[CPProt.net] Artifact Recovery Helps Usher in New FBI Team

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

Artifact Recovery Helps Usher in New FBI Team 
  
WASHINGTON, D.C.-With international art theft running rampant, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation has taken action. To this end, the new rapid
deployment FBI Art Crime Team-established in late 2004-comprises eight
special agents who oversee art crimes in various regions of the country. At
present, the new unit is handling about 50 different cases, including the
recent recovery of eight ancient Iraqi cylinder seals (carved cylindrical
stones used to sign clay documents) in Philadelphia. 

"We're seeing more art crimes worldwide, and because the U.S. has such a
huge, unregulated art market, more stolen art is ending up here," says Lynne
Richardson, the FBI's art theft program manager. "The specialized squad will
allow the bureau to more effectively track down stolen art and prosecute the
perpetrators." 

The Art Crime Team also recovered 87 artworks by Picasso, Willem de Kooning,
Mark Rothko and others, valued at more than $2 million, that were stolen in
October from an art storage warehouse in the St. Louis area. For more
information, visit www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/arttheft.htm. -Dana Micucci