ARCA Art Crime Facts

Earlier this week I posted on the Master of Arts Degree being offered by the The Association for Research into Crimes Against Art. The web site had some interesting Art Crime Facts so I thought I would post them on the blog. Some of the numbers are rather staggering.

Yes, I know this is the third post on Art Crime on the AW Blog this week including the other ARCA post and Scotland Yard search for art constable volunteers. I do believe Art Crime, including thefts, fakes and forgeries are a growing problem, and that we as appraisers need to know and understand the various implications for evaluation, authentication and valuation.

Facts compiled from sources including Interpol, the FBI, Scotland Yard, Carabinieri, independent research and ARCA projects.)

• 142,258 - Number of Forged Works of Art Recovered in Italy in 2001
  

• 20,000-30,000 - Number of Reported Art Thefts per Year in Italy

• 845,838 - Number of Reported Art Thefts in Italy since 1969

• $6-8 billion - Estimate of Annual Criminal Income through Art Crime NOTE: this only covers known crimes—a greater percentage of crime go undiscovered, making this a low estimate)
  

• 3rd Highest-Grossing Criminal Trade over last 40 years (behind only Drugs and Arms)

• 1961 The year in which Organized Crime first became proactively involved in art crime. Since then most art crime is perpetrated by, or on behalf of, Organized Crime, thereby fueling their other activities, including the drug and arms trades and terrorism.

• Art Crime Funds Terrorism The IRA are just the most obvious example, but art crime, particularly the trade in illicit antiquities, is a funding source for fundamentalist terrorists in the North Africa and Middle East.

• $300-500 million Estimated value of artworks stolen during one night from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

• 0 Number of Art Police Employed by Most Countries

• 50,000 Minimum Number of Reported Art Thefts Worldwide Each Year

• The United States The World’s Primary Art Consumer, For Both Legitimate and Illicit Goods

The ARCA is a very interesting site to visit. If you did not visit from the earlier post, I encourage you to do so. Click HERE to visit the ARCA's home page for further information.