Since 1990, the FBI has pursued the perpetrators of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft of over $500 million in art, including works by Rembrandt, Manet, Degas and Vermeer.  Twenty three years later, the bureau has announced that it knows who committed the thefts, but is witholding the information in hope of getting the works back.   The theft holds the disctinction of the largest property theft in U.S. history. (more…)

Rembrandt’s “Portrait of the Father” has been recovered in Serbia, seven years after its theft from a museum in Novi Sad.  The painting, which is currently valued at $4 million, was stolen in a masked robbery alongside works by Peter Paul Rubens, marking the second time the painting has been stolen in the space of ten years.  The theft underlines Serbia’s problems with art theft, which has struggled to provide adequate security for some of its masterworks. (more…)

Jeffrey Gundlach, bond investor and art collector, catalyzed the return of his stolen artwork by telling authorities to check who had Googled his grandmother’s name. Earlier this year, $10 million in artworks were stolen from his home, along with paintings made by his grandmother, Helen Fuchs. It turned out that two parties had searched on Google for “Helen Fuchs” – Gundlach and the thieves, who were subsequently apprehended. (more…)

Stolen artwork is simply difficult to unload. “Nine times out of ten, when individuals commit a robbery like that, it is done by individuals or criminal organisations which have the ability to do a burglary, but they don’t usually have the ability to sell paintings,” says Robert Wittman, founder of the FBI’s art crime team and author of the memoir Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World’s Stolen Treasures. (more…)

Sotheby’s has been accused of colluding with a 10th-century Cambodian statue’s current owner to hide information about provenance. Papers were filed in United States District Court in Manhattan by Federal prosecutors alleging that the work was stolen in 1972 and that Sotheby’s had knowledge of this prior to consigning it. Sotheby’s stated that The United States attorney’s office is trying “to tar Sotheby’s with a hodgepodge of other allegations designed to create the misimpression that Sotheby’s acted deceptively in selling the statue. That is simply not true.” (more…)

Someone has stolen Rachel Whiteread’s Untitled (24 Switches) from a central London gallery. The theft of the panel of light switches made by the artist is valued at £24,000. The work would most likely not even be recognizable as art to the garden variety thief, and any reputable dealer could identify it based on the stamp on the back and track provenance, thus confounding the gallery and its insurers as to who might have stolen it. (more…)

Rotterdam Kunsthal, photo Peter Dejong AP

The Kunsthal Rotterdam in the Netherlands suffered the loss of several valuable paintings in a theft around 3:00 a.m. on October 16th, among them Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse and Lucian Freud. The paintings were part of an exhibition of 150 works in the Triton Foundation’s collection as part of the museum’s 20th anniversary celebration. The burglars set off an alarm at a security agency and authorities responded within 5 minutes, but not in time to catch the suspects.

Picasso Harlequin Head, 1971 courtesy Businessweek

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The auction of the “flea-market Renoir“, which was purchased by a woman in West Virginia for $7, is cancelled after reporters discover records indicating that it had allegedly been stolen from The Baltimore Museum of Art prior to winding up at a flea market in West Virginia. The original owner of “Paysage Bords de Seine”, Saidie May, had written records showing that she had lent the painting to the museum in 1937. Until title is cleared, the painting’s sale is pending. The value is estimated to be about $75,000-$100,000. (more…)

Jeffrey Gundlach, Santa Monica art collector and Wall Street tycoon, returned home from a trip to New York to find $10 million in artwork missing. Jasper Johns’ “Green Target”, along with works by Piet Mondrian, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz Kline, Joseph Cornell, Philip Guston and others were taken. No word yet on whether there was a security video, as the investigation is underway.

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A sculpture by the British artist Henry Moore has been stolen from the grounds of his former home, now the Henry Moore Foundation, in Much Hadham, England. Valued at £500,000, Sundial was stolen in between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. Investigators are leading a search for the bronze work, fearing that it may be melted down as scrap metal, a fate that awaited Moore’s Reclining Figure, which was stolen and melted down in 2005.

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Suspect may have panicked and trashed 5 stolen masterworks following “one of the biggest art heists ever” in Paris last May. The works stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne were Dove with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso, Pastoral by Henri Matisse, Olive Tree near l’Estaque by Georges Braque, Still Life with Candlestick by Fernand Leger and Woman with Fan by Amedeo Modigliani. [AO Newslink]

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La femme a l’eventail (Lady with fan), Amedeo Modigliani

During the early hours of the morning on Thursday, May 20, five paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Georges Braque, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger were stolen from the Paris Museum of Modern Art (MAM – Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris). CCTV caught a single masked intruder entering the museum by a window, removing the works from their frames and then leaving with the loot, all in under fifteen minutes. The stolen works are Henri Matisse’s La Pastorale, Georges Braque’s L’olivier pres de l’Estaque, Amedeo Modigliani’s Woman with a Fan; Fernand Leger’s Still Life with Chandeliers; and Pablo Picasso’s Le pigeon aux petits-pois (The Pigeon with the Peas) – an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting that is estimated to be worth €23 million alone. Various reports have valued the missing works at anywhere from €100 million to €500 million ($126–635 million) – dealers and officials are currently debating the price of the works that had long been held in the public trust. This morning, embarrassed officials at the City Hall in Paris outlined a number of significant security blunders that made pulling off “one of the biggest thefts in art history” as simple as removing a reinforced window. The City Hall officials, who were officially in charge of the permanent collection, admitted that a partial malfunction of its alarm system had been reported on March 30, at which point it was shutdown without repair. Furthermore, Paris prosecutors confirmed that the entire theft was captured on film, but security guards have told police that they ‘saw nothing’, prompting investigators to believe they had been asleep. Ordering an ‘internal administrative inquiry’, the city’s mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, told the UK’s Daily Mail that ‘all have questions to answer.’

Police officers search for clues on the frames of the stolen paintings outside the Paris Museum of Modern Art yesterday. Image via WSJ

More images and a full round-up of links after the jump….
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The entrance to Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

“There’s a lot less ornament and a lot more substance,” declared Micky Wolfson Jr., founder of Miami Beach’s Wolfsonian Museum – this phrase sums-up many reflections on the eighth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach closed on Sunday, December 6 where smaller parties dominated and collectors purchased cautiously. In keeping with tradition edgy Contemporary pieces were bestsellers at Art Basel Miami Beach with larger, museum-targeted pieces dominating the booths along with traditional works by Popular Latin American artists such as the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. Interestingly, while many Asian and European buyers skipped the fair, additional Portuguese speakers were hired to aid Latin American buyers who were out in force.

Santigold performs at the Raleigh Hotel

Much more text, images and a full round-up of related links after the jump….
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Joan Miro piece thought to be among those stolen Via Monterey County Herald

Approximately $27 million of artwork has been stolen from a home in Monterey, California on Friday afternoon. The substantial collection, belonging to A. Benjamin Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, contained several important works including pieces by Jackson Pollock, Matisse, Miro, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. The Jackson Pollock, a painting measuring  3-by-7-foot has never been on the open market and could potentially be worth more than $40 million alone.

Related Links:
$27 Million in artwork stolen Pebble Beach home [Monterey County Herald]
$27 million worth of Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Pollock artworks stolen from Pebble Beach home [LA Times]

More images and text after the jump….

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The James Turrell Museum of the Hess Art Collection in Argentina

James Turrell Museum of the Hess Art Collection opens its 18,000 sf space in Argentina, almost 8,000 sf above sea level [Reuters]
The Tate galleries issue over 400 video and audio lectures, talks, debates for free on iTunes [Apple]
A video look inside the studio of Jeff Koons [Tate]
Bruce Nauman in his studio, in anticipation of his representing the US in Venice [NYTimes]

Portrait of Nicholas Roerich via Reuters

Despite the above portrait of Nicholas Roerich by his son fetching $2.9M, close to 3x its high estimate of $1.1 million, sales of Russian art in New York by Sotheby’s and Christie’s clear an unsubstantial $27 million versus last year’s $64 million [Reuters]
Is the value of the work of Richard Prince particularly at risk in this recession? [Portfolio]
Angus Murray launches Castlestone’s $50M Modern Art Fund [Portfolio Advisor]

Damien Hirst with The Hours and the painting he created for their album cover via The GuardianUK

Win the £125,000 orignal painting Damien Hirst made for The Hours’ new album cover [GuardianUK]
MoMA sued by heirs of George Grosz over three works the artist left behind when fleeing Nazi Germany [NY Times]
In related, Austrian city of Linz may return $15 million Gustav Klimt to Holocaust victim [Bloomberg]

A shot of the scene sans Mona Lisa via Vanity Fair

A excerpt from a new book on the famous theft of the Mona Lisa in 1911 [Vanity Fair]
A summary of how dramatically US Museums have been hit by the economic slowdown [ArtNewspaper]
In directly related, a timeline of Museums and the recession [ArtInfo]
The “hottest” art exhibitions of summer 2009 according to Times UK [TimesUK]
London usurps New York as top auction location for 2008, bolstered mainly by Damien Hirst’s Sotheby’s sale [ArtInfo via ArtFagCity]
The low profile nature of private sales causes them to rise in popularity due to the impact of public failure of sales at auction [NYTimes]

Saatchi-online’s billboard partnership with Clearchannel via ArtDaily

Clearchannel partners with Saatchi’s to promote through its billboards Saatchi-online’s commission-free online art sales [ArtDaily]
In related, The 10 winners of the Guardian/Saatchi art competition are announced [Guardian UK]
The world’s largest art prize, decided by vote, launches in Grand Rapids, Michigan [artprize.org]
The Park Avenue Armory in New York announces an annual commission for it’s Drill Hall, on May 14th its inaugural exhibition will be Ernesto Neto [ParkAvenueArmory]
Christie’s auction house creates a specific unit to divest of corporate art works [Crain’sNY]
On its 5th anniversary, the UK’s Art Council Initiative interest free loan program has supported a total of £10.5 million worth of arts purchases involving 12,500 people [Artscouncil]

Damien Hirst’s custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle via Motorcycle News

Damien Hirst creates a custom Harley Davidson for charity [Motorcycle News]
Lawsuit alleges fraud from Louis Vuitton in Murakami 2007-08 LA MOCA exhibition due to prints being merely “factory leftovers from handbag production” [LATimes]
In related, Murakami protege Mr. collaborates on a Lucien Pellat-Finet clothing collection [Hypebeast]
Following the National Portrait Gallery in London announcing its shortlist of three artists for the 2009 BP Portrait Award, an in-depth article on craft [IndependentUK]
Vacant retail locations as exhibition space in London [GuardianUK]

A work by Andrei Molodkin via artsblog.it

Andrei Molodkin, to represent Russia in the Venice Biennial, creates sculptures using human corpses rendered into crude oil [The Independent]
At the beginning of Asian week in New York, a case for the relative value of traditional Japanese art [Forbes]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art cuts more jobs [New York Times]

Neues Museum in Berlin via London Festival of Architecture

The Neues Museum in Berlin opens dramatic space designed by London architect David Chipperfield [New York Times]
Richard Prince denies reports that he is to donate his rare book and publications collection to the Morgan Library in New York [ArtInfo]

Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee one of the works stolen in the Gardner heist, via the Boston Globe

A new plea (with video) for leads leading to the return of  the $500 million worth of art stolen in Boston’s 1990 Gardner Museum  heist, which was the largest in history [Boston Globe via ArtsJournal]
Mary Boone is suing a collector and trustee of the Columbus Museum of Art to complete the sale of a Will Cotton work [Artnet News]

Anthony d’Offay via the GuardianUK

Anthony d’Offay interviewed, whose Artists Rooms tour begins in Edinburgh and was made possible from the selling of his vast collection for £26.5 million, an estimated 5th of its value [TheScotsman]
The balance of power between London vs Paris as art capitals altered perhaps by the recession [TimesUK]

Self Portrait (1630) by Rembrandt van Rijn; stolen in 2000, recovered in 2005 by a team led by Robert Wittman. Image via Codart

Via the BBC: “It’s about saving the cultural property of mankind … Every country has a different cultural heritage and saving these things brings us closer together as human beings. When it comes to art, it’s visceral. It affects us in a deep, emotional way.” – Robert Wittman

20 years after leading his first major art recovery operation,  the FBI’s top agent in art theft investigations and recoveries is set to retire. By often posing as a crooked art dealer working on behalf of wealthy organized criminals, Special Agent Robert Wittman has played a key role in recovering $225 million in stolen art over his career, often going undercover to retrieve very high profile works of art.

His first assignment, in 1988, involved recovering the second largest crystal ball in the world, once owned by the Empress Dowager Cixi of China. The ball was stolen from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in the middle of the night. Within two years, Wittman recovered the crystal ball, as well as “Man with a Broken Nose,” a Rodin from the 1860s that was also stolen that year, impressing the FBI enough to install him as head of art crimes investigations.  Since then, 9 out of 10 cases he has participated in have involved some sort of undercover operation, which draw on what sources describe as Wittman’s considerable charm and his ability to blend into any crowd due to his average build and ‘average Joe’ features.

FBI: Top Ten Art Crimes
FBI: Art Theft Program
The invisible man rescuing art [BBC]
FBI’s Top Investigator Involving Art Theft and Art Fraud, Robert Wittman, Retires [ArtDaily]
Missing A Masterpiece? Call FBI’s Art Crime Team [NPR]
The Heist Meister [Art Market Monitor]
Stolen Rembrandt work recovered [BBC]

more story and images after the jump…

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Soon-to-be-former Lehman Brothers corporate headquarters

Lehman Brothers may sell some or all of its 3,500-work corporate art collection [Bloomberg]
How the Wall Street firm implosion jeopardizes New York arts funding [NY Sun]
French art dealers, armed with currency arbitrage, settle into Manhattan [The Art Newspaper]
7 artists recontextualise the River Thames [GuardianUK]
Following ‘Pest Control,’ ‘Vermin,’ a second Banksy authentication group emerges [Art Info]
Five 17th century Dutch paintings stolen in 2002 at $4.2M of insurable value are recovered [BBC]

Cubist Still Life by Arshile Gorky, one of the paintings stolen from the Los Angeles’s couples home via LA Times

An unidentified elderly couple of Enico, Los Angeles were at home preoccupied while a thief, or possible thieves, entered their home and stole an art collection worth millions of dollars. At least a dozen paintings were stolen including works by Marc Chagall, Hans Hofmann, Chaim Soutine, Arshile Gorky, Emil Nolde, Lyonel Feininger, Diego Rivera, and Kees van Dongen. Each stolen work was worth at least six figures, some of them closer to $1 million. While the theft occurred in August police waited until September to publicly announce the crime and the $200,000 reward for information leading to the return of the paintings. The couple remains unidentified by police as does the source of the reward money. It remains unclear if was a single thief, or a group. Police are also uncertain if it was a common thief-likely to pawn off the paintings immediately, or a more sophisticated thief with ties to collectors or criminal gangs specializing in pilfered artwork. Art theft is by FBI estimates is a $6-billion-a-year global industry.

Swift L.A. art heist claims couple’s collection worth millions [LA Times]
A Dozen Artworks Stolen from L.A. Collectors’ Home [ArtInfo]
Find stolen paintings, collect $200,000 [Two Coats of Paint]

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Jeurgen Teller and his son via New York Magazine

Art auctionable fashion photographer (and husband to London gallerist Sadie Coles) Jeurgen Teller [New York Mag]
A billionaire’s $4 million, 14,000 sf gallery to sell his mother’s art in midtown Manhattan [Bloomberg]
After her big art event in Moscow, more on Daria “Dasha” Zhukova [Times Online]
Curating the Met’s acquisition of the complete Diane Arbus archive [NYsun]
Police recover final piece stolen during the daylight theft at Estacao Pinacoteca Museum, Sao Paulo [Art Daily]

Brice Marden via the The New York Observer

Artist Brice Marden is redeveloping a hotel in the Caribean island of Nevis [NYObserver]
S&M self-portraiture coming to the Guggenheim with Catherine Opie retrospective [NYTimes TMagazine]
After 30 years, lawyer on trial for attempting to profit off stolen art, including a $29.3M Cezanne [Artinfo]
Fake American Apparel ads in Brooklyn reference Jeff Koons and perhaps Damien Hirst [AnimalNY]
Ed Ruscha’s open-air studio in Venice Beach, CA may become a city parking lot [NYTimes]
The 100% self made custom wardrobe of artist Mike Latham, of Art’s Corporation, features his signature barcode [NYSun]

Tete de Diego, Giacometti sculpture found in apartment, via FBI

On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation posted 137 artworks on their homepage as part of a two year long effort to track down their rightful owners. In 2006, a Manhattan eccentric who went by the alias William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland passed away, leaving behind an extensive collection of art piled inside his one bedroom East 72nd Street apartment. Christie’s has valued the higher-end works at around $2.4M.

Looks for owners of Stolen Paintings [Artdaily]
NY Art World Shock: Stolen Paintings in Famous Collection [New York Post]
Two Years Later, the F.B.I. Still Seeks the Owners of a Trove of Artworks [NYtimes]
Stolen Art Uncovered: Is it yours? [FBI] and a gallery on the website of the recovered works here

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Ryan McGinley shooting for Wrangler Jeans via Radar

Ryan McGinley is making ads for Wrangler jeans (running only in Europe) [Radar via Artfagcity]
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Sotheby’s consolidates Asian art auctions from New York to Hong Kong [Bloomberg]
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Taryn Simon commissioned by Nike to shoot the Men’s US Olympic Basketball team [SuperTouch]
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Stained-glass cathedral window by Marc Chagall is shattered by vandals in France [NYTimes]
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The global effects of four major types of art crimes: vandalism, theft, looting and forgery [Art Info]

Andy Warhol’s Muhammed Ali Print via Artinfo

Warhol’s $28m “Athletes” series in Beijing for the Olympics [Macau Art]
Armed thieves steal 15 Antonio Berni works worth $2.2m in Buenos Aires [Art Daily]
New niche for ‘functional sculpture’ or art-as-furniture, among the big art buyers [Independent]
An increase in collectors wanting liquidity in their art by borrowing against it [NYSun]
Western art galleries in Beijing work quickly to cater to new wealthy Asian buyers [Telegraph]
Pretty Ugly at Gavin Brown and Maccarone reviewed the Times, previously covered by AO here [NYTimes]