Art crime is estimated by the FBI to be a $ billion per year enterprise, and Interpol notes art crime as the #4 criminal activity behind terriorism, organized crime and drugs, The article includes a short slide show and lists some of the major stolen art for discovered in 2011. The Huffington post reports most art crime for 2011 include settlement or discoveries of Nazi looted art, art stolen off of walls, and the accidental discovery through other investigations.
The Huffington Post reports
To read the Huffington Post article or view the slide show, click HERE.He Can’t Help It:
French Art Addict He’s not a thief, he’s an art addict! In April, notorious art-napper Stephane Breitwieser was charged with several new crimes after numerous old master paintings were found in his French home - 28 works, to be exact, with two reportedly stolen from German museums in 2007. Police found another stolen work the next day, a School of Bruegel miniature worth an estimated $75,000. To be fair, a love of art does run in the family, as Stephane is a descendant of the Alsatian painter Robert Breitwieser. Unfortunately, this appreciation for art doesn’t extend to his mother who, in a 2001 attempt to help her son escape his crimes, tossed around 100 works worth several million dollars into a canal (though most were eventually recovered). Breitwieser, a self-proclaimed “passionate collector,” is famous for his thieving talents but not his artistic capabilities, and faces charges for handling stolen goods. His sticky-fingered antics are far- reaching: he originally gained notoriety in 2002 after admitting to having stolen hundreds of works from museums, castles, and palaces throughout Europe. He was sentenced to four years in jail by a Swiss court in 2003; in France, he received in 2005 a three-year sentence with ten months suspended. Charges for his most recent crimes are still being hashed out between French, German and Belgian courts. Our advice to Breitwieser would be to find a creative outlet to replace his addiction - maybe painting?
A $3.6 Million Traffic Ticket
The Italian police officers who stopped a speeding vehicle near Milan in May wound up having to do much more than write a speeding ticket. Not only was the driver license-less, but both he and his passenger had criminal records. Upon searching the vehicle, the officers discovered a stolen painting by Giorgio Morandi worth nearly $300,000 in the trunk. Eventually investigators traced more clues to an apartment on the French border, where they found 12 more stolen artworks - including two Mao paintings by Andy Warhol, a 1935 Léger work and several other pieces by artists such as Balthus and Ghiringhelli. The collection, which was listed on Interpol’s list of stolen artworks, belongs to Paola Folon (widow of Belgian artist Jean-Michel Folon) and was taken from her house nearly five years prior. The total estimated worth of the cache is a cool $3.6 million, quite a bit more than the fine for a speeding ticket. Needless to say, the driver and his accomplice were promptly arrested. If anything, hopefully this will teach them to drive at a reasonable speed, if they ever get out of jail...
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