[MSN] Art theft perfect crime for our time. The trade in stolen art has evolved to exploit trends ranging from Middle East political chaos to the rise of Chinese manufacturing.

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Art theft perfect crime for our time

    * The trade in stolen art has evolved to exploit trends ranging from
Middle East political chaos to the rise of Chinese manufacturing, writes
Michael Peel
    * January 15, 2007

THE image of a tall woman with jet black hair and a swirling, multicoloured
dress is so striking even the museum guide seems momentarily lost for words.
"You just can't stop looking at her," she tells her group at the Neue
Galerie, on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The painting - Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer I - is there only because of
a seven-year legal battle that eventually involved the US Supreme Court.
Looted during the Holocaust, the picture was recovered last year from
Austria with four other Klimts that sold at Christie's in November for a
total of more than $US192 million ($245 million).

The auction was described as "one of the most fervently awaited events in
art market history" by the website of Antiques and the Arts newspaper .

The excitement is emblematic of the growing focus on stolen art and
artefacts by law enforcement agents, litigation lawyers and freelance
sleuths. Their work suggests the trade in stolen art has evolved to
encompass new crimes for our times, exploiting trends ranging from Middle
East political chaos to the rise of Chinese manufacturing.

As international gangs devise new kinds of art theft and databases expose
historic crimes, it is generating more work for a community of art world
investigators and advocates that remains small, at the moment.

"People contact me all the time and say they want to be art lawyers," says
Jeremy Epstein, a partner at US law firm Shearman & Sterling, who reports a
modest rise in art-related claims.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's new art crime unit is perhaps the most
high-profile example of the increased attention paid to cultural theft.
Formed in 2004, amid embarrassment about looting of Iraqi artefacts and
concerns about where the proceeds might be going, the unit has a team of 12
special agents. It describes art and cultural property theft as a "looming
criminal enterprise" causing losses of as much as $US6 billion ($7.7
billion) annually, which many observers say feeds other organised crimes
such as the drugs trade.

Eric Ives, head of the bureau's major theft unit, points to evidence of
rises in both cross-border crime and some domestic thefts, such as the
pillage of cultural objects from Native American land. Art is attractive to
organised criminals because it tends not to lose its value, so it can be
hidden for years until it is safe to sell or - in some countries - is no
longer considered stolen because the statute of limitations has expired. Art
theft is also sometimes seen as the kind of "victimless" offence to which
the police give low priority. Art world experts add that many museums are
relatively easy hits: artworks can be at risk from people employed to
protect them, such as staff taking art they know may not be catalogued for
years.

The increasingly creative criminality surrounding international art theft
has been highlighted by London's Metropolitan Police. A special exhibition
in November at London's Victoria and Albert Museum claimed crooks are making
fakes of Iraqi artefacts even though "tonnes and tonnes" of the real goods
are available: the forgeries on show included a 2,100BC Sumerian tablet.
Also in the room was a display of counterfeit goods that police say are made
in China, paid for with stolen art and imported to Britain.

Aside from the law enforcement, art theft appears to be generating a range
of claims in the civil courts. Bonnie Czegledi, a Toronto-based art lawyer,
says art litigation is one of the fastest-growing areas of law today. "Ten
years ago I don't think people cared about these things."

The internet has encouraged litigation by revealing much more information
about where objects are held, particularly as massive state archives are
brought online. Epstein of Shearman & Sterling says some legal "bounty
hunters" even try to identify works of questionable provenance and then see
if they can identify a claimant to act for.

Also, some countries known for the richness of their historic sites, such as
Greece and Italy, have become more aggressive in launching lawsuits for the
return of allegedly stolen objects.

In other cases, resourceful litigants are testing the boundaries of
international law on cultural property by pursuing works of art as part of
damages claims. The University of Chicago is defending a lawsuit in which
five US victims of a 1997 suicide bombing in Jerusalem are trying to seize
2500-year-old cuneiform tablets lent to the university by Iran.

The US courts had ordered Iran to pay $US250million damages to the five
after they successfully argued the attack was carried out by Hamas, whose
members Iran had helped train and support.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/