Art Crime Terrorists, Tomb Raiders, Forgers and Thieves

by Charney, Noah

• ISBN13: 9781137407566
• ISBN10: 1137407565
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-11-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

When one thinks of art crime, a Hollywood image is conjured, one of black-clad cat burglars, thieves in top hats and white gloves, and perhaps the occasional criminal collector twirling his waxed moustache as he cackles maniacally over a stolen horde in his Bavarian castle. But the truth behind art crime is far more sinister, and more intriguing. Art crime has its share of cinematic thefts and larger-than-life characters, but it is also the realm of transnational organized crime groups and terrorists, and is integrally linked to the drug and arms trades.
 
Since the Second World War, art crime has shifted from a relatively innocuous, often ideological crime, into a major international problem, considered by some to be the third-highest grossing criminal trade worldwide. This rich volume features work by the most respected and knowledgeable experts in this interdisciplinary subject, both professionals and scholars. It is essential reading for criminologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and all those interested in art crime.

Author Biography

Noah Charney is a professor of art history specializing in art crime, and an internationally best-selling author. He is the founder and president of ARCA (Association for Research into Crimes against Art). He has taught at Yale University, Brown University, American University of Rome, University of Ljubljana, and on ARCA Postgraduate Program in Art Crime and Cultural Heritage Protection. In addition to books, he presents on television, lectures around the world, and writes regularly for a wide variety of publications, including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Guardian, where he also teaches a Guardian Masterclass called 'How to Write About Art'.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Advances in the Study of Art Crime and the Importance of Protecting and Identifying Cultural Property; Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen

Introduction; Noah Charney

PART : FORGER: FAKES AND FORGERIES
1. The Beltracchi Affair: A Comment and Further Reflections on the 'Most Spectacular' German Art Forgery Case in Recent Times; Saskia Hufnagel and Duncan Chappell
2. On "In Praise of Forgeries"; Blake Gopnik
3. Connoisseurship All the Way Down: Art Authentication, Forgery, Fingerprint Identification, Expert Knowledge; Simon A. Cole
4. The Police Investigation of Art Fraud; Vernon Rapley
5. The Grape War of China: Wine Fraud and How Science is Fighting Back; Toby Bull
6. Fingerprinting Objects for the Control of Illegal Trafficking; W. Wei

PART II: TERRORIST: POLICING, INVESTIGATION AND TERRORISM
7. The Theft, Recovery and Forensic Investigation of Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder; Martin Kemp
8. Trying to Recover Two Francesco Guardi Capricci Stolen from Russborough, County Wicklow, in 1986; Charles Hill
9. The Role of the Police in the Co-Production of Art Security in London; John Kerr
10. Thieves of Baghdad: and the Terrorists they Finance; Matthew Bogdanos
11. Looting of Antiquities; Tearing the Fabric of Civil Society; Laurie W. Rush
12. The Return of Iconoclasm: Barbarian Ideology and Destruction by ISIS as a Challenge for Modern Culture, Not Only for Islam; Francesco Rutelli

PART III: TOMB RAIDER: ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTIQUITIES LOOTING
13. Looting and Passion of Greek Vases from Etruria and Magna Graecia: the Birth of the Great Collections; Stefano Alessandrini
14. Aramaic Incantation Bowls in War and in Peace; Neil Brodie
15. Temple Looting in Cambodia: Anatomy of a Statue Trafficking Network; Simon Mackenzie and Tess Davis
16. Something is Confidential in the State of Christie's; Christos
17. Polaroids from the Medici Dossier: Continued Sightings on the Market; David W. J. Gill and Christos Tsirogiannis
18. Illicit Trafficking and Destruction of Cultural Property in Africa; George Abungu
19. Antiquities Crime as a Policy Problem; Lawrence Rothfield

PART IV: THIEF: ART LAW, WAR AND POLICY
20. Nazi-Looted Art from Kyiv Destroyed in East Prussia: New Hope for More Survivors?; Patricia Kennedy Grimsted
21. Surviving War and Peace: the Long Road to Recovering the Malevich Paintings; Howard N. Spiegler
22. What is Due Diligence? Making the Case for a More Responsible Art Market; Christopher A. Marinello and Jerome Hasler
23. Outline of the Benefits Coming from a National Prosecution Service in Cultural Heritage Protection; Paolo Giorgio Ferri
24. A Permanent International Art Crime Tribunal?; Arthur Tompkins
25. Getting Governments to Cooperate against Looting: Insights from the American and British Experience; Asif Efrat