[MSN] FBI Announces Addition to Top Ten Art Crimes List

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

FBI Announces Addition to Top Ten Art Crimes List
Press Release
July 30, 2007

The FBI today announced an addition to its Top Ten Art Crimes list. A 
Cavalier was stolen on June 10, 2007, from the Art Gallery of New South 
Wales, Sydney, Australia. The self-portrait, by Dutch Master Frans Van 
Mieris (1635-1681), was stolen while the gallery was open for public 
viewing. The piece is in oil on wood panel and measures 16 x 20 
centimeters, or approximately 6 ½ x 8 inches.

"The FBI is pleased to be able to work with our Australian law 
enforcement colleagues in an effort to bring this piece of history back 
to the Art Gallery of New South Wales," said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner of 
the FBI's Art Theft Program. "Theft of a significant work of art such as 
this is not only a crime against an institution but deprives both the 
local and international community of its cultural heritage."

The FBI initiated the Top Ten Art Crimes list in 2005. Since then, five 
paintings and one sculpture from four entries have been recovered: A 
Rembrandt self-portrait and Renoir's Young Parisian from Sweden's 
National Museum theft; Goya's Children with a Cart from the Toledo Art 
Museum theft; Munch's The Scream and The Madonna from the Munch Museum 
theft in Oslo; and the Cellini Salt Cellar from the Kunsthistorisches 
Museum theft in Vienna. Also recovered was the Statue of Entemena from 
the Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts entry. The current list may be 
found on the Art Theft Program page of the FBI's website listed below.

Persons with any information about this work of art or circumstances 
concerning this crime are encouraged to contact their local FBI office 
or the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate, or to submit a tip online at 
www.fbi.gov

http://www.fbi.gov