[CPProt.net] Phila.'s role in recovery of stolen art

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Posted on Sat, Dec. 10, 2005 
 

Jonathan Storm | Phila.'s role in recovery of stolen art

By Jonathan Storm

Inquirer Columnist


"Thefts of art and historical artifacts are stolen at the rate of $500
million a year," narrator Greg Stebner says as he begins tonight's History
Channel visit with the federal organization that investigates the crimes.

"Thefts... are stolen"? That's the only noticeable gaffe in the workmanlike
FBI Stings: Recovering Stolen History, a one-hour show, starting at 8 p.m.,
whose biggest revelation might be that Philadelphia is ground zero in the
battle against the thieves and smugglers.

Bob Wittman, portrayed as the country's top cop in the shadowy world of
stolen artifacts, sits in a window overlooking Independence Hall,
remembering some of his exploits. The FBI special agent, who has been
tracking stolen art and antiquities for years and now leads the bureau's new
Art Crimes Team, is bathed in shadows of his own, to maintain the secret of
his identity for future undercover operations.

Wittman grabbed the legendary Peruvian backflap, three pounds of
2,000-year-old ceremonial gold armor looted from a burial ground, after
meeting its smugglers, who included a top diplomat from Panama, at a New
Jersey Turnpike rest stop. "There's something about this piece that just
makes people go crazy," says Roger Atwood, author of a book called Stealing
History.

Wittman recovered one of only two Civil War battle flags that remain from
the Corps d'Afrique, one of the first black units in the Union Army. He
nailed local electrician George Csizmazia and Historical Society of
Pennsylvania janitor Earnest Medford, who had a 10-year relationship as
customer and supplier.

These stories have all been told before, piecemeal, in The Inquirer, among
other places, but FBI Stings strings them together interestingly, weaving in
the usual cable documentary gambits of cheesy reenactments, urgent narrative
tone, and a drum-heavy soundtrack that's supposed to raise the level of
excitement but is usually just distracting.

Besides Wittman, other locals in the show include Clark Erickson from the
University of Pennsylvania Museum, U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Goldman, Kristen Froehlich from the
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and two more Philadelphia G-persons,
special-agent-in-charge Jack Eckenrode and spokeswoman Jerri Williams.

Some of the best commentary comes from the evildoers themselves. After four
years in jail, Csizmazia still seems to think that the $2.5 million worth of
stuff that he bought from Medford for about $8,000 was better off in his
house, where at least he could appreciate it, than out of sight at the
museum, which took 10 years to notice anything was missing.

And Miami smuggler Orlando Mendez poignantly speculates how the curse of the
backflap may have caused him infinitely more suffering than the nine months
he spent in a halfway house for his crime.

Wittman is said to have helped to recover more than $150 million in art and
antiquities.

Sometimes no one is charged when stolen works turn up. Just Wednesday,
Eckenrode announced the recovery of three German paintings valued at
$125,000, stolen by GI's during World War II. They had been hanging in the
living room of a Burlington County woman who had no idea of their worth or
their illegal provenance.

Before getting in trouble for that piece of junk in your house, you might
want to check out the FBI's list of Top 10 art crimes,
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/nov05/toptenart111505.htm.

The pictures are much prettier than those of Osama bin Laden and the
bureau's nine other most-wanted fugitives.

To comment on this article, go to: http://go.philly.com/askstorm. Contact
television critic Jonathan Storm privately at 215-854-5618 or
jstorm at phillynews.com. Read his recent work at
http://go.philly.com/jonathanstorm.