Monday, Feb. 26, 1979
Artful Crime
A Security system turned off; Cezannes in a broom closet
More than 60 museum curators and law-enforcement officials gathered in Newark, Del., last week for a four-day conference on art thefts. They met with a sense of urgency. Only two days earlier, New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art had experienced the first major theft in its 110-year history. A 2,500-year-old Greek marble head valued at $150,000 had been wrenched from its five-foot wooden base and smuggled out of the building in daylight.
The theft had a fluky ending. Acting on a tip, police recovered the statue on Valentine's Day from a locker at Grand Central Station; a crude heart had been scratched above its right eye. Nonetheless, the incident underscored the fact that no museum -no matter how prestigious -is immune from the epidemic of art thefts that is sweeping the country. Late last year, three Cezannes worth $3 million were stolen from the Art Institute of Chicago. On Christmas morning, bold cat burglars penetrated the security system of San Francisco's M.H. De Young Memorial Museum and left through a skylight with $1.2 million worth of 17th century Dutch paintings, including a prized Rembrandt, Portrait of a Rabbi.
All together, crooks in the U.S. made off with nearly $50 million in stolen art in 1978, up an estimated 35% in two years. In Europe, police believe that art thefts are growing faster than any other form of larceny. Laments Donald Mason, former FBI art theft specialist: "Alarm bells are ringing all over the world. Time is not on our side."
Most U.S. police forces have been slow to respond. New York is the only city that has a full-time art crime detective. He is Robert Volpe, 35, a spare-time painter and sculptor who looks the part: shoulder-length hair and well-worn jeans. He figures that he helped recover art objects worth about $4 million in 1978.
The principal cause of the stealing is the booming art market, which by some estimates totaled a robust $5 billion in the U.S. last year. Increasingly, people are buying art works as hedges against inflation and a weakening dollar. Art prices have risen to levels that even the least cultured brigand can appreciate. Says FBI Art Thefts Investigator Thomas McShane: "Thieves read about these prices and they realize they can cut themselves in on some very valuable booty."
Sometimes works of art are reported stolen to order for connoisseurs. But experts at the Delaware conference said that art thieves usually are not specialists. Rather, they are the same sort of criminals who steal automobiles, TV sets and jewelry. "Let me dispel some myths," said Gilbert Raguideau, a French government expert on the subject. "There is no mastermind, no international art Mafia. We all have heard the legend of the mad, rich connoisseur who buys stolen masterworks. He does not exist." The works are sold to frequently unsuspecting collectors in the U.S. and abroad through dealers who care more about turning a quick profit than about checking on an object's pedigree. Says Volpe: "Everyone in the art market is buying questionable pieces. Most people ask more questions when they buy an automobile."
Volpe believes that a harsher attitude by judges would help stem the problem. Says he: "An art thief is entertaining, romantic. I've seen cases where the thief has pleaded guilty and gotten no sentence at all." Equally helpful would be better security. In San Francisco's De Young Museum, for example, an electric "key system" to ensure that guards made their rounds was disconnected three years ago. In Chicago, the C -zannes had been kept for two months in a storage room along with brooms and stepladders while a gallery was being remodeled. The theft had probably taken place days before it was discovered. qed
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