[MSN] FBI may use billboards in art hunt

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

  FBI may use billboards in art hunt


    Agency seeks leads in Gardner theft

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff  |  November 4, 2006

The FBI is considering a billboard campaign as part of its international 
hunt for $300 million worth of artwork that was stolen from the Isabella 
Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990 by thieves who masqueraded as 
police officers to get inside, according to the agency

"We are evaluating investigative techniques designed to solicit 
information from the public regarding the investigation, including the 
use of billboards," said Thomas Larned, an assistant special 
agent-in-charge of the FBI's Boston office.

The Financial Times of London reported on Oct. 21 that Eric Ives, head 
of the FBI's major theft unit in Washington, said the FBI planned to 
appeal for the public's help on billboards posted throughout the United 
States, and possibly overseas, sometime next year. Ives could not be 
reached for comment yesterday.

Larned said that using billboards as part of a publicity campaign was 
under consideration, "however we have no imminent plans."

The stolen artwork includes a Vermeer; three Rembrandts, including his 
only seascape; five Degas drawings; and a Manet.

Cathy Deely, a spokeswoman for the museum, declined to comment on the 
ongoing investigation or the possibility of a billboard campaign. But 
she said that "we are optimistic that they will be returned."

Julian Radcliffe -- chairman of the Art Loss Register in London, which 
is the world's largest database of stolen art and antiques dedicated to 
their recovery -- said he had never heard of billboards being used to 
help locate stolen pieces. But he added that law enforcement officials 
frequently advertise in art trade magazines.

"The people who might know about the paintings will tend to be criminals 
or near-criminals, and clearly the FBI has been working on those sorts 
of people in the past without a great deal of success," Radcliffe said. 
"So making a more general appeal may be necessary to widening the net, 
but I think the chances of it attracting somebody who knows where the 
pictures are is probably not very high." 


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