Art heists are in the news again -- this time from a second-tier Paris museum, as this report tells us. Even though the museum is a notch or so down from the d'Orsay and the Pompidou, the valuations total more than $100 million (the Daily Mail article mentions 400 million pounds as the possible total).
Crime-news groupie I'm not. Nor have I read much in the way of detective fiction, so if what follows seems shallow from a maven's perspective, it is.
One of the things about art theft that interests me is what becomes of the loot. As observers usually mention after such thefts, well-known paintings can't be placed in the usual market channels such as galleries.
So if that route is out, then why steal if it's difficult to cash in after all the effort? One reason I've read about is getting ransom money from the victim or its insurance company. Another I've seen is that a robbery might be commissioned by someone who covets the art and plans to keep it for his own viewing pleasure. A corollary is that the thief wants the art for himself.
It's too soon to tell if the Paris robbery was a ransom ploy. But other noteworthy thefts have yet to be resolved. The linked article mentions the heist from the Gardiner in Boston. And there's the San Diego disappearance of a couple of Maxfield Parrishes that remain missing.
I wonder what became of all that art.
[Cross-posted at 2Blowhards.]
No comments:
Post a Comment