[CPProt.net] New art theft squad agents assigned by FBI

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New art theft squad agents assigned by FBI   
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Big News Network.com     Saturday 12th March, 2005  (UPI)  

The FBI has assigned eight agents of its first national art theft unit to
various parts of the United States to oversee regional cases.

The National Art Crime Team will have two agents in New York, one in
Philadelphia, three in the middle of the country, and two on the West Coast,
the announcement said.

It quote Philadelphia-based special agent Robert K. Wittman, the team's
senior investigator, as saying the unit's mission is to investigate and
bring to successful prosecution those who steal and deal in stolen art and
antiquities and to recover those art objects. He noted Interpol, the
international police agency, ranks art theft fourth in world crime behind
arms sales, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

The FBI did not disclose the budget set for the team but Wittman said it
will be adequate to do what we have to do. He said the team has made one
important recovery already -- 85 paintings and sculptures worth $1.5 million
stolen from a St. Louis art storage warehouse.

The Department of Justice recently named two special prosecutors to assist
the art theft unit, Robert Goldman, assistant U.S. attorney in the Easter
District of Pennsylvania, and Jane A. Levine, assistant U.S. attorney in
Manhattan.

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