Modus Operandi (5 page)

Capturing Art and Jewelry Thieves

Art theft and crooked fences alone keep many police forces throughout the world occupied. More than $200 million in art objects are stolen every year, making such thefts the biggest criminal pursuits after international smuggling and selling of drugs like heroin and cocaine. To combat this epidemic of art crime, police in Europe and America have set up special art theft squads.

The Art Squad

Penalties for art crimes are much stiffer in England than in the United States. In England, art theft is taken very seriously, and the minimum sentence is usually five years. The English feel that when art is stolen, part of the national heritage is also stolen. In the United States, however, jail sentences for art-related crimes are usually the exception, rather than the rule.

London is a clearinghouse for black market art and antiques, but it has one of the most efficient art detective units in the world. The Art Squad was established in 1968 at New Scotland Yard with approximately eleven detectives, and it has recovered more than $350 million dollars worth of stolen art. Among the first to use a computer, Scotland Yard has built up an international log of some 25,000 paintings and sculptures and other art treasures —a sort of identification kit. The description of artworks is fed into a mainframe computer, and within seconds, Scotland Yard can track an item offered for sale to an auction house or recovered by police forces throughout the world.

Whenever an art loss is reported, details of the stolen pieces are published in the top art and antiques magazines. This helps to stop the sale of the object on the open market since legitimate dealers resent the intrusion of illegitimate dealers into the art market. In addition, the art squad has encouraged dealers to organize and communicate. For ex-

ample, if Dealer A suffers a loss, he would contact Dealers B and C, who in turn contact two more and so on. It is hoped that the publicity would keep the theft from progressing into a sale.

Members of the New Scotland Yard Art Squad are a certain breed. Not only do they know the foremost in detection methods and how to capture criminals, but they also bring a commitment to art and its heritage. Many members have a particular interest of their own, such as paintings or sculpture, furniture, silver, glass or antiques. They bring the perspective of collectors to the squad, which is invaluable.

Art and Jewelry Theft Bureau of NYC

The New York City Police Department is also active in catching art thieves with its undercover Art and Jewelry Theft Bureau. Since New York and London are key financial centers in the international art market, it is imperative that New York City occupy this position in the capture of art thieves. One of the most famous art theft detectives ever assigned to the Theft Bureau was Robert Volpe. Volpe is an artist as well as a detective, and it is this commitment to the art world that enabled Volpe to infiltrate many major art thefts rings. He was instrumental in recovering millions of dollars worth of art and jewelry and precious antiques, sculpture and the likes from the rings of thieves who attempted to sell it. Detective Volpe is one of the new breed of police officers who have become more and more specialized in areas of detective work.

Interpol

Detectives trained in the art market and experienced in the methods of dealers and crime syndicates specializing in art robberies have linked their efforts to beat the international racket. Interpol headquarters, located just outside Paris, receives dozens of reports of stolen paintings, sculptures and other rare objects and immediately circulates them to offices throughout the world. These bulletins go down the line to regional police forces who then check with their informants and contacts in the art trade. More than in any other criminal investigation, speed is vital in disseminating this information and publicizing it in the press and on television. Most stolen art sells more easily outside its country of origin, where it goes unrecognized. But once a stolen masterpiece or a valuable object appears in the press, on television or in trade publications, no honest dealer will touch it, and even the most crooked fence handles it with extreme care.

Interpol reinforces its weekly bulletin with a monthly sheet listing the twelve most wanted works of art with pictures, descriptions, and details of their theft. This international organization of police covers most of the world. Its offices around the world are staffed by local detectives who act as liaisons between Interpol and forces like the New York City Police Department, Scotland Yard, and the F.B.I. If it were not for the actions of Interpol, hundreds of paintings smuggled across borders would have vanished forever due to their international appeal.

Avoiding Capture

Much stolen art goes underground for many years until it has established a new sales pedigree and everyone has forgotten about the theft. Then it can reappear in the hands of a private dealer or even in an auction room for a legitimate sale.

Big crime bosses place stolen objects in a bank vault until the country's statute of limitations runs out and precludes their prosecution. They can then offer the painting even to its original owner for much more than it would fetch on the black market and often the painting or other art object has doubled its value during its storage.

Criminal Penalties for Art Theft

On both the national and international levels, there are few legal precedents and little legislation for dealing with art crime. For some reason, the penalties for art crime, especially in the United States, have been very light. Art and jewelry theft is close to a white collar crime, since no one was physically injured. Public opinion is ambivalent toward

the matter because the general public doesn't have the means to deal in art, antique and jewelry collections, so, its theft does not affect them.

If the theft involves two different countries, e.g., the thieves steal art from France and take it to Holland, Holland may decide not to investigate. In other words, what is unpardonable to one government may not even be criminal to another. Despite the ambiguous opinions some governments and police agencies have on this subject, there seems to be relative agreement on one point: theft and vandalism, no matter what the target, constitute a criminal act, but the penalties for art and jewelry thefts are usually very light.

Conclusion

Art crime is changing from a romantic Robin Hood affair, often committed with an artistic flair, to a cold and impersonal act committed purely for money and sometimes with violence. Professional thieves over the years have grown more ruthless as armed holdups in Montreal and some U.S. galleries, as well as raids in Paris, have proven. In fact, security guards, vaults and detection equipment seem to challenge the art thief.

Art thieves have a vast and ever-growing territory, unlimited cultural treasures to steal, and an expanding underground network to help them dispose of their loot. As more individuals and institutions place their wealth in art, thefts increase. Additionally, as museums proliferate throughout the United States and Europe, this decreases the amount of artwork available to the private collector. It is a simple case of supply and demand.

Also remember when writing about art theft that the art market has always been international; art crime is now also becoming so. This lends some colorful characters of thieves, fences and purchasers for your novels. Should you be writing about an art theft, it can encompass the globe. The unique quality of the work makes the disposal of artwork the key to profitable criminal activity. Whereas diamonds, gold and other items can be re-cut, melted down or otherwise disguised without too much effect on their resale value, a painting or sculpture is unique. It cannot be altered and retain its original value.

Unlike narcotics, which have to be traded in an illegal market, art has a legitimate market. The thief therefore has to find a means of disposing of his cache and of recirculating it in the legitimate market; once he has achieved this, he is safe, or as safe as he will ever be. The more valuable and well known the target, the greater the degree of risk and the more resourceful his plan of disposal must be. Smuggling objects to another country is one solution because this lessens or postpones the risk of the object's discovery and subsequent identification.

No amount of security or vigilance can stop art thieves as long as prices soar, and masterpieces fetch fabulous sums of money. Even the most efficient art squad lags one step behind determined thieves. It seems that the people who are immersed in the collection of art, antiques and jewelry have themselves forced the price up and are paying for art theft. As for Mauro and me, we're keeping a closer watch on our collection of velvet Elvises!

In the United States, a vehicle is stolen every twenty seconds. Auto theft is an $8 billion a year industry for criminals. Despite the new and ever-increasing security protections designed to foil theft attempts, auto theft is increasing yearly. State lawmakers and the federal government have increased the penalties for automobile thefts because of these statistics.

Surprisingly enough, carelessness in securing vehicles accounts for more than 20 percent of auto theft: one or more of the doors left unlocked, a window left down or partially open, a security system left unactivated. One or more of these items will attract thieves so that when we come out of the store or leave work for the trip home, we find only an empty parking space.

This chapter explores the methods vehicle thieves employ to secure their bounty. It will also explain the various enterprises that today's criminals use to commit their crimes.

Who's the Victim?

Today, vehicle theft is viewed as a victimless crime. The only ones who seem to get hurt are the insurance companies, who increase their fees to offset any losses. If you look at what happens when a vehicle is stolen, one could very easily see the positive side.

Your car is stolen, but you have insurance to cover your loss; therefore, you basically get a new car out of it. The car dealer is happy because you have to buy a new car from him, the car manufacturer is happy because that's one less car in his inventory, the car thief is happy because he's going to make money from stealing the car. If the car is sent to a
chop shop,
they are happy because they can sell the parts from your stolen car to a body repair station for half the price of that of the manufacturer. Now, the body shop is happy because later he can rip off the insurance company by charging full price for the parts he obtained cheaply from the chop shop. The owner of the vehicle that is getting repaired is happy because the body shop owner is absorbing his deductible. So, everybody is happy, and we have a victimless crime.

The only problem with this so-called victimless crime is that we are paying for it in injury, death and property damage caused by criminals fleeing capture. We also pay in the form of higher insurance premiums — some experts believe that a
low
estimation would be between ten and twenty percent; one source stated that twenty-one cents of every dollar in premiums goes to cover fraud and theft losses.

Basic Auto Theft

Juveniles, as young as ten years old, make up the majority of perpetrators who steal automobiles from the streets and parking lots of America. These juvenile offenders know that if apprehended, they will get little or no jail time for their crimes. The going price for a stolen vehicle is around five hundred dollars, so it is easy to see why stealing cars is so attractive to inner-city kids.

Juvenile auto thieves scour streets and parking lots trying to find an unsecured vehicle. By unsecured we mean doors unlocked, windows partly or fully open, and keys in the ignition. If, by chance, the vehicle is unlocked and the keys left inside, which is a petty crime in many localities, our young criminals will get into the vehicle, start it, and drive away to a prearranged location.

Sometimes a chop shop will place an order for a particular type of vehicle. The auto thief will conduct a surveillance of malls, health clubs or upscale lounges and restaurants. One method of this surveillance is to have a passenger van shuttle around a group of car thieves through the aforementioned areas. When a vehicle is located, the driver will stop the van letting out one of his passengers with instructions to steal the vehicle.

The Jimmie

The first option to gain entry into a locked car is to pick the lock. A device called a
jimmie
is used. A jimmie is made from spring steel and is inserted between the window and the rubber trim that protects the inside of the door. The jimmie has a soft rubber or plastic handle on one end and, on the other, a series of notches that can manipulate the lock mechanism. A jimmie can't be used on vehicles where the locking mechanism is electronic.