The Sotheby’s auctioneer scanned the room as the bidding continued for a first-century Roman bronze sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite. When the gavel finally came down and the sale price was recorded at more than $530,000, members of the FBI art crime team observing the action were reminded once again that when it comes to the world of art, the stakes can be very high.
With so much money changing hands, is it any wonder that thieves and scammers steal valuable works and pass off fakes as originals?
The ability to deal with such crimes is one of the reasons the art crime team-—made up of 13 agents from around the country and three special prosecutors from the Department of Justice—-was established in 2004. It’s also why the team, which celebrated its fifth anniversary last October, recently gathered for a week-long training seminar in the art capital of the world, New York City.
Since the team’s inception, more than 2,400 objects of cultural property valued at more than $142 million have been recovered. A number of art criminals have been sent to jail, and many of the recovered items have been returned or repatriated. Even so, said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, who manages the FBI’s Art Theft Program, “We are seeing an increase in these types of crimes.” Some estimates place the total losses due to art and cultural property crimes at $8 billion per year.
Consider the ramifications of a fake work being taken as an original: A fraudster bought a $100 unsigned painting, forged the signature of the artist Juan Gris, and sold it to a dealer for $65,000. The dealer then sold it to a collector for $135,000.
“The first buyer may know it’s a fake, but the second buyer doesn’t,” Gardiner said. “And then it’s in the marketplace.”
The problem with fakes is significant. One long-time gallery owner told agents that about 30 percent of the works people bring him to sell are probably not authentic.
Collectively, members of the team have decades of experience investigating art crimes
Source:fbi.gov
