And what about that art heist from the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris a few weeks ago? Did you perhaps miss that one?  Not surprising if you did. It was in the news for a day or two following the May 20^th theft, and then gone. But that is not because the pieces have been recovered. 

 

The five paintings were by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Georges Braque, and Fernand Leger., valued at $100-600 million depending on who you talk to.

 

In an interview with PBS, following the art theft, Robert Wittman, a former FBI agent and founder of the bureau's Art Crime Team was asked,  “'What is the -- what does your experience tell you about a case like this, about the possibilities of recovery?' and Mr. Wittman responded, 'My experience is that I have a 90 percent chance that these will be recovered. It's very unique and unusual that we don't recover these paintings. First of all, for them to be destroyed, that destroys the whole purpose of having them. I mean, they are valuable pieces.

 

'Secondly, you know, when they -- they will come back when they hit the marketplace. At some point -- it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow -- but, at some point in the future, these paintings will come back to the marketplace. And, at that time, they will be recovered.'” www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june10/art1_05-21.html

 

So – it can’t be rushed, apparently.

 

“'Thieves are very shortsighted,' says Anthony Amore, head of security for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. A Vermeer, a Rembrandt, and 11 other priceless pieces were stolen there 20 years ago this month and have never been found. 'History is full of examples of people who have stolen art they can’t sell and it winds up under their mother’s bed or in an attic somewhere,' says Amore." www.newsweek.com/2010/05/20/hot-potatoes.html

 

And yet other times it works out. Other times art has been recovered relatively quickly as in the case of $100 million worth of paintings from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 1991, which were later recovered in the getaway car parked at the train station.