The economy is in the tank. Crime is up. For the love of history, rob a bank and not a museum, OK?
Art theft is a $6 billion (that’s BILLION!) industry and fourth on the list of most popular international crimes according to Interpol. Wow! Imagine if all of that art was put into one single museum. It’s staggering. The sad part is most of that art isn’t preserved properly, so our hypothetical museum could never be. A lot of art gets lost forever.
The biggest heist in U.S. history occurred on March, 18 1990 in Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. The most valuable piece taken was “The Concert” by Vermeer. There’s a $5 million reward, so get cracking, amateur sleuths! The statute of limitations has run out, but it would be nice to get that art back before it’s ruined – even if no one goes to jail.
The Boston heist pales in comparison to the amount of artwork looted during World War II. The website, www.lootedart.com is the central registry for stolen art that disappeared between 1939 and 1945. The have information from 49 countries! Of course, the Nazis didn’t invent the idea. Napoleon was pretty good at it too. And there wasn’t much left for Alexander the Great to plunder from the tombs of the Pharaohs. Grave robbers beat him to it.
During the American Civil War, General Henry Halleck (a lawyer by trade) argued against the destruction of important art and architecture during war time, but was totally in favor of “acquiring” it. You know, just for safe keeping. Wink, wink. Lincoln, the great emancipator, also agreed with freeing works of art when he signed the Lieber Code in April of 1864. Maybe that’s why, at the end of WWII, the Allies had no problem snatching up the stuff the Nazis had, um, acquired.
All over the world, every year, thieves, grave robbers and looters take pieces of the big world history puzzle. We are all a little poorer for it. Banks have insurance and money can be replaced, so please, leave the art alone!
Peter Culos is and artist/graphic designer as well as creator of history-geek.com.
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