$$$$ - SIX BILLION a Year in Art Theft - Where is the Outrage?
September 20th, 2006 by FineArtRegistry
ART CRIME: Shining Light On A Serious Problem
Unfortunately, the general public as a whole has no idea of the depth and the damage to our cultural heritage that the theft of works of art inflicts on society. It has been determined that over 170,000 pieces of art are missing and only a mere 10% have been recovered. Art Crime: Shining Light on a Serious Problem is a well-written article by Anayat Durrani that delves deeply into this overwhelming subject. The shocking details of how such masterworks by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, Degas, and Cezanne, to name only a few, have gone missing. It is also unfortunate that only the high price pieces get the publicity. There are works by contemporary artists that have been ripped off and are left on the back burner. The effort in the attempt to recover them is low priority since those that investigate such cases are overburdened with the losses of the high-end art works.
Ms. Durrani points out that art crime is comprised of; theft, fraud, looting and trafficking and is accomplished on a global scale. As the problem grows rapidly, the public doesn’t seem cognizant of the cancer and its insidious results to the world’s irreplaceable treasures. For a short time, the world took notice when the Iraq situation resulted in the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Many works of art were plundered and that included priceless antiquities. The world was shocked and saddened, however tragedies such as this soon fade from memory and now we have returned to a sort of hide your head in the sand apathy. The attitude that it really does not affect me does not wash. But, as the author points out vividly, the crimes continue on larger and larger scales and it does impact all of society. And from what I understand, that includes you and me.
So what can you and I do to accomplish stymieing this out of control crime wave?
My suggestion is to first read Anayat Durrani’s article at www.FineArtRegistry.com and then take some action with her sage suggestions. Working together we can begin to shine a penetrating light into the dark, seamy art crime world.
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