Scotland Yard Recruits Volunteer Art Constables

Yesterday I posted on an Art Crime educational program. Today, I found an interesting article on how Scotland Yard is attempting to fight art crime. Martin Bailiey of the ArtNewspaper is reporting that Scotland Yard is recruiting art insiders to help fight art crime. The program is called ArtBeat, and is actively recruiting museum and art experts in order to fight organized art theft, fraud and forgeries.

Bailey reports Under ArtBeat, individuals who volunteer their services receive one month’s training at the Hendon Police College. After that they serve two days a month as special constables. Their normal salary is paid by their employer, who is therefore subsidising their police work. Special constables receive basic police training, including street patrolling, and have the power to make arrests. In the event of serious security problems (such as the London bombings of 7 July 2005) they could be drafted in to maintain public order. ArtBeat began in January 2007, and there are currently 13 special constables (six males and seven females). These include two from national museums, three from the Art Loss Register, three archaeologists with the remainder from a variety of institutions. The two from museums are Zoe Jackman of the V&A (see below) and Michael Lewis of the British Museum, where he is deputy head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

Art Crime is certainly a growing area within organized crime. As reported here on the AW Blog in past posts, the punishment for art crime is typically much lower than other crimes. It is good to see law enforcement agencies looking to experts in the private sectors to assist with the growing problem of art crime.

To read the full ArtNewspaper article, click HERE.