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April 28, 2011

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Forging News (Part four): The News Media's Misrepresentation of the Art Criminal

by Katherine Ogden, ARCA Class Alum 2009

Where Do We Go From Here?

All of this discussion brings us back to our original quandary - how does the way in which the news media presents art crime criminals affect art crime as a whole? The main thing we need to begin to focus on is the fact that there is little to no representational of real art crime criminals in the news media. This is a problem because the news media is allowing, and in some cases encouraging, the idea of the sexy/glamorous art thief, the Thomas Crown or Dr. No character, which is not the reality. Art crimes are committed by all sorts of people, and excepting a few examples the majority of known art crime criminals are not the attractive, glamorous types from the movies. These crime criminals are the people that you avoid in bars and teach your kids not to talk to on the streets. More and more the link between art crime and organized crime is being strengthened which only makes the need to understand and accurately report on art crime that much more important.

Joseph Wiseman as "Dr. Julius No"
 in the 1962 James Bond movie "Dr. No"
Additionally, only when the professionals associated with art crime begin to understand that it is a larger problem than a millionaire missing a pretty picture or a museum missing a sculpture will law enforcement accurately file reports on art crime and ultimately realize that art crime has been funding such universally deplorable crimes as arms trade, drug trade and organized crime. One of the best ways to accomplish this would be for news media outlets to begin to report on the actual criminals behind these crimes and the subsequent sentencing of these criminals. Once the faces of these ordinary criminals are put in the public arena, the illusion of the sexy art crime criminal can begin to be destroyed, and then the public can understand that art crime needs to be taken just as seriously as other crimes.

Finally if Connor were to rob a bank tomorrow for 1.1 million dollars, every news media outlet in the United States and quite possibly in the entire world would broadcast his picture. So why is it the case that if he were to steal a Vermeer worth more than 1.1 million dollars no one would see his face? That is where the problem lies, and it is only through efforts by the media and art professions to put a “face” on art crime criminals that we will see a more realistic view of the individuals who take part in such crimes.

Bibliography:
Armstrong, Stephen. "Artful Dodgers." 28 January 2006. Guardian.co.uk. 20 September 2009


Associated Press. "Warhol's sports superstar pieces stolen from L.A. home - USATODAY.com." 
12 September 2009. USATODAY.com. 20 September 2009.


Bernstein, Richard. “For Stolen Saltcellar, a Cellphone Is Golden.” The New York Times 2006 
26-January.

Blair, Granger. "Stolen Art Recovered by Scotland Yard." The New York Times 5 January 1967.

Brown, Shelia. Crime and Law in Media Culture. Philadelphia: Open University, 2003.

Cardy, Philip. “Stolen art found in loo-vre.” The Sun 2003 29-April.

Charney, Noah. "Chasing Doctor No: Art Crime Fact and Fiction-1." Talk for the UIA Meeting. 
Bilbao: ARCA, 9 May 2008. 9.

Chermak, Steven M. Victims in the News: Crime and the American News Media. Boulder: 
Westview Press, 1995.

Cole, Teresa Levonian. Art Detective Charles Hill. 16 March 2009. 10 September 2009


—. "Charles Hill ." Photo. Country Life. 16 March 2009. 10 September 2009.

Connor, Jr., Myles J. The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Art Thief, rock-and-roller, 
and prodigal son. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

Cortellessa, Luigi. "ARCA Art Crime Conference." Amelia, 11 July 2009.

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Unwin., 2001.

Demers, David Pearce. "Corporate Newspaper Structure, Profits and Organizational Goals." 
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Edwards, Jeff. "EROS AND VILLIANS; EXCLUSIVE Oceans 11 Gang Plot to Steal Priceless Landmarks." The Mirror 9 February 2006: 5.

Gurevitch, Michael. Culture, Society and the Media. London: Routledge, 1990.

Harvey, Oliver. "Tiaras to balaclavas." 10 January 2009. The Sun. 24 November 2009 .


Harvey, Oliver. "Rose Dugdale." Photo. The Sun. 10 January 2009. 24 November 2009.


Honan, William. "Donald L. Mason, 74, Who Led F.B.I. Unit Tracking Stolen Art." The New 
York Times 21 August 1999: 10.

Itzkoff, Dave. “Magritte Painting Stolen.” New York Times 2009 24-September.

Jones, Hannah. "Lost for Ever?" Western Mail 27 August 2004: 8.

Kennedy, Randy. "Arts Beat: The Culture at Large." 16 October 2009. The New York Times. 16 
October 2009

Knox, Sanka. "Museum Gets Rembrandt for 2.3 Million." The New York Times 16 November 
1961: 2.

Lavery, Brian. "ARTS ABROAD; A Mansion Attracts Art Lovers; Thieves Love It, Too." The 
New York Times 9 October 2002: E2.

Lottman, Herbert R. "In Hot Pursuit of Stolen Art." The New York Times 13 July 1975: 2.

Pancevski, Roger Boyes and Bojan. £40m salt cellar thief is caught by a cocky text. 8 September 
2006. 21 September 2009 .

Perse, Elizabeth M. Media Effects and Society. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.

Photographer. "Robert Mang." Photo. Artadox. 24 February 2008. 26 November 2009.

Plot, Toulouse Le. “What'll crooks steel?” 2006 25-January.

Rockwell, John. "Rome Has a Show of Stolen Artworks to Highlight a Fight." The New York 
Times 25 May 1994: C13.

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“Seven Questions: A Reformed Stolen-Art Dealer Tells All.” 2008 February. Foreign Policy. 
2009 26-09 .

Shillingford, David. "The Art of the Steal." Foreign Policy March-April 1005: 28-29.

Sims, Paul. “Revealed: Godfather Adams' £500,000 Aladdin's cave of stolen art and antiques.” 
The Daily Mail 2007 8-June: 2.

Sims, Paul. “Terry Adams.” Photo. The Daily Mail 2007 8, June: 2.

“'Spectacular' theft nets $163 million in art.” 2008 19-February. msnbc. 2009 27-09.

Staff. "Armed group 'traded stolen art for arms'." The Independent 18 November 1995: 1.

Syson, Neil. “Mob are sculpture vultures.” The Sun 2006 25-January.

Temple-Raston, Dina. "Missing A Masterpiece? Call FBI's Art Crime Team." NPR. NPR, 15 
December 2008.

—. "Armed Robbers Steal Magritte Painting." 24 September 2009. Telegraph. 27 September 
2009 .

—. "ARTFUL DODGERS; WHY NO ONE IS PAYING THE PRICE FOR THE {Pounds 
Sterling] 80 MILLION RAMSBURY JOB." The Mail on Sunday 14 May 2006: 22.

—."Furti d'arte, calo nel 2009." Corriere della Sera 2009 November 2009: 9.
—."Meet the suspect: Myles J. Connor Jr." 18 May 2008. Boston Herald. 24 November 2009.
—. "Myles J. Connor Jr." Photo. Boston Herald. 18 May 2008. 24 November 2009. 
—. "Picasso Paintings 'Stolen to Order'." The Birmingham Post 1 March 2007: 10.
—. "Recuperati dai carabinieri tesori d' arte rubati 15 anni fa." 12 March 2004: 4.
—. "Recuperato volume del '500 rubato alla Casa di Dante nove anni fa." 6 September 2009. 
Corriere Della Sera. 24 September 2009 .
—. "Restituiti all'Italia due affreschi rubati nella grotta di Calvi." 27 March 2009. Corriere del 
Mezzogiorno. 24 September 2009 .
—. "'Spectacular' theft nets $163 million in art." 19 February 2008. msnbc. 11 October 2009.
—. “Stolen art 'suffered only minor damage'.” The Daily Mail 2003 29-April.
—. "Tesori etruschi in vendita ai russi la finanza sequestra reperti rubati." Corriere Della Sera 15 
July 2009: 7.
—. "Thieves priceless art haul." 26 March 2004. The Sun. 15 September 2009.
—. "Via Quarti, blitz nelle case popolari: scoperte armi e scuderia clandestina." 1 October 2009. 
Corriere della Sera. 13 October 2009.

Unknown. "French Have Two Leads In the Theft of 119 Picassos." The New York Times 3 
February 1976: 1.
—. IRELAND: Renegade Debutante. 20 May 1974. 20 September 2009
—. "Irish Prisoners' Transfer Demanded for Stolen Art." The New York Times 4 May 1974: 1.
—. "Picasso Theft Valued at $4.5 Million." The New York Times 2 February 1976: 1.
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Wikipedia. "List of Newspapers in the World by Circulation." 31 October 2009. Wikipedia. 14 
November 2009 .

Willis, Jim. The Shadow World: Life between the News Media and Reality. New York: Praeger 
Publishers, 1991.

Worrall, Simon. "The invisble man rescuing art." BBC News 13 December 2008: 2.

Zeller, Tom. "The Lede." 28 February 2007. The New York Times. 10 September 2009.

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - , No comments

Forging News (Part three of four): The News Media's Misrepresentation of the Art Criminal

by Katherine Ogden, ARCA Alum 2009

A Face That Only a Mother Could Love?

When publishing an article on a stolen painting who is the victim? While understanding that there is always victim when it comes to art crime in the form of a museum, a gallery, or an unnamed collector, not to mention the fact that that priceless piece of culture is forever taken away from the general public; there is usually a lack of a face. Should the news media outlets focus on the artist, who is obviously a victim since their piece has been taken? Should the news media focus on the collector(s)? Or should the news media focus on the fact that the world is the victim for the loss of a cultural artifact?

This perplexing situation shows the problem with reporting art crime; a faceless victim represents its target. Perhaps it is because of this that news media outlets have a problem reporting on these stories, they lack the perspective that the media usually thrive upon. In the case of art crime, they are unable to get a picture of the grieving mother asking for her child back from kidnappers, because in this case the owner of the lost work wishes to not be named or photographed to protect not only their identity, but more importantly the rest of their collection. This highlights the fear that most institutions and private owners have - once stolen from they do not want to publicize the theft in order to protect their reputation and the rest of their collection. If a theft occurs it outlines a weak link in that institution’s security, a fact better kept unpublicized. Furthermore, without a face of a victim there lacks the ability to create a gripping dichotomy between a visual representation of the victim and criminal.

The faceless nature of art crime is what leads to its under-representation as a crime. How can you report on art crime if you cannot picture the face of a victim, a criminal or even an investigator? One of the leading art investigators in the world, the now retired United States FBI agent Robert Wittman, credits much of his success in recovery largely on his ability to blend into any situation and assume different personas (Worrall). It is because of this that it is impossible to find a picture of his face (Worrall). By creating this faceless persona while continuing to broadcast the cases of recovery that he has worked on, Agent Wittman is unwittingly assisting news media outlets in creating a view of art crime as fascinating and mysterious.
Charley Hill

On the other hand, one cannot mention Agent Wittman without mentioning his British counterpart, Charley Hill. Prior to his retirement to the private sector, Detective Hill was one of the most successful detectives in the Art and Antiquities unit of Scotland Yard (Cole, Art Detective Charles Hill). The main quality that differentiates Detective Hill from Agent Wittman is that you can easily find pictures of Detective Hill with a quick internet search.

So how does Detective Hill succeed in catching criminals? Through a seemingly endless supply of disguises and accents. It seems as though the faceless nature of the art investigator has the capacity to be both good and bad, but in the case of Detective Hill, good. When criminals are not able to pinpoint the “look” of an art investigator, the investigators are able to transform themselves just enough to garner minimal suspicion. In one well-known case Detective Hill posed as a curator from the Getty Museum in California and brokered a deal for the purchase of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which had been stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo (Cole, Art Detective Charles Hill). The success of this recovery and countless others leads one to believe that perhaps it is best if the face of the art investigator maintains an air of illusion, as it is quite common in all crime reporting to not see the face of the investigator. This should also serve to strengthen the need for public display of the criminals responsible for these crimes, the more the criminals are put in front of the public, the faster the illusion of the sexy criminal will erode.

Sexy Art Crime: Fact or Fiction?

No discussion of the representation of the art crime criminal is complete without a look at an actual art crime criminal. What do art crime criminals look like if they do not look like the representations seen in print, movies and on television shows? Every season there is a new television show that focuses on heists, if art crime criminals aren’t well-dressed, educated, and cultured people then who are they? In order to answer this we could look at a wide range of convicted art crime criminals, we could start with Rose Dugdale the former debutante turned IRA sympathizer who robbed the Russborough House in Ireland, or we could look at Robert Mang, an alarm specialist turned thief who decided that since he could he should steal the Cellini salt cellar from Vienna’s Art History Museum just because he felt like it (TIME, IRELAND: Renegade Debutante)(Pancevski). For the purpose of our discussions we will focus on Myles J. Connor Jr., a media darling in the regional papers around Boston, and a self professed and convicted art crime criminal (Connor). [Read a 2009 article on Rose Dugdale "Tiaras to balaclavas" in The Sun here]

Myles J. Connor, Jr.
The things we need to know about Connor for this discussion are as follows: while only convicted of a handful of robberies, in his autobiography Connor admits to robbing other institutions, though he will not name the institutions nor the items he stole (Connor). He has admitted to shooting a cop, worked with the mob in the Boston area, frequently brought weapons along on heists, was convicted of robbing banks and used artwork to procure his first shipment of drugs that he intended to sell in order to get the piece of artwork back (Connor). Connor freely admits to all the above in his autobiography, and yet he is still not an instantly recognizable bad guy in the face of art crime. Returning to the group of sixteen peers mentioned earlier, they were all shown a photograph of this man, and not one person could identify him. This is why a faceless criminal is detrimental to art crime. In order for art crime to be taken as seriously as it should, the general public needs to understand that convicted felons like Connor are committing the thefts, not fictional photogenic characters. Until this bias can be corrected art crime will continue to be seen as a frivolous crime in the eyes of the general public, the news media, law enforcement, and other industry experts.

April 27, 2011

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - ,, No comments

Venice in Peril: Fakes and Forgeries Lecture (Part I)

This podcast features Noah Charney's "The World Wishes To Be Deceived: A Brief History of Art Forgery" delivered as a part of Venice in Peril's 2nd Exclusive Art Crime Lecture held on April 5, 2011 at the Royal Geographical Society in London. In the lecture, Charney discusses the differences between fakes, forgeries, and copies as well as highlights a few of the most interesting cases from the past 500 years. Access the podcast at ARCA's iTunes page or by clicking this link. Come back for Part II next week!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - ,, No comments

Forging News (Part two of four): The News Media's Misrepresentation of the Art Criminal

by Katherine Ogden, ARCA Alum 2009

Worldly Perceptions: The Reporting of Art Crime Criminals in the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy

Ironically, while the news media thrives on images, when it comes to art crime, which is situated within an art world comprised of imagery, pictures are hard to come by. When a painting is stolen the public is typically presented with a stock photo of the missing painting, and occasionally a photo taken from a distance of the crime scene. Even more rarely the article may be accompanied by a blurry image of black-clothed thieves running from the scene of the crime. It is puzzling that when dealing with such a visual medium it is rare to find a photo of said criminal. This seems to be the case in each of the countries that were focused on for the purpose of this paper. We will start our study with the United Kingdom.

The two papers with the highest circulation in the United Kingdom are The Sun and The Daily Mail (Wikipedia). Both The Sun and The Daily Mail are considered tabloid papers, which indicates that the papers’ articles focus primarily on local interest stories and entertainment. This classification does not dictate that these papers do not report on international news or contain serious journalism, but it does suggest that they are inclined to offer their readers a larger portion of entertainment than hard news. This indication becomes obvious when analyzing some of the headlines associated with stolen art articles printed in The Sun.

On April 29, 2003, The Sun printed “Stolen Art found in the Loo-vre” which referred to stolen paintings, including a Van Gogh, found in public restroom, or loo (Cardy). The article explains that the paintings were found in the loo after being stolen from the Whitworth Art Gallery at The University of Manchester, but fails to mention key factors of the theft, such as the name of the Van Gogh painting or why they chose to implicate the Louvre even though the Louvre was not involved at any point. Quite amazingly, The Sun was able to provide photographs of before and after shots of the Van Gogh painting. The inclusion of the photographs is helpful because it shows how destructive art crime can be, however the photographs would have had a stronger impact had key information such as size, title, age, etc. been included in the story.
The Fortifications of Paris with Houses
Vincent van Gogh, 1887, water colour
Whitworth Art Gallery

Another headline found in The Sun, “Mob are Sculpture Vultures” refers to an unidentified gang that had allegedly stolen up to twenty metal sculptures from public spaces in the United Kingdom. Additionally this article included a sidebar, which asked, “What’ll crooks steel?” that listed other sculptures the thieves might be interested in procuring (Syson)(Plot). While these attention-grabbing headlines may be entertaining and grab the reader’s attention, they clearly diminish the severity of the crime being committed. Besides comical headlines, The Sun also has a tendency to focus on the sensationalism of the crime as opposed to the callousness of the criminal. There is little to no mention in either article of the criminal(s) associated with the crime. [You can read 'Mystery of the stolen Moore solved' here].

Terry Adams (Daily Mail)
As opposed to the attention grabbing headlines evident in The Sun, the United Kingdom’s other widely read paper The Daily Mail offers readers more developed articles that focus marginally more on the facts and slightly less on comedic value. Additionally, The Daily Mail is one of the few newspapers in our examination that mentions the art crime criminal. Not only does The Daily Mail mention the criminal, Terry Adams, but they also provide readers with a picture and a descriptive article in “Revealed: Godfather Adams’ 500,000 Aladdin’s Cave of stolen art and antiques”. The article explains how authorities found the items, which are also pictured, in the mob leader’s home. This article is revolutionary in the field of art crime reporting, not only because it mentions and provides photographs of an art crime criminal, but also because it highlights an often disputed direct link between organized crime and art crime.

Overall, the news media outlets of the United Kingdom, primarily The Sun and The Daily Mail, focus on the details regarding the crime, sometimes the details regarding the recovery, and rarely the details regarding the art crime criminal. This is not entirely different from the way that news media outlets in the United States portray art crime. The two top circulated news publications in the United States are The Wall Street Journal and USA Today (Wikipedia). However, since there were no examples of articles written on art crime in The Wall Street Journal, this paper will focus instead on USA Today and The New York Times which is the third most widely circulated news publication in the United States (Wikipedia).

The LAPD released images of
the stolen Warhol paintings
An article published in USA Today on September 12, 2009, “Warhol’s sports superstar pieces stolen from L.A. home,” has all the markings of a traditional art crime article published in the United States (Associated Press). Along with copious mention of the monetary value of the paintings and corresponding reward money, a typical call to arms regarding the state of insurance for the art collection in question is also included. American art crime articles typically attempt to place blame with the owner for either having or neglecting to have an insurance policy for their collection. In either instance the news media finds fault. If the owner has insurance and works go missing the owner is often accused of hiring someone to steal the paintings in order to collect the insurance money. This is precisely what occurred with this Warhol case in a follow-up article entitled Insurance Waived in Warhol Theft Case, where the owner is called into question for refusing to accept the insurance premium. Why is the American news media so quick to place blame on the victim and yet so slow to call for the criminals accountability? In this particular case, the reporter has committed a great disservice to the audience by not explaining that in most cases by refusing the insurance payout, the owner is still hoping the artwork(s) will be found and returned. If the artwork is found and the owner has already accepted a payout from the insurance company, the owner forfeits their ownership rights and the insurance company acquires the title to the recovered pieces. From this standpoint, one would presume that refusal to accept an insurance payout would be further proof that the owner did not hire a thief to steal the artwork so that they could profit from the insurance.

Moreover if you were to compare this case to an automobile theft, would the news media be so quick to place blame on the owner for the theft? Granted the notoriety and money would not be proportional, but the percentage of the value of an insurance payout for a car is similar to that for a piece of art. Throughout the course of this study it has become evident that the public’s resentment towards private collectors, fueled by the news media, exists because of a distaste towards the collectors’ ability to own something of such astronomical value. Since the news media continually cultivates this sentiment, the importance of identifying and prosecuting the criminal that steals such objects is lost in the cloud of resentment. It is almost as if a sense of appropriateness has been created in a Robin Hood sense of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, even though art crime criminals are no Robin Hoods.

Moving onto The New York Times and an article that ran on February 28, 2007, titled Purloined Picassos in Paris. This piece reports on the theft of multiple Picassos from the home of Picasso’s daughter, Maya Widmaier-Picasso. Although the alliterative headline does not mention the monetary value of the stolen paintings, the first sentence displays the 65 million dollar figure quite prominently. Which brings us to a new issue, why is it a problem that the American news media focuses on the values associated with art crime? This has to do with the fact that by advertising reported values; the news media is giving thieves an inflated view of the value of a stolen painting.

On February 1, 1976, 119 paintings by Pablo Picasso were reported stolen from the Papal Palace at Avignon in France (Unknown, Picasso Theft Valued at $4.5 Million). This theft occurred at a time when thefts of master paintings in France had risen from 1,500 in 1970 to 5,000 in 1976 (Unknown, Picasso Theft Valued at $4.5 Million). This rise in thefts of master paintings coincides with an increase of record-breaking publicized sales of masterworks by the news media and began with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s purchase of Rembrandt’s Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer in 1961 (Knox). The morning after the purchase The New York Times’ front page had the bold headline “Museum Gets Rembrandt for 2.3 Million,” which the article then went on to explain was the highest price paid for a piece of art in history (Knox). After this purchase the values of other master artists rose as well, including Pablo Picasso. It is believed that the Corsican Mafia carried out the theft of the 119 paintings by Picasso, although following the initial theft there has only been one mention of leads and no mention of recovery in the media (Charney).

What the comprehensive review of news media in the United States regarding art crime criminals has shown is a large absence of the art crime criminal. News media outlets in the United States prefer to focus on monetary values associated with thefts, the thematic quality of the thefts, and rarely on the recovery of thefts. Which brings us to our final focus, the news media in Italy. The top two news publications in Italy are La Gazzetta dello Sport and La Repubblica, since the main focus of La Gazzetta dello Sport is sports, we will be focusing on the third top news publication Corriere della Sera (Wikipedia).

The first thing you will notice about the mention of art crimes in Italian news media outlets is that the monetary value of the object is rarely mentioned. This can be attributed to the strong connection that Italians have with their culture, it is a relationship that does not exist to such a degree in the United Kingdom or the United States. In Italian news media the word art is often replaced by treasure or treasures, such as the following headline from the March 12, 2004 edition of La Repubblica, “Recuperati dai carabinieri tesori d' arte rubati 15 anni fa” which translates to “Treasures recovered by art police stolen 15 years ago” (Staff, Recuperati dai carabinieri tesori d' arte rubati 15 anni fa). The article explains that these items were stolen, taken apart, and reassembled in order to be sold to private collectors. The article reads more like a missing persons report than a record of loss of monetary value, and this may be due to the Italian’s deep bond with their culture and their history, Italians as a whole see a lost work of art as a deprivation to society.

In the summer of 2009, while speaking to a group at a conference in Amelia, Italy, Vice Comandante Cortellessa of the Italian Carabinieri’s Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage was asked if the focus of recovering art was on the artwork or the criminal, and if he had to choose one, which would he choose (Cortellessa). Vice Comandante Cortellessa responded that art is irreplaceable and that he and his men always work to secure the art first, the criminal second. He added that criminals will always commit crimes, so he can always catch the criminal another time, he may not have a second chance to recover a piece of stolen art. This connection with art is what separates the Italians from much of the rest of the world. Additionally, this connection with art previously led to the creation of the Carabinieri Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the elevation of art crime as serious in the national media landscape.

An additional difference between Italian news media and the others we have discussed is their constant praise for the Carabinieri for the recovery of stolen goods. In Corriere della Sera, an article published on July 15, 2009, “Tresori etruschi in vendita ai russi
la finanza sequestra reperti rubati” commended the police for the capture of a car filled with Italian antiquities headed to Russia for sale (Staff, Tesori etruschi in vendita ai russi la finanza sequestra reperti rubati). Again there is no mention of the monetary value of these items. While the Italian news media outlets are more proactive in the fight against art crime, they too tend to ignore the actual art criminals. However, the news media’s focus on the recovery and prevention of art crime is a decidedly different approach to the reporting of art crime and leads to headlines such as this one from the November 16, 2009 edition of Corriere della Sera “Furti d'arte, calo nel 2009
” which translates to “Thefts of art drop in 2009” (Staff, Furti d'arte, calo nel 2009).

April 26, 2011

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 - ,,,, No comments

Forging News (Part one of four): The News Media’s Misrepresentation of the Art Criminal

by Katherine Ogden, ARCA Alum 2009

This article is a study concerning the current lack of representation of art crime criminals in the news media. This study focuses on news media outlets in the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy in order to examine why the news media tends to sensationalize art crimes while downplaying the role of the criminal. This article will work to find a conclusion to the quandary created by the news media as they continue to create a view of art crime criminals as sexy and fascinating as opposed to dangerous and criminal. A quandary that leads to people both within and outside of the art world being unable to distinguish between the real and the fictional art crime criminals, something that must be corrected.

Literature Review:

There is no research published on the representation of art crime criminals in the news media, so for the purposes of this examination the following information was reviewed: newspaper articles, criminology, crime and media, criminals and media, victims in the media and popular culture representations of criminals. Through the literature review it became apparent that the relationship that the media creates between art crime and the criminals committing the crime is dealt with in an entirely different way than the media represents common criminals.

For more than forty years the news media has represented art crime in a fashion eliciting feelings of awe and amazement. As a result, while the general public perceives art crime as insignificant, criminals have developed misguided ideas pertaining to how to profit from and engage in art crime. This study will focus on the traditional methods employed by the news media to represent criminals and will expand to compare those methods to those used to represent perpetrators of art crime found in the print and electronic versions of the top newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Radio, motion picture and television media will be excluded from this analysis. As opposed to using the term “art criminal” which tends to imply acts of criminal mischief such as graffiti, for the purpose of this discussion I will utilize the term “art crime criminal” in order to focus on those criminals responsible for art thefts, forgeries, and other serious art crimes.

The News Media: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
In order to understand the portrayal of art crime criminals in the news media, one must understand the origins and uses of the medium. Currently, the general public holds a misguided belief that news media outlets deliver the truth with fact-filled stories meant to inform readers. However, given high incidences of exaggerated reporting of current events it is evident that a main purpose of the news media is the entertainment of the newsreader with fact-based news articles. In this case attention should be placed on the phrase “fact-based.” As with any business, news media outlets require profits in order to survive. Much of this income is derived from advertisers who prefer to work with outlets holding the largest percentage of circulation within a given market (Demers). As a direct result of this relationship news media outlets work to attract the most readers and in order to accomplish this they compete to create the most entertaining and interesting stories each day. Even if those stories stretch the concept of “fact-based.”

When reporting on stories related to crime, news media outlets tend to distort the truth in order to paint the perpetrator in a more negative light. This allows the media to create a more interesting story while simultaneously creating a distorted image of crime for their audience. Conventional criminology states that:
To be realistic about crime is not an easy task…We are caught between two currents, one which would grossly exaggerate the problems of crime, another covering a wide swathe of political opinion that may seriously underestimate the extent of the problem. Crime is a staple of news in the Western mass media and police fiction a major genre of television drama…the media abound with images of the dangerous stranger. On television we see folk monsters who are psychopathic killers or serial murderers yet offenders who even remotely fit these caricatures are extremely rare…the criminologist knows that this is far from the humdrum nature of reality…the nature of crime, of victimization and of policing is thus systematically distorted in the mass media (qtd. in Brown 42).
It is because news media outlets struggle to increase their circulation that the public’s view of crime has become so distorted; a bleak picture of a society emerges filled with robbers, rapists and killers. Much of the general public places its trust in the media to tell them what and who to fear, absorbing any suggestion that a certain individual should be associated with a crime. Since a large proportion of the public informs their understanding of crime from news media outlets, their comprehension of the crime world is far from the reality. In relation to this analysis, news media outlets often portray perpetrators of non-art related crime as more monstrous and offensive than they may be in reality, while at the same time portraying the perpetrators of art-related crime as suave and almost gentlemanly. Which could not be further from the truth in most cases.

The Media’s Portrayal of Art Criminal: As Suave and Sophisticated or Unappealing and Slovenly?

If you were to ask someone walking around the mall this weekend to describe or to name an art crime criminal I would dare say the majority would answer describing the fictitious criminal as suave, sophisticated, handsome, and smart. In other words, Thomas Crown. Most of the general public believes that art crime criminals are either collectors looking for the crowning piece to their collection or common thieves hired by these collectors to enlarge their collections. Sadly, this misconception carries over to many news stories that in turn mention fictional characters such as Dr. No, Thomas Crown, and the Ocean’s 11 crew, in articles furthering the public’s misunderstanding of the danger of art crime. The seriousness of this misconception lies in the fact that it is not only the general public that is fooled by these fictional characters, but people in the art world themselves.

As part of my coursework I presented seventeen peers with photos of real and fictional art thieves. Out of the examples, none of my peers were able to identify the real art thieves while easily identifying the fictional art thieves. Although this small exercise mainly demonstrated that well-known actors are more readily identifiable than anonymous criminals, it also illustrated a significant problem associated with art crime: how can we fight art crime if students of art crime are not able to identify the perpetrators of crimes against it effectively? How has the infiltration of media become so intense that even those who have studied this field can have the wool pulled over their eyes?

This has come to fruition because news media outlets have evidently followed Hollywood’s lead and assisted in the creation of the “sexy” art criminal. News media outlets rarely, if ever, publish photos of art criminals since the focus is placed on the fantastic nature of the crime itself, not of the capture and conviction of the criminal who perpetrated it. These media outlets repeatedly break from their mold of demonizing criminals when it comes to art crime, portraying them as exciting and elevating them to a level of revered indifference when in fact they should be feared and reviled like any other criminal.

A prime example occurred recently. On September 24, 2009, the New York Times reported that two armed men stole Olympia, a painting by Rene Magritte worth $1.1 million dollars. This case exhibited an example of a rising trend in art crime whereby criminals have started using deadly weapons, a far departure from the pacifist art criminal picture that the news media has previously painted (Itzkoff). Such inaction on the media’s part is highly detrimental in relation to the prevention of and enforcement against art crime and presumably may suggest further indifference to such acts in the future.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 - No comments

A Literal Portrait of Art Thief Stéphane Breitwieser -- and News of Another Arrest

Portrait of art thief Stéphane Breitwieser with artist Jean-Paul Matifat (Courtesy of the artist's website)

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, Editor-in-Chief

This week we'll be running a series of posts by ARCA Alum 2009 Katherine Ogden about the image of the art crime criminal in the media. This morning ARTINFO published a story about the second arrest of convicted art thief Stéphane Breitwieser who apparently loves art and the money generated by stealing art. ARTINFO included a portrait of Breitwieser by artist Jean_Paul Matifat. The portrait, according to the artist's website here, is 7 feet high and 6 feet wide. Many of us might find Breitwieser a romantic anti-hero except for the collaboration of his mother who destroyed art in an effort to hide evidence against her son. This time Breitwieser's mother was also arrested as she had accompanied her son from France to Germany to sell a stolen vase.

April 25, 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011 - No comments

ARCA 2009 Alum: Katherine Ogden on the Images of Art Criminals and Tips for Living in Amelia

Katherine Ogden, ARCA Alum 2009
by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, Editor-in-Chief

Born and raised in Tampa, Florida, Katherine ("Katie") Ogden attended the University of South Florida where she received an undergraduate degree in art history and a Master's degree in Business Administration. Katie wrote in an email for this column: "After a foray into the professional world, I was fortunate to be accepted into the first class of postgraduate students for ARCA's History of International Art Crime program where I was introduced to a more immersive view of the world of art crime. Thus far I have worked as a private collections manager, a marketing specialist, an educator and now as a business analyst. While my background is quite varied, the study of art crime has continued to be one constant in my professional and educational life."
ARCA Blog: Katie, you specialized in dispelling the image of the eccentric art crime criminal. What surprised even you when conducting your research? 
Ms. Ogden: I was most surprised by how easy it is to fall victim to the popular images of art crime criminals reinforced by Hollywood and the media. While giving a presentation in one of our classes in Amelia, I put three pictures on the screen and asked if anyone could choose the art criminal out of the three images. Even while everyone in attendance was there because of our shared interest in art crime, not a single student could correctly identify any of the convicted art criminals I put on the screen. I started to wonder how there could ever be an honest portrayal of a realistic art crime criminal if even the students studying the genre had fallen victim to the sexy allure. 
ARCA Blog: How would you, in one or two sentences, describe a realistic image of an art crime criminal? 
Ms. Ogden: That is very difficult to pinpoint. I'll have to be vague and say unexpected and definitely not Pierce Brosnan. 
ARCA: The third incoming ARCA summer class in art crime will be arriving in Amelia in June. What do you recommend they prepare for to adjust to living in a medieval town in Umbria and what do you miss the most about Amelia? 
Ms. Ogden: The best way to learn how to adjust to living in Amelia is to learn to be flexible. There are certain days when things will simply close down, or days when the heat will be unbearable. On days like this you have to be willing to adjust like the Italians. Living in Amelia will be nothing like living in your hometown; that is after all, part of the adventure. A few bits of advice that took us a little while to figure out: laundry detergent in Italy does not come in brick form, you'll see this on the shelf with a picture of a washing machine, that is meant to clean the machine not your clothes. Nights in Amelia get chilly, pack a jacket. On any given day you can get Ricotta from the cheese maker in the afternoon and mozzarella if you rush in the late morning. He only makes a certain amount and if you don't get there you'll miss out. At Porcelli's get the Italian menu and break out your translation book, there are some fantastic items on this menu that don't make it to the English translation.

And finally, what do I miss the most about Amelia? Absolutely everything. 
ARCA Blog: I would like to add that the brick 'laundry detergent' did clean our clothes pretty well, Katie, or at least I hope so since we used it for a month.
The ARCA blog will feature an article Ms. Ogden wrote about the image of art crime criminals and how  new media outlets have covered art crime differently in the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy.

April 22, 2011

Friday, April 22, 2011 - 1 comment

Art Humor A Crime? "That is Priceless" by Steve Melcher aims to make 'Art's Greatest Masterpieces... Slightly Funnier'

In Case You Were Wondering
 Where Your Flower Pot Went
by Catherine Schofield Sezgin,
ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

It's not a crime to make fun of art, but Steve Melcher, the husband of a friend of mine and another talented writer Amanda Biers-Melcher, certainly makes laughing at art a pleasurable misdemeanor. Steve Melcher, a two-time Emmy Award-winning TV writer and producer, has turned his popular blog, That is Priceless, into a very affordable paperback that re-writes the titles of more than 175 images, seeing contemporary actors in the faces of models painted in the 19th century by Courbet and Renoir, and ad libbing with crude humor that any middle-school student would appreciate. I ordered That is Priceless (Andrews McMeel Publishing) from Amazon and for less than $10 had my mother laughing between comments of 'this guy is really funny' and 'who is he?' As a parent and writer, I appreciate all attempts at making art accessible to students and even those people who rarely step into a museum or art gallery.

Please follow this link to Steve Melcher's website to find out the artist to this 1873 image to the right subtitled "In Case You Were Wondering Where Your Flower Post Went".

April 21, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011 - ,,,,,, No comments

Quebec law enforcement uncover case of art stolen from Quebec art galleries through the purchase of fraudulent credit cards

Tumulte 1974, Jean-Paul Riopelle, 9,5 x 6,5 po.
Collaboration between the art crime investigative unit of the Sûreté du Québec and the Montreal police has just solved a series of frauds against several art galleries.

On the evening of April 6, 2011, investigators went to a storage area at a home in Quebec, where they seized artworks stolen between July and October of 2010. Works valued at more than $220,000 include artists such as Jean-Paul Riopelle, Sebastien Larouchelle Martin Beaupré, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté and Joan Dumouchel.

According to the investigation, the suspects used credit cards obtained under false identitites to purchase the artworks from galleries around Montreal, Quebec City, and Baie St.-Paul. They managed to convince the merchants to enter into payment installments, paid the first payment by credit card, left with the artwork, and did not pay the remaining installments.

A suspect was arrested on shoplifting at a business in Montreal on Feb. 25. The arrest and subsequent search led to the discovery of a bronze sculpture by artist Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté.

Aissam Freidji, 37, and Margaret Christopoulos, 45, appeared April 7, 2011, at the Montreal courthouse facing charges of fraud and fraudulent use of credit cards. They are accused of using several false identities and may be sought in the United States for similar crimes.

Quebec’s art crime investigation team is composed of officers from the Sûreté du Quebec and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

This information was translated from a press release published by Quebec law enforcement.

April 20, 2011

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - No comments

Graffiti art (Uncommissioned Street Art) Featured on Pink Concrete Block Wall and at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor-in-Chief

Last week, under view of the famed Hollywood sign (which once itself advertised a housing tract), I photographed old and new 'uncommissioned' street art on a concrete block wall at the northwest corner of Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Boulevard.  A kosher deli and bakery on the other side of this wall has many customers in the attire of people belonging to the Orthodox Jewish community. Somehow the non-commissioned street art here does not seem as offensive or as scary as those photographs I took last month of graffiti outside of the musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris.

'Art in the Streets' opened Sunday in Los Angeles at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Little Tokyo.  The show is curated by MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch, a former New York art consultant and dealer who's former gallery still publicizes an archived website, and "made possible by" The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the art philanthropy organization founded on profits from building suburban tract housing (read about Eli Broad in The New Yorker here).  Outlaw art seems to have been invited through the front door.

Northwest corner of La Brea and  Beverly




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