[MSN] Stolen art may be rediscovered using a variety of means - stumbled upon when criminals try to sell it, tracked down by police or furtively exchanged for reward money. But usually it is not returned at all.

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Why passing on works complicates their recovery

PHIL MILLER, Arts Correspondent October 06 2007 


Stolen art may be rediscovered using a variety of means - stumbled upon when
criminals try to sell it, tracked down by police or furtively exchanged for
reward money. But usually it is not returned at all.

Tracing the criminals behind such thefts often becomes secondary to getting
back the artwork itself, at least in the eyes of owners. The recovery of
stolen art is often complicated as works tend to pass from hand to hand over
the years.

Such deals often involve solicitors as intermediaries or to agree financial
settlement, but under recent money- laundering regulations and the Proceeds
of Crime Act 2002, lawyers have a legal obligation to report any suspicious
activity. Failure to disclose any suspicions is a criminal offence.

advertisementIf they sell art on the black market, thieves can expect to see
only some 5% or 10% of the work's notional worth. Selling them back to the
owner may therefore, in some cases, seem more appealing.

Hugo Gorst-Williams, of the Art Loss Register, said: "Some of these
restitutions are dealt with via private negotiations, but there is no one
way of recovering paintings.

"The police are well aware in such cases of the value, culturally and
financially, of recovering such paintings. Not only that, but the painting
is the evidence without which any police case might well stumble."

Richard Ellis, an art investigator, has said the rewards for the return of
paintings are not great enough to be tempting. "These people just think it's
not worth their while," he said.

One painting he recovered for a private owner had moved in a short space of
time from Cornwall to Bristol, then London, and was finally recovered in
Newcastle.

In 2002, Charles Hill, a former Scotland Yard detective and expert in art
theft, returned Titian's priceless Rest on the Flight into Egypt to the
Longleat estate without even involving the police.

Other experts have told how art is often used as collateral in other deals.
In August, two Picasso paintings stolen from the artist's granddaughter were
found after the criminals tried to sell them on to an art dealer. The dealer
in question notified the police immediately.

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