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Posted 06.15.10 FBI Launches Art-Theft Squad (ARTnews Magazine) By Neil Parmar (NEW YORK)-To curb the growing trend of art-related thefts in the United States, the FBI has established the country's first national art-crime team. Eight FBI special agents, some with previous experience investigating crimes involving stolen art, will "work out of individual field offices and be brought together as needed to address specific cases," Joe Paris, a national spokesperson for the FBI, told ARTnews. The FBI estimates worldwide art theft to be a $5 billion problem, according to Robert Spiel and Gregg McCrary, both retired FBI agents who used to work undercover entrapping art thieves. They told ARTnews that, while there are no accurate national reports tracking the number of art-theft crimes committed each year, the rate of thefts seems to be rising. Members of the special unit, known as the FBI's Rapid Deployment Art Crime Team, work individually at recovering paintings, artifacts, and antiquities that have been either stolen domestically or smuggled into the United States. According to Paris, the team pools its resources and shares leads, and may, on occasion, meet in one city to work on cases involving multiple suspects or extremely valuable artworks. The U.S. Department of Justice will also designate a special attorney to work with the team when prosecuting future art-theft cases. "It was time for the bureau to address this from the national level," says Paris. For years federal agencies in Italy, Germany, and England have employed specialized art-theft squads. Paris notes that the "defining moment" for the FBI to create the Rapid Deployment Art Crime Team was when American soldiers began smuggling Mesopotamian artifacts from Iraq into the United States. Lynne Richardson, previously the bureau's only full-time agent to deal specifically with art crimes, says the team's creation was long overdue. Richardson says she rarely had the resources or manpower to thoroughly investigate art-theft claims, thus many of the minor crimes were transferred to local police departments or were not handled with the same degree of attention as larger thefts. For the moment, Richardson will maintain her position as art-theft program manager. At press time, a director had not yet been selected. RETURN TO HOMEPAGE For a collection of more recent works, please visit www.neilparmar.ca |
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