The Mind of an Art Thief

In the aftermath of the recent Paris art theft, there have been many articles in the papers and news about art theft.  I just posted two the other day on museum security.  USA Today was interested in why people steal art, as many believe it is difficult to sell stolen works, and the process of selling to the underground wealthy collector is not widely accepted.

USA Today asked several experts, including psychologist as to why people steal art.

USA Today reports:

USA TODAY's Mary Brophy Marcus asked several experts, none of whom are involved in the criminal investigations in France, to give their take on the type of mind that could be lurking behind such a robbery:

Q: When someone steals fine art, what could be the motivation?

A: There could be any number of motivations. This is a rare event and it's even more rare to understand what's going on. If you look back historically at other pieces of stolen art, the motivation is idiosyncratic. Look at the Mona Lisa's theft — taken from The Louvre in Paris in 1911 by an Italian patriot. He resented that one of Italy's greatest pieces of art was being displayed in France. So you get individual motivation there, or a political motivation.

And then there's money….the theft of art has become much more linked to organized crime syndicates. The art can be resold, bartered behind closed doors. Sometimes it is more like a kidnapping in that way. It could be the thief's retirement plan.

Or, another motivation: he may want it so he can enjoy it.

• Joel Silberberg, Director of the Division of Forensic Psychiatry at Northwestern University

Q: Why steal objects of this magnitude versus a petty theft where you could fence the filched items more easily?

A: It could have nothing to do with money. It could be an aggrieved person — something as mundane as that. Someone who thinks, "You fired me or didn't promote me and I'm going to show you up, show how incompetent you are."

—Northwestern's Silberberg

Q: So could the thief be as sane as you and me?

A: Yes. What we've found in our research is that lots of people are willing to cheat, to be dishonest. We are talking about MIT, Yale, Duke, Harvard students — regular smart people who are likely to take on positions of leadership in society.

We have a flexible psychology. We find two types of people: the common type of cheater who does it only when they can rationalize it to themselves, and the non-common type who does it for cost-benefit analysis. The question then is, which type are these art thieves?

•Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, author of "The Upside of Irrationality" (Harper Collins, June 2010).

Q: Does the second art robbery, the attack on a collector in his private home, change the way the public might view the thief if the two robberies are linked to the same source?

A: Yes, I think that now people will be more upset and the reflection on the character of the thief is much more negative. The reality is that we treat blue collar crime and white collar crime very differently. There's something uniquely interesting about crimes that have to do with public property where nobody really suffers — we don't see a villain hurting a particular individual. We may even kind of feel thrilled by them. But this would not happen if it was someone going into a grandmother's apartment and stealing.

• Duke's Ariely

Q: Could the thief be someone with a psychological disorder?

A: It's highly unlikely that it was someone with schizophrenia or who is manic. That person wouldn't really be able to steal it in this way. They wouldn't have the ability to plan that far ahead.

At first look, someone might say kleptomania. But on closer look, this doesn't match that at all. In kleptomania, the stealer will surreptitiously hide the stolen item. It's the actual act of theft that brings a sense of relief, not having the paintings.

There is a disorder called delusional disorder. That person could be paranoid in their thinking but still have a very good ability to plan and focus on a more complex theft of this kinds.

• Northwestern's Silberberg

Q: Do you have to be smart to pull of a major art museum heist?

A: It's my understanding that this was the deliberate work of one person on the scene, presumably with others working with him, and presumably for private collector(s).

If so, then this requires a high degree of intelligence, practical intelligence, social intelligence and pre-planning. I would guess these are the same elements required of many premeditated crimes.

• Barry Gordon, Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins Medicine