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Showing posts with label art crime statistics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art crime statistics. Show all posts

February 2, 2011

Wednesday, February 02, 2011 - ,,,, No comments

Noah Charney interviews Mark Durney, creator of the ARCAblog and "Art Theft Central" in his new ARTINFO column "The Secret History of Art"

In his new ARTINFO column, "The Secret History of Art," Noah Charney interviews Mark Durney who discusses how he began studying art crime and his development of the ARCA blog. You can read it here.

Durney studied History at Trinity College in Hartford, CT and earned a masters degree in cultural heritage studies at University College London's Institute of Archaeology.

Here's an excerpt from Charney's interview:
Describe some of your past work experience?

While a student at Trinity College, I pursued internships in finance, including in the financial services strategic business unit of Capgemini Consulting. Although not related to the culture heritage field, these experiences greatly enhanced my research and analytical skills as well as my business acumen. Since graduation in 2008, I have volunteered and consulted with ARCA on a number of projects, such as the development of ARCA's blog and podcasts, and the advancement of its postgraduate program International Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection Studies. Additionally, in 2009 I worked as a gallery officer at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which was the victim of an art heist in March 1990. During my studies at UCL, I completed a work placement in the UK's Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council's Cultural Property Unit. In my spare time, I maintain Art Theft Central, which discusses art theft news and provides insights into the historical trends in the field, and I moderate the Museum Security Network, which redistributes news related to the protection, preservation, and conservation of cultural heritage. 

How did you develop an interest in art crime and cultural heritage?
At Trinity College, I wrote my senior thesis on debunking the Thomas Crown Affair art heist scenario by utilizing a number of case studies from the 20th century. This was not hard to do in light of the fact that not every art thief is as sophisticated or affluent as Thomas Crown! Similarly, my master's thesis "An Examination of Art Theft, Analysis of Relevant Statistics, and Insights into the Protection of Cultural Heritage" qualifies and interprets art theft statistics provided by the London-based Art Loss Register (ALR) and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) in order to quantify the problem of art theft and to assess the effectiveness of the most recent strategies that have been implemented to combat the illicit art trade. 

How did you learn about ARCA and first become involved? 

I received "The Art Thief" for Christmas 2008, and after reading it began seeking opportunities that enabled me to contribute to the greater security of our collective cultural heritage. Eventually, I discovered ARCA and Noah Charney offered me voluntary (and eventually paid) opportunities.

August 24, 2010

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - ,,,,

ARCA featured in La Repubblica

ARCA was featured in an article in Italy's leading national newspaper, La Repubblica, on 23 August 2010. The article mentioned some of the statistics on art crime in Italy kept by the Carabinieri Division for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. The Carabinieri TPC, as it is known, is the world's oldest and strongest art police unit, having been founded in 1969, and with a 300-plus strong force. They run the world's largest database on stolen art, containing over 3 million items, and have by far the best recovery rate of any of the world's police. In 2009 alone the Carabinieri TPC reported 13,219 artworks stolen in Italy (a significant decrease from the approximately 30,000 objects reported stolen as recently as 2001). In 2009 the TPC questioned 1220 people suspected of involvement in art crime, arrested 45, and recovered an astounding 19,043 stolen artworks.

The Carabinieri TPC were honored with the 2009 ARCA Award for Lifetime Achievement in Defense of Art, and were featured in a BBC Radio Four documentary which ran earlier this summer. In that documentary the Carabinieri reiterated that art crime is linked to the drug and arms trades and even terrorism, and highlighted the fact that most art crime involves organized crime, and therefore is something to be taken very seriously indeed.

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