Art theft | The Specullector

Archive for the ‘Art theft’ Category

Top 10 Headlines While You Were Away (According to Me)

January 6, 2010

10. New York Taxis to Tout Art – Hail Shirin Neshat, Alex Katz or Yoko Ono on 500 cabs in the city.

9. Police Recover Picasso’s ‘Little Guitar’ Toy Sculpture Made for Paloma Picasso – Isn’t it cute?!

8. Polish Police Say Foreigner Behind Auschwitz Sign Theft – Thieves are caught and they point to a Thomas Crown living in Sweden.

7. Egypt Antiquities Chief Zahi Hawass to Demand Nefertiti Bust – Too fragile to return? excuses excuses

6. 2009 in Review: In Memoriam – Short list

5. Goodbye to Some of the Notable People in the Arts Who Left Us in 2009 – Long list

4. U.S. Firm Ordered to Turn $500 Million Treasure Over to Spain – Who else loved the discovery special on the History Channel and thinks this is BS?

3. Dutch Secret Service Take Custody of Jill Magid’s Art – Ironic BS

2. Yale University Says Suit Over Vincent Van Gogh’s Work Imperials Other Art – I love a restitution battle

And in other Yale News, my favorite headline while on vacation…

1. Skull Linked to Secret Yale Society to be Sold at Christie’s – 10 to 20k? Please, secrecy and discretion = bidding war!

Tags:"Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free"), $500 Million Treasure return to Spain, Alex Katz, Andrew Wyeth, Art Restitution cases, Art Smuggling, Artistic director of Art Basel resigns, Auschwitz Sign Theft, Authority To Remove AIVD art, Barry Flanagan, Charles Gwathmey, Coosje van Bruggen, Dash Snow, Donald Fisher, Dutch Secret Service Takes Art, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Foreigner Sweden Auschwitz Sign Theft, Giuseppe Vittorio Parisi, Helen Levitt, In Memoriam 2009 Arts, Irving Penn, Jeanne-Claude, Jill Magid Art seizure, Lauren Gentile, Merce Cunningham, Nancy Spero, Nefertiti Bust Return, New York Taxi Cabs Art, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, Paloma Picasso LIttle Guitar, Picasso's Little Guitar, Pierre Konowaloff, Roy DeCarava, Shirin Neshat, Show Media John Amato, Skull and Bones Society, Skull and Bones Society Christie's auction, Specullector, The Night Cafe Van Gogh, Thomas Hoving, treasure recovered by Odyssey, Yale Law Suit Van Gogh, Yoko Ono, Zahi Hawass
Posted in art market, art market quotes, art reporting, Art theft, auction market, contemporary art, International art market, Lauren Gentile, Specullector | 1 Comment »

I’ve Been Neglecting The Blog

May 22, 2009

because of Facebook, my apologies.

Here is one of my recent favorites – I was totally obsessed with this case while living in London in ’05. Only in the UK would 2 guys load a Henry Moore sculpture onto a lorry and bring it to a chop-shop to sell to East Indians for the price of bronze.

May 19, 2009 (NY Times)

Missing Moore Sculpture May Have Been Sold For Scrap

By Dave Itzkoff

Reclining Figure

The Henry Moore Foundation The Henry Moore sculpture “Reclining Figure,” which was stolen from the artist’s estate in 2005.

The British police believe that they have solved the case of a Henry Moore sculpture that has been missing for four years, and now suspect that it was sold for scrap, The Guardian reported. In 2005, the two-ton bronze sculpture, “Reclining Figure,” was stolen from Moore’s estate in Hertfordshire, 30 miles north of London, and a flatbed truck and crane believed to have been used in the crime were quickly recovered. After more than three years of investigation, Jon Humphries, the detective chief inspector of the Hertfordshire police, said that evidence suggests the work was “cut up” on the night of the crime, “then taken to a location where it was irreparably damaged before it was shipped abroad.” He added, “In my mind we’ve managed to kill off the mystery as much as is possible.” The sculpture, valued at about $4.6 million, would have yielded about $2,300 in scrap metal, Detective Humphries said.

Tags:Dave Itzkoff, Henry Moore, Henry Moore Sculpture stolen, Lauren Gentile, Missing Moore Sculpture May Have Been Sold For Scrap, Reclining Figure, Specullector
Posted in Art theft, British art market, fine art conservation, International art market, investing in art, Lauren Gentile, Specullector | 1 Comment »

whoops

March 28, 2009

Sobering news about the leading to the the lesser.

Tags:Annie Leibovitz Bankrupt, economic downturn art market, Lauren Gentile, Lawrence Larry Salander arrested, Specullector
Posted in American Photography Market, Annie Leibovitz, art gallery lending, art inventory leveraging, Art theft, fine art funds, investing in art, investing in fine art, Lauren Gentile, Specullector | Leave a Comment »

Did you know…

June 13, 2008

that most of the major art theft occurs because of 2 specific groups of bandits: one called the Balkan Bandits and the other, a ring of Irish thieves. Once the art is lifted from regional museums, galleries and less secure spaces the work is used as leverage in arms and drug deals. Those individuals who track the lost art and help negotiate it’s return are hired by the insurance companies who have underwritten the collection, not the museums.

But in this most recent case, the work probably wasn’t insured like the first time… since these last works were prints and can’t compare to a trophy from Isabella, it’s probably just local thieves who have the work in Brazil. Soon they are going to freak out, leave them in a bathroom stall and the prints will get water damaged and have to be repaired – it happens in France all the time

One of my favorite tales from France is of the Italian glazier who stole the Mona Lisa in 1911 while working at the Louvre fitting protective glass into frames. Though, I feel stoic act of repatriation, when he got the work back to Italy (feeling like a national hero) and tried to resell it 2 years later, everyone was like “Ummmm, Vincenzo, listen. We gotta talk. I kinda don’t have a viable client for this…” (he was arrested and it was later returned.)

Tags:art insurance and theft, Art theft, art theft and museums, art theft rings, Stole the Mona Lisa, Vincenzo Peruggia
Posted in art insurance, art inventory leveraging, Art theft, Lauren Gentile, Specullector | 3 Comments »

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