and antiques, dedicated to their recovery. As a registry, it keeps record of stolen artwork after it is stolen or lost. Fine Art Registry, is a high tech, unique, patented tagging system for works of art that can help provide authenticity and prevent art fraud and theft. "The Fine Art Registry principle philosophy is to promote the permanent registration of all fine art and valuables before theft or loss occurs," explained Theresa Franks, CEO of FAR. Through FAR, artists can permanently register their art, and collectors, museums and galleries can register their collections. It provides automatic, secure and un-forgeable provenance for each new piece created and registered in its secure database.
"Registries... vital element
in reducing art theft"
Charney calls the online registries "absolutely good" but emphasizes that they need to be used at all times by sellers and buyers.
"The best way to put a dent in art crime is for buyers and sellers both to check all available databases to ensure that at no point were they stolen," says Charney.
Polk calls the registries "a vital element in reducing art theft, especially of major works." He said a lot can be accomplished simply by having registries that are better resourced, more wide in their coverage, and international in scope.
Meanwhile, the Internet has emerged as a powerful tool against art thieves. The Internet has helped bring together all sectors of the art world which were previously separated by great distances; the artists, collectors, gallery directors, museum curators and of course those cracking down on art crime. And, its benefit to provenance continues to be invaluable.
"The use of the Internet is a huge boon to tracking the provenance of a work of art. In the past, thieves and forgers relied on the fact that not every dealer would be privy to the same information," says Keller. "That is no longer the case with the online registries that can track missing and fraudulent works. That's good news for everyone except the crooks."
— by Anayat Durrani
| October 12, 2006 |
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