Art theft

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Byzantine frescoes that were offered for sale on the art market after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus
Vase of Pechnelken , by Vincent van Gogh , stolen from the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo in 2010 .

Illegal trade in cultural property from robbery excavations , destructive looting of ancient places of worship and art theft from churches, museums and collections is now at the top of criminal activities worldwide , alongside money laundering , corruption , drug , human and illegal arms trafficking . According to the LKA -Bayern, annual damages amount to 5 billion US dollars, the Federal Association of Experts calls the damage amount to 6 to 8 billion US dollars per year

In the statistics of the BKA , the number of theft offenses registered by the police in Germany in the field of antiques, art and sacred objects for 2018 is given as 1,403 cases. The highest incidence since 2001 was recorded in 2012 with 2,930 offenses. The clearance rate in Germany in 2018 was 25.5%.

Motifs

The internationally recognized criminologist John E. Conklin lists five motives for art theft:

  1. Offenders who hope stolen art itself to fence being able to sell or through mediation.
  2. Such perpetrators or groups who steal works of art to order and for a commission .
  3. Art thieves who hope to offer the works of art to the owners for repurchase for a ransom .
  4. Those perpetrators who steal the art for themselves and their own collection and eventually
  5. A comparatively small group of perpetrators who steal art in order to achieve political goals.

More and more often, works of art are stolen by organized crime and even by order. These works of art are then used as an investment , for money laundering or as a means of payment. The most common motive, however, is that of personal enrichment. According to the Art Loss Register , works of art by Picasso , Miró and Chagall are the most commonly stolen.

The theft of works of art for the purpose of blackmail is called artnapping , this mainly concerns works of art that cannot be sold due to their popularity and whose importance is so great that the owner does not want to risk destruction.

Art theft of ancient and archaeological objects

Illegal trade in archaeological finds and art objects is known as stealing from antiquities. (See main article: Ancient stealing and robbery )

Art theft by war

Before 1900 it was common practice to plunder or steal treasures, including works of art, of the enemy as spoils of war . In Article 56 of the Hague Land Warfare Regulations of 1899, the signatory states outlawed art theft. In the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954, the signatory states extended the rules for the protection of cultural property after the experiences of the Second World War.

  • Art and objets d'art stolen in the course of World War II and other wars are often referred to as looted art . During the Second World War, Reichsleiter Rosenberg's task force was tasked with systematic robbery of art and culture in the occupied countries. In addition, Nazi greats, especially Hermann Göring , systematically enriched themselves with looted art. Today science assumes that Göring illegally appropriated over 4,000 works of art.
  • In the course of the Iraq war , numerous valuable exhibits were stolen from the Iraqi National Archaeological Museum in Baghdad; some of them were later auctioned at art auctions or offered for sale to private art collectors.

Some spectacular art thefts

Art theft in movies

Selection of films about art theft. Mostly the thieves are mythologized here while they have nothing in common with the reality of organized crime.

Law

The following international conventions apply:

  • UNESCO Convention against Illegal Trade in Cultural Property of November 14, 1970 - ratified in Germany as a law for the implementation of the UNESCO Convention , entered into force in 2008 (specified with the Ordinance on the List of Valuable Cultural Property according to the Law on the Return of Cultural Goods )
  • UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Goods of June 25, 1995

Gallery of famous stolen paintings (selection)

literature

  • John E. Conklin: Art Crime. Praeger Publishers, Westport 1994
  • Bénédicte Savoy: Art theft. Napoleon's Confiscations in Germany and the European Consequences. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78427-2 . (Translation by Bénédicte Savoy: Patrimoine annexé. Les biens culturels saisis par la France en Allemagne autour de 1800. Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 2003, ISBN 978-2-7351-0988-3 ).
  • Steen Kittl, Christian Saehrendt : Vultures at van Gogh's grave and other ugly stories from the world of fine arts. DuMont, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-8321-9093-4 .
  • Nora Koldehoff, Stefan Koldehoff : File reference art. The most spectacular art thefts in the world. DuMont, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8321-7435-4 .
  • Stefan Koldehoff with Tobias Timm : Art and crime. Galiani Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 3-86971-176-0 .
  • Sandy Nairne : The Blank Wall, Museum Theft - The Fall of the Two Turner Pictures. Piet Meyer Verlag, Bern / Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-905799-19-4 .
  • Milbry Polk, Angela M. Schuster: The looting of the Iraq Museum. Baghdad - the lost legacy of ancient Mesopotamia. Abrams, New York 2005, ISBN 0-8109-5872-4 .
  • Peter Watson , Cecilia Todeschini: The Medici Conspiracy. The trade in art treasures from the looting of Italian graves and museums. Parthas-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86601-905-8 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Art thefts: ransom for a canvas , Der Tagesspiegel from October 25, 2012, accessed on December 26, 2019
  2. ↑ Art theft causes 6 to 8 billion US dollars in damage worldwide every year , bvs from December 1, 2009, accessed on December 26, 2019
  3. ↑ Exchange of experiences "Security in Museums ( Memento of November 4, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), (from W&S 6/2009) accessed on December 26, 2019
  4. ↑ Cases of theft of antiques, art and sacred objects recorded by the police in Germany from 2001 to 2018 , Statista from April 2019, accessed on December 26, 2019
  5. ↑ Police clearance rate for the theft of antiques, art and sacred objects in Germany from 1987 to 2018 , Statista from April 2019, accessed on December 26, 2019
  6. ↑ Sandy Nairne: The Empty Wall, Museum Theft - The Fall of the Two Turner Pictures . Piet Meyer Verlag, Bern / Vienna 2013, p. 16.
  7. ^ Nazi looted art: Göring's treasure now online , in Spiegel-Online from June 20, 2012, accessed on December 26, 2019
  8. ^ "Kidnapped" Caravaggio: New details on legendary art theft , ORF News from September 24, 2019, accessed on December 26, 2019
  9. ↑ A Caravaggio for Christmas: is his stolen Nativity masterpiece about to reappear? in: The Guardian of December 16, 2018, accessed December 26, 2019
  10. ↑ Spectacular art theft in Rio , n-tv of February 25, 2006, accessed on December 26, 2019
  11. ↑ Art theft Brazilian police seize Picasso engraving , Der Tagesspiegel of August 18, 2018, accessed on December 26, 2019
  12. ^ Paris art museum theft the work of lone robber , The Guardian, May 20, 2010, accessed December 26, 2019
  13. ↑ Trial of spectacular art theft in Paris Museum , Monopoly, January 31, 2017, accessed December 26, 2019
  14. ↑ Art theft: Hot lead to stolen paintings from Rotterdam , Die Welt from January 30, 2013, accessed on December 26, 2019
  15. ↑ 250,000 euros reward after art theft , ORF of September 30, 2014, accessed on December 26, 2019
  16. ↑ General Conference of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture (October 12 to November 14, 1970 in Paris): Convention on Measures to Prohibit and Prevent the Illegal Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property ( Federal Law Gazette 2007 II p. 626, 627 )
  17. ↑ UNESCO Convention since 1948 , website: German UNESCO Commission, accessed on December 26, 2019
  18. ↑ Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Property ( Memento of March 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (pdf; 682 kB), accessed on December 26, 2019

Web links

Commons : Lost artworks  - collection of images, videos and audio files