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While the art industry celebrates the return of the stolen Cezanne masterpiece "Boy in a Red Waistcoat," recovered this week in Serbia, thousands of other famous stolen works of art continue to be traded on the black market or collect dust in storage.

According to the Art Loss Register, an international index of stolen works, there are 350,000 stolen works of art in the world. Once thieves realize they can't sell the paintings at auction or get paid a ransom fee without getting caught, many try to obtain cash or collaterall illegally, said Chris Marinello, general counsel for the Register.

art crime

Gallerie 64bis is showing original art through the whole history of the French Heller kit company, from 1957 through to the present. The exhibition brings together some 60 original works by artists such as Michel Bez, Francis Bergèse, and Daniel Bechennec. These are little-known names outside their native country perhaps, but their skills are well worth a closer look - at the show if you can, or via the internet if you can’t. Either way, it’s good to see paintings free of the necessary commercial surroundings of titles and descriptive texts on the boxes.

model art

The rescue of an ancient Egyptian mummy's sarcophagus this month from alleged smugglers in New York — the first time authorities say an international artifacts' smuggling ring was dismantled within the United States — sounds more like the plot of a movie than reality.

Amazingly, however, mummy smuggling not only still happens today, it was once so common that enough mummies were available to be ground up and sold as powder, archaeologists reveal.

theft art egyptian

Artworks showing the Ford Motor Works at Trafford Park, Manchester’s Dunlop Factory and the Avro Lancaster Bombers at Woodford are being displayed for the first time at Manchester Art Gallery.

Manchester ww2 art

This site contains two fully searchable databases.

The Information Database contains information and documentation from forty nine countries, including laws and policies, reports and publications, archival records and resources, current cases and relevant websites.

The Object Database contains details of over 25,000 objects of all kinds – paintings, drawings, antiquities, Judaica, etc – looted, missing and/or identified from over fifteen countries.

lootedart art ww2

The abuse of the diplomatic pouch by diplomats, UN peacekeepers, other foreign soldiers and aid workers to smuggle of art and antiquities is a public secret, 1 officially denied by most authorities but unofficially admitted by others. 2 Because of their diplomatic status, smuggling is extremely difficult to prove. To what extent can this claim be substantiated?

Patrick O’Keefe and Lyndell Prott of the Australian National University argue that the involvement of diplomats in the illicit art trade is ‘of considerable concern’. 3 Enamul Haque, director of the International Centre for the Study of Bengal Art and retired director of the Bangladesh National Museum, agrees. ‘Yes, diplomats cause a lot of damage and abuse the diplomatic pouch’. 4 As an example, Haque describes a case in the 1970s, when an American doctor abused his position as a foreigner to smuggle many ancient objects out of Bangladesh, which he then sold to museums and private collectors in the United States. A Japanese and an Italian diplomat had also purchased and exported a number of stone statues.

art smuggling

An art smuggler has told a jury how he smuggled a $1m (£700,000) sculpture out of Egypt, and allegedly sold it on to a New York art dealer.

Jonathan Tokeley-Parry said he smuggled the sculpture of the head of Amenhotep III - who died in 1375 BC - out of Egypt by dipping it in plastic and painting it black to make it look like a cheap tourist souvenir.

art smuggling

Bidding has hit $100,000 for an original splash page from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, one of many highly collectible comics in a New York auction.

art comics

"Wolfson’s small, sculptured environments are mini slices of life full of intriguing contradictions. Sculpted without being sculptural, painterly without being paintings, narrative without a story, they exude a photographic or cinematic sense of reality while rarely depicting actual scenes or places. Creating them over the last twenty years, Wolfson has forged a unique place for himself in contemporary art."

miniature art urban

A MILE high spinning column of cloud will rise above the River Mersey by the end of 2011 the artist behind the ambitious project revealed today.

art

Artists from the city have been invited to submit a piece of work along with a paragraph of writing describing their thoughts, feelings and ruminations over what the process of destruction means for them. But this will be more than a night of simply throwing paintings on a pyre; so far the pieces pledged include a red wax skull, clay butterflies, illustrations and a sound installation through which poems are ‘blown’.

art manchester

Three stolen works of art have been recovered more than 15 years after they were taken from museums in Glasgow.

The three paintings were retrieved as part of an continuing investigation with Strathclyde Police and Lothian and Borders Police.

art theft

An artist who scours junk shops and eBay for items to use in his exhibitions has scooped £16,500 as winner of the Northern Art Prize.

art

Most people are repulsed by mould, but one artist is using it to create creepy, decaying architectural models of houses.

Daniele Del Nero creates architectural scale models of buildings with a domestic look to them. He then dampens the exterior of the st

art architecture

Still hurting from the sudden death of Rochdale Borough’s Arts Officer Beate Meilemeier, the Revenue Funded Arts Organisations of Rochdale Borough and leading local freelance artists have decided that the best way to protect themselves in these difficult

art funding

The traits that once made such Renaissance men appear old-fashioned—their scholarly followings, their steady price levels—have now become strong selling points. Although the recession hurt every art category last year, Old Master values at auction only fe

art research

For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside.

Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a paint

history france art abandoned

Vincent van Gogh, starving as he slaves over his masterpieces. Johnny Rotten, sneering at the wreckage of 1970s Britain. George Orwell, finding his voice amid the poverty and despair of the Great Depression.

You'd think today's artists would be happier a

art politics

With Apocalypse out, I decided I needed something BIG for my Orks. After all, superheavy vehicles are what Apocalypse is all about.

One of the gang over on The Waaagh! suggested the idea of using a Mr. Potato Head as a basis for making a Stompa. I just h

warhammer 40k art model

frazetta art