News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: an abducted alien sculpture was recovered, a recovering meth addict returned a stolen Thomas Kinkade sculpture, and wild Winnipeggers smashed a public art installation.
Art Crime
Art
What Central Africa's War on Poaching Can Teach Us About Fighting the Plunder of Antiquities
Calls for greater law enforcement efforts to fight antiquities trafficking have been growing ever since ISIS' profiteering from the trade in looted antiquities became public knowledge in 2014. Two years later, concrete steps are finally being taken.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a Florida man beheaded a 13th-century statue, a man was arrested under suspicion of stealing a trailer full of blue-chip art, and a 300-pound sculpture of a bear turned up 700 miles from where it went missing.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Turkish police seized Muammar Gaddafi's $10-million dagger, "some feminists" attacked a mural of Bettie Page, and a pair of Spanish thieves amassed a trove of 10,000 artifacts.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a Chinese artist was reprimanded for his "sexual calligraphy" videos, a $20-million trove of stolen art was seized in Istanbul, and a relic containing a drop of Pope John Paul II's blood was stolen from Cologne Cathedral.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a solid gold and diamond-encrusted statue of an eagle was stolen, a subversive Malaysian street artist was charged with "violating multimedia laws," and a gnome sculpture went missing.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Spanish police arrested seven people for Francis Bacon heist, a Picasso thief preyed on a Chelsea gallery, and an artist lost his head after someone stole his guillotine sculpture.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: an SFMOMA café started selling half-baked copies of art-themed desserts, torch-carrying protesters raided Stonehenge, and cops got in trouble for a making a sand sculpture of a nude murder victim.
In Brief
Old Master Paintings Snatched from Verona Turn Up in a Forest in Ukraine
After six months, 17 Old Master paintings stolen from Verona's Museo di Castelvecchio have turned up on an island in Ukraine.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: a psychedelic zebra sculpture was stolen and recovered, an arts organization shuttered following an embezzlement fiasco and lye attack, and vandals smashed a David Bowie painting.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: an MFA student's sculpture about campus gun laws violated campus gun laws, collector Aby Rosen forked over $7 million in unpaid taxes on art, and the painter of the Donald Trump micropenis portrait was attacked by one of the candidate's supporters.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: artists demand their work back from LA's bankrupt Ace Gallery, a billionaire collector realizes she's been missing a Picasso since 2009, and art dealer Perry Rubenstein is arrested and charged with embezzlement.