[CPProt.net] FBI unit here patrols the art world

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Posted on Tue, Oct. 25, 2005  
 


FBI unit here patrols the art world
Last month, the Philadelphia-based Art Crime Team tracked a stolen
17th-century Rembrandt self-portrait to Denmark.
By John Shiffman


INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Last month in Copenhagen, a distinguished-looking gentleman from
Philadelphia and an Iraqi art dealer met secretly in a tiny Danish hotel
room.

Robert K. Wittman brought $250,000 cash stuffed in a black carry-on. Baha
Kadhum brought a 17th-century masterpiece wrapped in brown paper and tight
twine.

Wittman carried the painting into the darkness of the bathroom and used a
black light to verify its authenticity - a Rembrandt self-portrait stolen
five years ago from Sweden's National Museum and worth millions.

"This is a done deal," Wittman told Kadhum.

Seconds later, Danish police burst in and arrested Kadhum.

The sting was another success for the FBI's relatively new national Art
Crime Team, which is based in Philadelphia. The FBI has always investigated
major art crimes; the art team attempts to focus and specialize the work.

"We're making it a higher priority," said Wittman, the unit's senior
investigator - and the agent other FBI offices often use as an undercover
buyer in multimillion-dollar stings.

"Sadly, this is a busy field," said Sharon Flescher, executive director of
the International Foundation for Art Research, which specializes in art
authentication, theft, forgery and legal issues. "As we have seen,
international borders are porous when it comes to art theft. A painting
stolen in Sweden can end up in California. That's not an unusual
trajectory."

Wittman and his colleagues have recovered $150 million worth of stolen and
cultural property, he said.

This includes one of the 14 original copies of the Bill of Rights, valued at
$30 million, originally stolen from North Carolina during the Civil War; $50
million worth of paintings stolen from an estate in Madrid and traced to New
York; and five Norman Rockwell paintings stolen from a gallery in
Minneapolis and recovered in a Brazilian farmhouse.

The Rembrandt self-portrait, believed to have been painted in 1630, was
stolen five years ago during a daring raid on Sweden's waterfront National
Museum.

On Dec. 23, 2000 - five minutes before closing time - three men brandishing
machine guns took two Renoirs and the Rembrandt, then fled by motorboat.
They set off car bombs at major hotels as diversions. They also laid down
tire spikes to foil police cars.

The thieves made off with more than $45 million worth of paintings, the FBI
said.

But, as Wittman noted, they soon found that "the real art in art theft is
not stealing, but selling."

The thieves tried to ransom the art, but authorities declined. A year later,
Swedish police recovered one of the Renoirs, Conversation, and arrested 10
people, including Kadhum. Eight were convicted on theft charges, but Kadhum
and his brother Dieya were acquitted.

Things remained quiet for four years. Then, early this year, the FBI
stumbled into the case and helped break it open.

Agents in Los Angeles investigating suspected drug dealing by a reputed mob
organization "came upon the other Renoir, Young Parisian," FBI spokeswoman
Laura Eimiller said.

She said she could not reveal how or why the agents "came upon" the Renoir,
except that a "person connected to the painting" was connected to a group in
Sweden.

The art team's agent in Los Angeles, Chris Calarco, took the case and joined
Wittman in Europe, first in Sweden and then Denmark.

Wittman met the Kadhum brothers in the lobby of the Scandic Hotel in
Copenhagen on Sept. 14. He negotiated with the brothers, bringing down the
price from $500,000 to $250,000, then took one of them up to the room to
show them the cash - stacks of $100 bills.

The next day, they returned to the hotel to exchange the art. The painting,
8 inches tall and 4 inches wide, had not been removed from its frame.

Curious, Wittman asked the seller one question before he signaled the Danish
police: "Are you an art collector?"

"No," the man replied. "I'm in it for the money."


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Contact staff writer John Shiffman at 215-854-2658 or
jshiffman at phillynews.com.