In any discussion of stolen art almost inevitably two questions are asked. The answer is that there is really no one 'typical thief'. Romantics imagine a suave, debonair, gentleman thief such as the character portrayed recently by Pierce Brosnan in 'The Thomas Crown Affair'. Unfortunately, that is more fiction and fantasy than fact. The truth is much more mundane.
Most art thieves are thieves first and foremost.
They just happen to steal art rather than a car. Stolen from a private collector in 1989 and recovered by the ALR in 1996. Many experts have tried to quantify the incidence of art theft but the task has been all but impossible. Much stolen art is unreported to such central bodies and is perhaps not even reported to the local law enforcement authorities, particularly in developing countries. Therefore, quantifying the problem is difficult but everyone acknowledges that it is a major worldwide problem.