it seems crazy to me to steal a famous painting from a museum. the number of people willing to purchase a black market painting worth ~$millions is probably like a dozen, and the transaction would be super high risk. so many easier crimes to commit.
> the number of people willing to purchase a black market painting worth ~$millions is probably like a dozen<p>You only need one.<p>With something like this I imagine you could hold on to it for years or even a lifetime waiting for the right connection to come along. Maybe some of them are even commissioned or pre-sold.<p>I can’t say I know anyone with stolen art, but over my lifetime I’ve known people across a range of wealth classes who got a thrill out of acquiring and owning something that was risky contraband.
One would think most jobs are "by order" and thus the customer comes before the risk
If you can wait out the statute of limitations you can of course sell it. It seems that in France that is not a thing in stolen art from a public collection
Even if you could no longer be charged with the theft itself, the act of selling stolen property would be a fresh new crime.
You can't sell stolen art by waiting out the statute of limitations
The numbers are higher than you'd expect. The trade in illegal (and so high rarity and limited access) goods is ongoing and flourishing via the use of third party intermediaries like free port systems [1] as well as networks of morally grey curatorial and preservation staff. Several notable archaeological "missing links" of the past few years came from said staff mediating access to private collections of undescribed provenance.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2015/07/01/experts-identify-top-six-scandals-amid-boom-in-art-crime" rel="nofollow">https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2015/07/01/experts-identify-...</a>
And then if you offer to sell it to someone, they could blackmail you unless you give it to them for free or cheaper.
For a while members of the mafia we’re stealing them to trade against their sentence if they got caught for some other crime.
Or, since it’s a Renoir, maybe they were planning to distribute them as punishment.<p>“Thought you were going up in the world, did you Salvo? Oh no, no Armand Guillaumin for you. The boss ain’t pleased and he wants you to know about it. One more screwup and you’ll end up with a face like that”
Admit to additional crimes in exchange for a lighter sentence? How does that work?
Plea bargaining. Green river serial killer admitted to more killings (and cooperated to recover some of his victim’s bodies) in exchange for avoiding the death penalty : <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway#Plea_bargain,_confessions,_sentencing" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Ridgway#Plea_bargain,_con...</a>
Crime gravity. If able to provide the solution to a crime that is considered more serious(or of greater value to the prosecuting entity's purview).
So the lesson here is if you are a criminal - commit multiple crimes, hope in case you get caught then it is for a lesser crime, so you can trade secrets of a bigger crime for leniency?<p>I wonder what victims have gotta say about that...
I doubt they admit to anything, but having some information that helps lead to the recovery of a valuable item could be worth something. To be honest, this is the first I have heard of the practice, but it sounds plausible to me.
There is a plotline involving this in the first season of <i>The Line of Duty</i>.<p>It opens with a guy who's complaining to the police about the frequent robbery of his house. They view him as a nuisance and try to respond to his complaints as little as possible.<p>Eventually someone is apprehended committing a different crime in a different location. An officer visits him in the hospital (there was a mighty struggle before he was caught) and asks if he'd be willing to lower his sentence by potentially resolving some other outstanding crimes that the police are investigating.<p>She reads off a list of crimes, and he responds "yeah, that was me" to everything she says. One of the items is the several robberies of the guy we met earlier.<p>It's win-win; his sentence is lowered for doing the police a favor, and the police report a higher solve rate.<p>After that, the original guy who was always brushed off suffers another robbery. Since he happens to be home at the time of the latest one, he is severely beaten.
"Hey, I don't have any idea how it got there, but I heard some guy talking about a famous stolen painting that's stashed right here in this neighborhood. Apparently a Renoir."
From the documentaries I've watched it's usually the other way around. There's either already a known buyer, or the thief has someone in their circles that already knows how to sell it. So there's a middleman between already trusted entities.
Unless you’re keeping it for yourself…
I would've thought thats what crypto was meant for.
> the number of people willing to purchase a black market painting worth ~$millions is probably like a dozen<p>Right, but what about your local brick dealer who has 10-50K to waste on whatever? Definitely way more common and easier than you think to unload these sort of things, once you go down in price a lot because of the circumstances.
There is specific Italian law about return of art. This would normally apply to people who stole the art but a careful lawyer could use this law to negotiate a reduced punishment for organized crime charges. If the art theft is described as a part of a larger criminal enterprise, then the return of that art could trigger a 2/3 reduction in punishment. See below (translated by google).<p><a href="https://documenti.camera.it/leg18/dossier/testi/gi0031b.htm" rel="nofollow">https://documenti.camera.it/leg18/dossier/testi/gi0031b.htm</a><p>"is committed by the person who has collaborated in identifying the co-conspirators or has ensured evidence of the crime or has effectively worked to prevent the criminal activity from being carried to further consequences or has recovered or <i>had recovered the cultural property subject to the crime (penalty reduced from one third to two thirds</i>)."
There are some “criminals” and criminal gangs and such, but I think the increase we have seen is due to Russia, Iran, and others who are giving extra resources and intelligence to some of these groups to deprive western institutions of their cultural heritage as part of the “hybrid war”.<p>Notice how things aren’t being stolen at this magnitude in China? Japan? If we’re Russian or Iranian for example I think this would be a great strategy if you view yourself at a civilizational war. Most of Europe is still asleep or in denial.
> Notice how things aren’t being stolen at this magnitude in China<p>Stealing from a Chinese museum would be extremely difficult. Cameras and security staff monitor exhibits during the day, and even after hours, extensive surveillance everywhere, makes it hard to get away unnoticed.
The risk is simply too high
I know posting deranged tirades about the supernatural powers of Russia is HN’s favourite pastime but this goes way too far.