The Association for Research into Crimes against Art
The Quest for Justice
Criminal acts against works of art happen more frequently than the public imagines.The stories of these objects range from the dramatic to the all but forgotten. Art works are plundered during war, dug up for profit, stolen from museums, laundered on the art market and sometimes held as collateral by organised crime groups. Art will always attract criminals. Not because criminals are charmed or fascinated by it more than other people, but because with it, there will always be a market.
Art and Antiquities Crime News
Virtual restitutions in the age of Coronavirus and Australian bush fires
National Gallery of Australia Subhash Kapoor Restitutions On 27 November 2017 the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison formally announced that as a result of criminal law proceedings underway in India and the United States against New York art dealer Subhash...
Revisiting the UK’s Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act of 2003
UK Heritage LawsArrestsSentencing This Friday ARCA reviews one of the few successful cases of prosecution using the UK's Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act of 2003. Christopher Cooper was an unemployed, amateur antique dealer in the United Kingdom, who is...
Prosecutors file a civil forfeiture complaint for the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet
19 MAY 2020Illicit trafficking Seizure AntiquitiesAuthorities in the United States have filed a civil forfeiture complaint for a 1600 BCE cuneiform tablet featuring a dream sequence from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Acting as the Plaintiff in the case, the US authorities...
An INTERPOL, Europol and World Customs Organization joint investigation produces 101 arrests.
Illicit trafficking Seizure Arrests Interpol has issued a preliminary announcement on Operations Athena II and Pandora IV. A total of 300 coordinated investigations took place, spanning 103 countries. All of which focused on the dismantlement of international...
Remembering the long returned Orpheus Taming the Beasts mosaic
Illicit trafficking Seizure Arrests The city of Şanlıurfa, modern-day Urfa, is situated in the Taurus Mountains of southern Anatolia, where the east-west highway from Zeugma on the Euphrates to where the Tigris meets with the north-south route from Somaysāṭ. Known...
Shocking images of the theft of the Van Gogh in Holland shows thief used a sledgehammer
Van Gogh The NetherlandsMuseum Theft The Dutch police have released a portion of the video surveillance footage of a single suspect directly involved in the nighttime theft of Vincent Van Gogh's Parish garden in Nuenen from the Singer Laren Museum. On loan from the...
Understanding the chiaroscuro context of art crime and statistics
CINOA Art and Crime Statistics Market Opacity Erika Bochereau, the Secretary General of the Confédération Internationale des Négociants en Œuvres d’Art (CINOA), a trade organization for art and antiques dealers, has written a response to a recent report by ILLICID,...
Censorship by the Oxford University or by Dirk Obbink’s law team?
Dead Sea Scrolls Theft Arrest On 16 April Lois Helsop at The Oxford Blue broke the news of that Thames Valley police had arrested American papyrologist Dr. Dirk Obbink, an associate professor in papyrology and Greek literature at Oxford University, on 2 March 2020....
Dirk Obbink arrested on suspicion of ancient papyrus theft
TheftEES Arrests It has now been made public, by the Oxford Blue that American papyrologist Dr. Dirk Obbink, an associate professor in papyrology and Greek literature at Oxford University, was taken into custody on 2 March 2020 by the Thames Valley police on suspicion...