Art Theft Is Big Business

Art theft is big business. Interpol reckons that it ranks fourth among the highest-value criminal activities, after drugs, arms smuggling and money laundering. The FBI puts its value at $5 billion a year. "We have 160,000 items listed as lost, stolen, looted or missing," said the Art Loss Register, an international database of missing artworks. "We start at £2,000, but some of them, like Leonardo's 'Madonna with the Yarnwinder,' are worth tens of millions." It is more or less impossible to sell a stolen work from the A-list of artists without instantly alerting experts to its identity. "With very high-level property, the majority is stolen with buy-back ransom in mind, usually 1 million pounds — a nice easy pay day." The recovery rate for stolen art is about 11% a year. For the full story - click the title Irish Art