The second issue of The Journal of Art Crime, published in the Fall of 2009 by the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) and edited by Noah Charney, features academic articles, editorial essays, and reviews.

Academic articles include Graham Ospreay's "Issues in Identification and the Authenticity of Artist's Signatures"; Liz Losch's "Hebborn's 'Van Dyck': Authenticity and Authorship in the Forgery of an Old Master Drawing"; Bojan Dobovsek, Noah Charney, and Sasa Vucko on "Art Crime Archives"; Judge Arthur Tompkins' "A Permanent International Art Crime Tribunal?"; Stepahnie Goldfarb's "Lessons in Looting"; and John Yates "Vinlandsaga: The Mystery of the Yale Vinland Map".

Regular columns include Noah Charney's Lessons from the History of Art Crime ("Ten Cost-Effective Steps to Improve Security at Your Museum"); David Gill's Context Matters ("Looting in the Balkans"); Donn Zaretsky's Art Law and Policy ("Holocaust Era Cases Reviewed"); and Colonel Giovanni Pastore's Cultural Heritage ("Protection of the Concept and Profiles".

Editorial essays include Mark Durney on "Understanding the Motivations Behind Art Crime and the Effects of an Institution's Response"; Abiodun Johnson Eniyandunni on "Cultural Artifacts in Nigeria"; Judith Harris on "Financing Terror"; and Catherine Schofield Sezgin on "Turkish Archaeological Sites and the Trade of Illegal Antiquities".

Reviews include David Gill on "Whose Culture? The Promise of Museums and the Debate Over Antiquities"; Douglas L. Yearwood on "The Lost Chalice: The Epic Hunt for a Priceless Masterpiece"; James Charney on "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History"; John Kleberg on "Provenance"; and Emily Blyze and Kate Panella on ARCA's War Looting Literature Review.

Other items include Noah Charney's The Art We Must Protect ("Top Ten Must-See Works of Art in Madrid"); Mark Durney's profile of Chris Marinello, Executive Director and General Counsel of the Art Loss Register; Mark Durney's Q&A with Charley Hill; and the 2009 ARCA Award Winners.

If you would like to subscribe to this journal, please go to ARCA's website here. Thank you for your support in advance.

Cover Illustration by Urska Charney.

The third issue of The Journal of Art Crime, the first peer-reviewed academic journal on the interdisciplinary study of art crime edited by Noah Charney and published by ARCA, was published in the Spring of 2010. Based upon last month's success of highlighting articles in the fourth issue of The Journal of Art Crime, we're taking the time to backtrack to highlight the contents of the first three issues.

In his Letter from the Editor, Noah Charney highlights the second article from a new member of our prestigious staff of regular columnists: Colonel Giovanni Pastore, until recently the Vice-Commandant of the Carabinieri Division for the Protection of Cultural Heritage:

"Pastore, a founding trustee of ARCA, is one of the world's most decorated and respected art officers. His work has been particularly instrumental in encouraging international cooperation between police forces, and building a bridge between academia and law enforcement -- both fundamental goals of ARCA. Pastore's column appears in Italian and in English translation, to further emphasize the internationality of ARCA (with seats in Italy and the United States) and of art crime itself."

"We are also proud to introduce another new regular columnist, Ton Cremers. Cremers is an expert on museum safety and security and is the founder of the Museum Security Network, which assembles press releases on art crime and museum security worldwide for dissemination to members of the art and art security worlds. We are honored to include Cremers in this and future issues of the journal."

Journalist Luke Zalesiński in the Polish daily newspaper, Rzeczpospolita, reports online today here that the National Museum in Poznan has found one of it's World War II looted paintings in Moscow but may have to buy it back before it is returned to Poland. (You can also find another blog, Poland.pl, that relayed this information in English here).

Antoine Pesne, a court painter of King Frederick II of Prussia, created "Girl with a Dove" in 1754. The National Museum of Poznan purchased it from a private collector. In 1943, the Germans ordered the evacuation of the museum and sent art to eastern Germany where they were later taken by the Red Army. Only a portion of the collection was returned after the war.

Piotr Michalowski, director of the National Museum in Poznan, has identified the painting with photographs made before the war and reports that the painting has suffered some damage. Negotiations by the Ministry of Culture for the return of the painting have been ongoing since last summer.

Polish museums and private collectors lost about 70 percent of material heritage such as paintings by Raphael, Brueghel, Van Dyck, Malczewski, Kossak, and Gierymski, according to the cultural ministry. "Today it is difficult to determine what proportion of stolen cultural property returned to the country as a result of post-war restitution share," according to article (as translated from Polish to English). The Ministry of Culture's stolen art database has 60,000 records, but "but often one entry refers to several items that were listed once under the same inventory number."

Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the article, has a team trying to recovery cultural property and searches major auction houses for images of stolen art. The article cites two examples: The National Museum in Warsaw recovered "Adrieana Brouwer's "The peasants in the tavern" when it was put up for sale at Christie's in London in the late 1990s, according to the article. By the time the museum identified the painting, it had been sold to a London art dealer who had sold it to someone in France. The London art dealer, Johnny van Haeften, repurchased the painting and returned it to Warsaw. Alexander Gierymski's painting, "Jewish and oranges", was found in a Germany auction house last year and negotiations are ongoing for its return.

"Good faith" laws protecting the purchasers of art from claims of stolen property in many countries create barriers for the return of looted art.

Photo: "Girl with a Dove" image from the National Museum of Poznan.