Major paintings ‘repeatedly being stolen for ransom’
ART thieves are repeatedly targeting the same high-profile paintings in the hope of ransoming them for their safe return, experts have warned.
In some cases gangs are thought to use brokers or intermediaries to obtain cash rewards from insurance firms for their return.
In others, paintings of high artistic and financial value are being deployed as a means of reducing any jail sentences if members of criminal gangs are caught and brought to trial. Gangs are also thought to be using the theft of paintings to enhance their prestige and reputation in criminal circles.
The revelation explains why some of the world’s most valuable paintings are repeatedly stolen, seeing as they are the hardest to sell on the open market.
Chris Marinello, the art recovery investigator and lawyer, has warned that collectors and art retrieval services need to stop agreeing to pay large sums for the return of stolen paintings. He
told The Sunday Telegraph: “There are some unscrupulous operators who hold themselves out as art recovery experts who will pay criminals, or more usually middle-men, for the return of stolen objects. Unfortunately this creates a market for further thefts, sometimes of the very same paintings, down the line.”
There is no suggestion the world’s established art museums are engaging in such practices, said Mr Marinello. However, private collectors are less likely to ask questions in return for their pieces.
Two Laughing Boys with a Mug of Beer, by Frans Hals, was stolen for the third time in as many decades. In the most recent theft the 1626 painting was taken in August from the Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden museum, in Leerdam, Holland.
Edvard Munch’s The Scream has been stolen twice from its Oslo museum and Ruisdael’s The Cornfield, was stolen three times between 1974 and 2002.
Mr Marinello, the chief executive and founder of Art Recovery International, says that in some cases police will approve the payment of rewards for the return of stolen art, though this is illegal in some jurisdictions, if the “finder” of the painting is found to be legitimate.
In rare cases government agencies approve the payment of rewards for information leading to the return of national treasures, such as the Turner paintings owned by the Tate – Light and Colour and Shade and Darkness – stolen from a Frankfurt museum in 1994.