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March 12, 2012

The Journal of Art Crime, Fall 2011: Q&A with Stuart George, expert on fine wines

In the Fall 2011 issue of The Journal of Art Crime, Editor-in-Chief Noah Charney interviewed Stuart George, a UK-based writer, art historian, and expert on fine wines -- one of his recent articles was an analysis of what wines appear in Vermeer paintings.  The Journal of Art Crime interviewed him about the art of wine, and the crimes committed in the wine world.

Noah Charney is the Founder and President of ARCA and the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Art Crime. Recently a Visiting Lecturer at Yale University, he is currently Adjunct Professor of Art History at the American University of Rome. He is the editor of ARCA’s first book, Art & Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art World (Praeger 2009). His latest book is The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece (ARCA Publications 2011).

March 11, 2012

FBI Arrests Collector in Wine Fraud After Investigation by the FBI Art Crime Team

LOS ANGELES - Museum Security Network disbursed the headline, "FBI Art (?) Crime Team - Wine collector accused of fraud, trying to sell fake French vintages." According to an article on The Los Angeles Times blog by Andrew Blankenstein, a resident of Arcadia, a suburb in the San Gabriel Valley, was arrested March 8 "by FBI agents assigned to the Los Angeles office after a years-long investigation by the FBI Art Crime Team".

The FBI's National Stolen Art File Search categorizes objects from "Altar" to "Wine Cooler" and includes traditional fine art (paintings, watercolors) and other valuables such as musical instruments, guns, prayer mats, and even ice pails.  The FBI's Top Ten Art Crimes range from Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts to Theft from the E. G. Bührle Collection, Zurich.

In the fourth issue of The Journal of Art Crime (Spring 2011), James Charney reviewed The Billionaire's Vinegar (Three Rivers Press, New York, 2009) which discusses the issue of authenticating fine wines.

In the most recent issue of The Journal of Art Crime (Fall 2011), Noah Charney interviews Stuart George, an expert on fine wines, and the crimes committed in the wine world.
Noah Charney: How frequently do you suspect that fraud takes place in the world of high-priced wines? 
Stuart George: Leaving aside the 1787 Lafite mentioned above in "The Billionaire's Vinegar), I have never knowingly seen a “genuine fake” bottle of fine wine. Nonetheless, merchants’ and auctioneers’ outrage at fake wine is like Claude Rains’ shock at learning that there was gambling at Rick’s place in Casablanca. Anything that is valuable is in danger of being faked. 
More attention is being paid to preventing fraudulent wine than ever before, which suggests that as the Hong Kong/China market has gone supernova, the amount of fakes and forgeries being sold has increased significantly.According to some sources, fake wines flow in and out of Hong Kong like the cheap and illegal Irish reprints of books that allegedly flooded the British market in the eighteenth century. I was told that China’s government officially deplores the country’s inexorable production of fakes but in practice turns a blind eye.

March 10, 2012

FBI - Dallas Office Reports "Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Roles in $3 Million Fraud Scheme Using Art as Collateral"

On March 7th the Dallas office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement: "Husband and Wife Plead Guilty to Roles in $3 Million Fraud Scheme Using Art as Collateral":
[Eugenio D.] Leo, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and faces five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the loss to the victims.  [Jody L.] Meyer, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and faces a five-year term of probation and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the loss to the victims.  Both Leo and Meyer, who now reside in Harwood Heights, Illinois, will remain on bond pending sentencing, which is set for June 20, 2012 before Judge Kinkeade [Northern District of Texas].
In 2004, according to the FBI, the husband, a commodities broker, asked two clients to "invest their money by making short-term loans to museums in Europe." The FBI press release reports:
These loans would be secured by pieces of artwork worth significantly more than the loan value.
According to the FBI, the broker falsely reported to the client that the loan had been repaid with interest, used the original funds buy artwork, and resold it at a profit to himself.  The broker's wife falsely represented that her husband owned the artwork so that he "could obtain a loan (using the art as collateral) from the Art Capital Group for approximately $300,000", reported the FBI.

The Art Capital Group is the company that loaned money to photographer Annie Leibovitz against her work.  Felix Salmon of Reuters discussed the companies lending practices in 2009 here.

March 8, 2012

Thursday, March 08, 2012 - ,, 3 comments

Former LAPD Art Crime Investigator Lazarus Found Guilty of the First Degree Murder of Sherri Rae Rasmussen almost three decades later

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog editor

LOS ANGELES - A murder committed before DNA samples were used in court to convict ends in a guilty verdict due to the hard work of the Cold Case Homicide Unit for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Betsy A. Ross, Owner of the Trial and Tribulations (T&T), which has been covering People v. Stephanie Lazarus, reported a few minutes after 2 p.m. on Thursday:
"GUILTY OF FIRST DEGREE MURDER
Stephanie is facing 27 years to life." 
The former art crime investigator for the Los Angeles Police Department, Stephanie Lazarus, was found guilty after a four week trial for the 1986 murder of Sherri Rae Rasmussen, the wife of Lazarus' former boyfriend.  The jury deliberated for about two days.

'Jealousy drove LAPD detective to kill woman, prosecutor says, ran the headline on the Los Angeles Times blog.

Twenty-six years ago last month,  29-year-old Sherri Rasmussen, a nurse, was found dead in the Van Nuys apartment she shared with her husband, John Ruetten, three months after their marriage. The six-foot tall Rasmussen had fought her assailant until shot three times in the chest with a .38 caliber gun. [Matthew McGough wrote "The Lazarus File" for The Atlantic Magazine in June 2011 that details the forensics involved in the case.]

Ross of T&T summarized the investigation which is covered extensively in McGough's Atlantic article:
It was Detective James Nuttal of the Van Nuys Homicide Unit that looked at the case with fresh eyes in early 2009 that eventually led to her [Lazarus] arrest.  The Cold Case Squad realized there was DNA and got that tested in 2005.  It wasn't until the file ended back up at the originating station and out of the Cold Case Unit's hands that the file was opened once again.
A time line of the case is offered here by streetgangs.com, including information that Lazarus, now 51, met Ruetten when they were both students at UCLA in 1978 and dated before Ruetten met his wife in 1985, then again three years after Rasmussen's death.  According streetgang.com's time line "from investigation to People v. Stephanie Lazarus",  Lazarus purchased a .38 Smith and Wesson Revolver in 1984 and reported it stolen within two weeks after Rasmussen's murder.

Detective Lazarus, a police officer at the LAPD since 1983, worked on the nation's only full-time police squad dedicated to the prosecution of art crimes and recovery of art, LAPD's Art Theft Detail, until her arrest in 2009 when a DNA sample from Lazarus' discarded drink cup was allegedly matched with  the DNA of a saliva sample from a bite mark left on Sherri Rasmussen's arm.  Lazarus, in jail since her arrest, retired from the LAPD before her trial.

Closing trial arguments began on the morning of Monday, March 5, and lasted more than two days before the jury received its instructions.  Lazarus will be sentenced May 4, on her birthday.

For more details on the trial, consult Sprocket & Company's Trials and Tribulations.

Lecture: Former LA Times Reporter Anne-Marie O'Connor Discussed Maria Altmann's Tale of Recovering Five Klimt Paintings from Austria at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog editor

Los Angeles - Tuesday night, across from the 405 Freeway where Bill Cosby's son Ennis was murdered while changing a tire in 1997, dozens of people were refused admittance to the lecture hall at the Skirball Center where Washington Post Correspondent Anne-Marie O'Connor was set to discuss her book, The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece (Knopf, 2012).

The Skirball Cultural Center, located just north of the Getty Center in Brentwood, is a difficult to reach institution so when people who had stood in line with reservations were refused admittance, you could hear stringent complaints to Zócalo Public Square that overbooked the free event.  Some people bought the hardcover copy of the book from the representative from Book Soup, who was redacting words on recycled paper to write poetry, and others left for dinner.  It's not easy to drive in evening traffic through either San Fernando Valley or Los Angeles on $5/gallon gas to be turned away from a must-see event.

I am telling you all of this so that you can understand the overwhelming interest in this fascinating book that Ms. O'Connor diligently worked on for years and quickly direct you to more efficient coverage of the material.  This is the story of life in Vienna before and during World War II; the beautiful Adele Bloch-Bauer, the subject of the painting; and the artist, Gustav Klimt, who grew up in poverty because his father couldn't make enough money engraving in gold.  O'Connor writes of the theft of the painting from the Jewish family that owned it, how the anti-Semetic government hid the identity of the portrait sitter, and Randy Schoenberg's stubborn fight for Adele's niece, Maria Altmann, to regain ownership of her family's paintings more than 50 years after the Nazis had stolen them.

Zócalo Public Square has posted a review of the lecture, photos and a video of the event here
KPCC's recent interview with the author is here; and you can read a book review in the Christian Science Monitor about this "epic" story.

March 7, 2012

Smithsonian Institute's National Conference on Cultural Property Protection at The Getty Feb. 27-29

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCA Blog Editor

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Conference on Cultural Property Protection was held February 27 through 29 at The Getty here in Los Angeles.

The first day at The Getty Center in Brentwood, which I missed, included presentations titled “Domestic Terrorism” (Jim McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office); “Year-in-Review” (Bob Combs, Director of Security at The J. Paul Getty Trust); “Natural Disasters” (Dr. Lucy Jones, US Geological Survey); “FBI Art Theft Update” (FBI Special Agents Miguel Luna and Elizabeth Rivas); “Fire Protection: Emerging Technology” (fire protection consultant Debbie Freeland & Danny McDaniel, Director of Security at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation); “Priceless: Undercover Rescue of Stolen Treasures” (Bob Wittman, founder of the FBI’s Rapid Deployment National Art Crime Team).

At Monday’s luncheon, JJ McLaughlin, retired Board Chair/Office of Protection Services Director at the Smithsonian Institution, received an award in the memory of Robert Burke, founder and first director of the Office of Protection Services at the Smithsonian Institution.

The second day of the conference, held at the Getty Villa in Malibu on a beautiful sunny day typical in February in California, began with two early morning presentations, “Safe Heritage in the Netherlands” (Hanna Pennock, Senior Specialist of Safety and Security and Programme Manager of the Safe Heritage Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort, The Netherlands) and “Earthquakes: Reducing the Threat” (Jerry Podany, senior conservator of antiquities for the J. Paul Getty Museum).

I was able to sit in on a few mid-day presentations which are highlighted here.

“Detection of Deviant Behavior”

Emile Broersma, Director of Security & Safety at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, introduced the work of researchers Dianne van Hemert and Maaike Lousberg in the presentation on “Detection of Deviant Behavior.”

The Rijksmuseum, which has been undergoing a decade-long $600 million expansion, has offered limited access to its 1.1 million art objects. It’s collection of 17th century Dutch paintings range from Rembrandt’s wall size “Nightwatch” to numerous small paintings by Vermeer. The renovated Rijksmuseum is scheduled to open in April of next year.

Broersma told the audience of mostly security management from cultural institutions from Europe and the United States that in 2013 the Rijksmuseum expects 2 million visitors a year, a 40% increase over its neighbor and the most visited cultural institution in The Netherlands, the Van Gogh Museum. Broersma said with the economic crisis in Europe that has impacted funding for cultural centers in The Netherlands, he is turning to “intelligence-based security executed by proactive guards” who are trained to recognize a potential threat in advance and to take appropriate action. “I would rather have 10 well-trained officers than 30 traditionally trained officers,” Broersma said.

The new Rijksmuseum will feature a semi-public atrium similar to the Louvre in Paris where people can move around the space without a ticket. Broersma plans to position guards to observe and respond to all types of behavior in this heavily trafficked area and place fewer guards in exhibition areas. Maiike Lousberg initiated the research with the scientific lead, Dianne van Hemert, PhD, both with the independent research institute TNO (www.tno.nl) who conducted scientific research to gather information about museum goers and the qualities sought after in security personnel.

“Deviant behavior is behavior you would not normally expect in a specific context,” Dr. van Hemert explained to the audience. Vandals and thieves may exhibit signs or behavior that might be observed by different people in different places throughout the day, she explained. “We are not going to provide a list because there is no such list, deviant behavior depends on the time, the culture, and the context.”

“It’s never one deviant behavior that indicates something has gone wrong,” Dr. van Hemert said. “It’s a combination of different behaviors.” She explained that flexibility on the part of the security personnel is required to adapt to every situation. “We don’t think of officers as profiling people which is a negative connotation, but as looking for behavior patterns. Vandals will try to hide their behavior but not everything can be suppressed.”

At the same time, observant security guards have to balance the public’s desire to see the collection on display. “All the people have come to look at the collection so it’s easier to see what is normal and what is not normal,” Dr. van Hemert said. She advocated that officers not react so as to intensify the situation, but to engage in “prickling”, or gently approaching the visitor to inquire about intent.

“DHS Resources for Cultural Properties”

William Schweigart, Program Analyst for the Department of Homeland Security Office of Infrastructure Protection, Commercial Facilities Sector Specific Agency, presented “Department of Homeland Security Resources for Cultural Properties.” Mr. Schweigart pointed out free voluntary assessment program and a risk self-assessment tool available at https://rsat.anl.gov. He showed a 4-minute video, “Active Shooter – How to Respond” which will be released shortly. Other sources of information can be found at https://www.rkb.us/saver/ and Commercial Facilities Training Resources at www.dhs.gov/cfsector. He said that “Risk = threat x vulnerability x consequence”; “threat depends on adversary capability and intent”, and responsiveness is assessed.

“Security Planning”

Dennis Ahern, Head of Safety and Security at the Tate Galleries in London, spoke on “Security Planning”. Ahern is also on the Board of Directors of ARCA.

“The public display of art and artefacts carries risk!” read the slide Mr. Ahern produced onstage. “We cannot get rid of risk altogether but we can aim to reduce it.”

His first step in developing a risk assessment in regards to damaging or losing the collection was to ask, “What could possibly go wrong?”

Accidental damage from visitors is more common than a heist: malicious damage (Gerard Jan van Bladeren’s slashing of paintings by Abstract painter Barnett Newman at the Stedelijk Museum in 1986 and 1997) and iconoclasm (imposing a green dollar sign on Malevich’s white painting). [You may read further about vandalism and art on artcrime.net.]

“Art theft is fairly rare and the incidents are relatively low,” Mr. Ahern told the audience. Theft types can be categorized as “stay behind” (when visitors linger after closing); internal (typically small artefacts that are easy to handle and hard to identify); souvenirs (when visitors take portions of contemporary artworks); artworks in transit; snatches; burglar (after hours theft); metals theft (“becoming a real problem with the roofs of historic buildings”); and armed robbery (“this is becoming more of a risk”).

“All of the major art thefts in recent times has involved organized crime,” Mr. Ahern said. “Having artwork is not as hazardous as weapons or drugs and is a good collateral to be used as currency.”

In security surveys, which answer the question ‘what could possibly go wrong?’, Mr. Ahern likes to think about low tech solutions which can be very effective (such as fixing pictures in place with fishing line) and to create distance from the object.

“Security: Finding Balance”

Jim Lucey, Security Director at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, spoke on “Security: Finding Balance” which covered his interest in security technology (IRIS Scanners, Thermal Cameras, Portable Instate Identity Verification, digital keys, and Behavioral Analytics Video Surveillance) interesting incidents at the National Gallery of Art in 2011 (Susan Burns' banging of Henry Matisse’s  1919 The Plumed Hat in August and the unexpected earthquake on August 23).

On Tuesday afternoon, two concurrent panels, “Creating an Effective Disaster & Emergency Response Plan” (Matthew Andrus, Mark Pollei, and Julie Williamsen from Brigham Young University) and “TSA Certified Cargo Screening Program” (Dave Burnell, Transportation Security Administration), were followed by “Smithsonian Collections Space & Security” (Doug Hall & Bill Tompkins, both of the Smithsonian Institution).

On Wednesday, the conference concluded with panels by:

“International Committee on Museum Security” (Willem Hekman, Chairperson of the Board of the International Committee on Museum Security under ICOM and UNESCO).  The International Committee on Museum Security (ICMS) was established in 1974 under the International Council of Museums (ICOM).  ICMS has over 140 individual members in more than 30 countries and supports museum security staff worldwide with advice and assistance.

“Designing Effective Training Tools” (Getty staff)

“Google Art Project and Google Goggles” (Diana Skaar, a principal on Google's new business development team).  The Art Project http://www.googleartproject.com is a collaboration between Google and some art museums worldwide to allow users to explore artworks at brushstroke level detail and take a virtual tour of a museum.

“Social Media: Benefits and Risks” (Captain Mike Parker, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Office).

March 6, 2012

The Journal of Art Crime, Fall 2011: Diane Joy Charney reviews Nathaniel Herzberg

In the Fall 2011 issue of The Journal of Art Crime, Diane Joy Charney reviews Nathaniel Herzberg's Le Musée Invisible: Les Chefs-d'oeuvre volés (Nouvelle Edition, 2010):
This handsome edition by “Le Monde” journalist, Nathaniel Hertzberg, begins provocatively: 
“It’s the largest and richest museum in the world— works by Picasso, Renoir, Rembrandt, Monet, Matisse, Warhol, the great Italian Primitives, a whole range of Flemish masters with Vermeer at the top of the list. Also works of sculpture, furniture, rare books, musical instruments, precious timepieces. No period or important artist is unrepresented in this unique establishment, Le Musée Invisible—the greatest museum in the world, but no one can see it. Its collections, stolen over the course of centuries, pillaged from historic sites, taken from museums, churches, chateaux and private collectors, and never recovered.” 
In homage to these missing works, Herzberg has created this imaginary museum. As a backdrop to the works he has chosen for the collection, he paints the strangely diverse world of criminals responsible for the thefts, but especially a world where to steal a work of art is easier than to resell it. 
The above Introduction is actually preceded by an explanation of why a new edition was necessary so soon after the first appeared. As Herzberg explains, “...the May 2010 thefts of five masterpieces from the Paris Musée d’Art Moderne, the most important theft of a French museum in the past quarter century had occurred, and the book made no mention of it.” 
To no one’s surprise, there were other major thefts during the interval between the first and second editions: a Breughel stolen from an art fair in Brussels, an anonymous portrait from a Polish church, a Degas pastel from the Musée Cantini in Marseilles, an anonymous sculpture from a Venezuela museum, a lavishly decorated marble plaque from a Teheran mosque, and an antique statue stolen from a private collection in Copenhagen. In 2009 alone, 1751 works of art were reported stolen in France.
Diane Joy Charney teaches French Literature at Yale University, where she is also Tutor-in-Writing and the Mellon Forum Fellow of Timothy Dwight College.

You may read the full review by subscribing to The Journal of Art Crime.

March 5, 2012

The Journal of Art Crime, Fall 2011: Noah Charney on "Lessons from the History of Art Crime"

In the Fall 2011 issue of The Journal of Art Crime, publisher Noah Charney takes a break from his regular column "Lessons from the History of Art Crime" to include a chapter from his recent book, The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World's Most Famous Painting.  This is the first book published by ARCA Publications, a new endeavor of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.  All profits from the print edition of this book, which is available on Amazon, go to ARCA and support ARCA's non-profit activities.  The sample chapter includes the story of Picasso and Apollinaire's involvement in theft from the Louvre.  "While they were accused of having stolen the Mona Lisa, of which they were innocent, they were guilty of the theft of other artworks from the Louvre," Charney writes.

Noah Charney is the Founder and President of ARCA and the Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Art Crime. Recently a Visiting Lecturer at Yale University, he is currently Adjunct Professor of Art History at the American University of Rome. He is the editor of ARCA’s first book, Art & Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art World (Praeger 2009). His latest book is The Thefts of the Mona Lisa: On Stealing the World’s Most Coveted Masterpiece (ARCA Publications 2011).

You may read this excerpt in The Journal of Art Crime by purchasing a subscription to the journal.

March 4, 2012

The Journal of Art Crime, Fall 2011: General B(a) CC Giovanni Pastore on "Archaeology and the Problem of Unauthorized Excavation in Italy"

In the Fall 2011 issue of The Journal of Art Crime, General B(a) CC Giovanni Pastore writes of "Archaeology and the Problem of Unauthorized Excavation in Italy":

The public follows, with growing and increasingly alarmed attention, news on the destruction of historic sites because of speculation, pollution and even war. In contrast, little consideration is given to the rather serious state of danger in which the world’s archaeological heritage remains as a result of being the target of increasingly frequent episodes of looting at illegal excavations. 
In recent decades these depredations, due to the smuggling of archaeological material on the international arts market, have taken on such a scale that not even the specialists in this sector can assess the value of the losses with confidence. 
What is certain, however, is that the archaeological heritage of many regions of the world is constantly the subject of illegal activities involving not only the physical destruction of looted artifacts, but also the resulting loss of the rich heritage of historical information contained in those archaeological sites, destroyed by the violent action of the excavations themselves. 
The regions most severely affected by this phenomenon are in Central and South America, Italy, the Middle East, China and Turkey, while countries such as Germany, Switzerland and Austria increasingly report on looting at archaeological sites.

General B(a) CC Giovanni Pastore served as Vice- Commandant of the Carabinieri Division for the Protection of Cultural Heritage from 1995 until his retirement in 2011. During that time he was widely considered the world’s finest art policeman, Colonel Pastore commanded the twelve Carabinieri art police divisions within Italy. Pastore was trained at the elite military academy in Modena. He studied art history, law, and security, and excelled in horsemanship. Over his long career, he has been decorated with numerous medals both in Italy, including the equivalent of a knighthood, and by grateful nations abroad, in appreciation for his professional service. He is one of the founding trustees of ARCA.

You may read the complete article by subscribing to The Journal of Art Crime.

March 3, 2012

The Journal of Art Crime, Fall 2011: Paolo Giorgio Ferri Asks "Are Penal Procedures Only a Last Resort?"

In the Fall 2011 issue of The Journal of Art Crime, Paolo Giorgio Ferri asks "Are Penal Procedures Only a Last Resort?" He writes:
It is a share experience that in the art market some publicized and well-targeted penal procedures versus art dealers, auction houses, museum curators and/or others involved in this trade have strong deterrent effects. This happens mostly because of the people interested in and of their high status. And the intensification of investigations in the national and international field, which will very likely lead to the limiting of illegal purchases, especially with reference to those known as the “major purchasers” will be carefully assessed by the professionals who will reduce their demands in proportion to the investigative capacity of the public institutions. 
In this respect, one should recall the Italy’s recent initiatives through the criminal law -considered sometimes as primary tool in the protection of the Italian cultural heritage- which have had an impact on the markets, especially abroad (for instance, these initiatives triggered an ample process of return by U.S. museums, and nowadays Italian cultural items of uncertain provenance are less attractive objects of exchange). 
However, it now behooves me to underline that the adequacy of a given judicial space appears to be of vital importance not only for the cultural heritage of a single nation, but also for all the other countries, -at least- of the same cultural area. It is a known fact that the criminals acting in this sector take advantage of the weak links in the various systems, exporting and even using for the various systems of triangular trading the legal systems most permeable to illegal trafficking. And then from them, sending the cultural objects also to those countries where protection is effective and congruous. In fact, this process of laundering antiquities is highly facilitated by jurisdictions without any or insufficient regulation of the antiquities market, or by failure to enforce the existing legislation.

Paolo Giorgio Ferri is a retired Prosecutor for the Republic of Italy who played an integral role in the return of looted antiquities illicitly exported from Italy and sold to North American public and private collections. He served as the lead attorney for the Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum and its former curator of antiquities, Marion True. Presently he serves as an international expert in cultural goods juridical problems for the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage.

You may read this article via subscription to The Journal of Art Crime.