Police Cooperation in theArea of Art Crime:
EU and InternationalPerspectives
Kobe and QMUL Symposium on International Law
Kobe University, Faculty of Law
10 April 2015
Dr Saskia Hufnagel (s.m.hufnagel@qmul.ac.uk)
Queen Mary University of London

• Background• Policing of Art Crime• EU Situation• International Measures• Conclusions

Outline• What is art crime?
• Art theft: museum, galleries, collections, archives, private
homes, etc.;• Fraud/forgery:• Copying existing work of art;
• Creating a new work of art in the style of a known artist andclaiming authenticity;• Creating a new work of art in the style of a known artist and letting
experts determine authenticity knowing that it is not from thisartist; etc.;• Vandalism;• Cultural Heritage Offences.

Background• Fraud/Forgeries:• Even when Forgery discovered often not reported (loss of value,shame, etc.); Examples:• Beltracchi Case (2010)• The ‘Flora’ (Bode Museum, 1909)• ‘Hitler Diaries’ (1983)• Experts can contribute to commit crime; Example:• Werner Spies (Beltracchi Case)• Police relies on experts to investigate theft/fraud/forgeries;
Example:• Hong Kong Harbour (2012)• Financial, not criminal damage:• 1735 Hogarth Act (William Hogarth ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ CopperPrints)

Policing of Art Crime• A closed market:• Eric Hebborn ‘A Forgers Handbook’ 1997
• Scholars or forgers?
• Francisco di Goya
• Rembrandt• Numbers:• ‘Of the 3000 works Camille Corot created during his lifetime 5000
can be found in the US.’• Russian Avant Garde forgeries• Pasticcios:• The ‘Flora’• Cleaning and restorations:• Lothar Malskat and the ‘turkeys of Schleswig cathedral’• Casting;• Prints.

Policing Art Crime

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke68168-3.html

Horst Haug from the State Office of Criminal
Investigation in Baden-Württemberg displays afake Giacometti sculpture in 2009.

• Beltracchi: 6 Years;• ‘Count’ of Waldstein (alias Lothar Senke): 9 Years;• Han van Meegeren (1947): 1 Year;• Lothar Malskat (1953): 18 Months;• Shaun Greenhalgh (2007): 4 Years and 8 Months.

Art Fraud in the Justice System• Beltracchi: 6 Years;• ‘Count’ of Waldstein (alias Lothar Senke): 9 Years;• Han van Meegeren (1947): 1 Year;• Lothar Malskat (1953): 18 Months;• Shaun Greenhalgh (2007): 4 Years and 8 Months.

Art Fraud in the Justice System• Art Theft:• Art theft mostly only reported for insurance purposes (littletrust in police re recovery); Examples:• Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft (1990)• Frans van Mieris ‘A Cavalier’ (Art Gallery NSW, 2007)• Art world does not cooperate with police, only recently
reports of increased cooperation due to successful
investigations and established trust in some EU memberstates.
• Art Loss Register and since 2014 Art Recovery
International ‘help’ recover works of art, but do not always
report their findings to police.

• Art has become a commodity, hence more financial thancultural concern re loss.

Policing Art Crime

Frans van Mieris ‘A Cavalier’• Different levels of importance of art crime: generally high insouth and low in north of Europe.
• Some EU member states have national art crime databases (18).
• Some have specialised art crime units within the police (16).
• If unit, they often cooperate with other units and exchange
information informally.
• Italy ‘Leonardo’ database now linked to Interpol through PsycheProject.

• Not one database and not special Europol database – allthrough Interpol.
• Training Courses and Europol Cultural Property Crime
Handbook most harmonised EU measures (handbook wasnever published).

EU Situation• Since 1963 Interpol Art Crime Unit;• Interpol Stolen Works of Art Databases;• Interpol partnerships with UNESCO and International Council ofMuseums (ICOM);• PSYCHE Project (EU funded) 2012:• Enables direct data insertion by member countries and adds image
recognition software to simplify the checking process.
• Helps and encourage countries to participate in the Interpol systemthat so far have only supplied small amounts of data (few entries
into the system), and that have no national database.
• Enables easier access and participation in the database throughformatted message system for submission of information on stolen
works of art directly from a country’s National Central Bureau tothe General Secretariat.
• Development of interface between different national databases.

International Measures• Art Crime difficult to detect as closed market and silent
victims;• Little police expertise and limited forensic capacity;• If prosecuted, low sentences and most of the police work
was in vain;• In many countries, specialised officers fight a lonely fightagainst both the criminals and the bureaucracy;• Experts and police could be the perfect symbiosis, butthere are not yet established cooperative structures;• Most art crime crosses borders, but there is nointerconnectivity of databases nor extensive informal
police expert cooperation between specialised units.

Conclusion