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By Ilana Ozernoy

You know the story: A nefariousart collector sends a band of ac-robatic thieves dressed in blackturtlenecks to steal a rare and

priceless piece of art. They pull hun-dreds of thousands of dollars in rap-pelling equipment out of their back-packs and perform death-defying stuntsto retrieve the artwork from a museumthat has cutting-edge security (usuallyinvolving laser beams). The cat burglarsthen deliver the stolen painting to thelair of their unscrupulous benefactor,who hangs it in his private quarters and

savors it in solitude (usually with a bot-tle of French wine).But the reality of art crime is a much

ernments partner in the program.But Clapp of the National Environ-

mental Trust points out that if Washing-ton had acted aggressively in 2001 toraise fuel economy standards to 40 mpgover the next decadean ambitious goal

but possible with hybrid technologythenation already would have saved 1.5 mil-lion barrels of oil a day, the equivalentof the total amountproduced in the Gulfof Mexico and lost during the hurricanes.

Clapp offers the 2001 comments ofVice President Cheney that conserva-tion may be a sign of personal virtue,but it is not a sufficient basis, all by it-self, for a sound, comprehensive ener-gy policy as a way to understand thenations present plight. The Bush ad-ministration, Clapp says, is still ap-proaching it as a personal virtue and

not as a national policy. Be virtuous;help us through this crisis. And onceits through, lets party on.

Harsh criticism, perhaps, and surelythe nation did not improve its energy se-curity markedly under prior adminis-

trations after the 1970s oil crises.Theres a lot of rhetoric on the Hillabout reducing our dependence on un-stable parts of the world, says Verras-tro ofcsis. But in 2004, with strikes inNigeria, sabotage in Iraq, and politicalunrest in Venezuela, the largest sus-tained oil-supply disruption was due toHurricane Ivan. This year, no one doubtsthe biggest culprits will be Katrina andRita. The problem is right here in ourown backyard, says Verrastro. l

With Richard J. Newman

LEFT: KEVIN HORAN FOR USN&WR42 U . S . N E W S & W O R L D R E P O R T O C T O B E R 1 0 , 2 0 0 5

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THE ARTA

s soaring gas prices strain thebudgets of commuters, asmall but growing number of

employers are coming to the res-cue. At least half a dozen compa-nies, including Google, Timber-land, and Patagonia, are givingbonuses to workers who buy hy-brid or other gas-saving vehicles.

Initially offered to promote feel-good ideals like reducing pollu-tion, the benefit is now proving ahot ticket because it is good foreverybodys pocketbook. Hybridssuch as the Toyota Prius, which israted as getting 55 mpg, can slashcommuters gas bills by more thanhalf. And employers say the bene-fit reduces their human-resourcescosts by raising loyalty and easingrecruiting.

Fast-food fuel.Workers at Patago-nia are now more interested in the

companys offer of $2,000 to em-

ployees who buy hybridsor alternative-fuel cars,says Coley Malloy of theoutdoor wear company.She used the money tohave her 1984 Mercedesdiesel station wagon retro-fitted to run on vegetableoil recycled from fast-food

joints. That cut hermonthly fuel bills from$300 to about $70. It is alot of work to get the oiland maintain the car, she

warns coworkers. But whenevershe drives by a gas-guzzling suv,Malloy says, I rev my engine andlet them smell the tacos.

The benefit is also helping outmanagers at Hyperion. The SiliconValley software company has hand-ed out $5,000 grants to 75 workerswhove bought cars that get at least

45 mpg. Hyperion is so happy withthe benefit that it has posted advicefor other companies on its website,encouraging managers to offer thegrants to their workers to help theenvironment and help themselves.The grants improve morale andhave been a terrific recruiting toolamong hard-to-find techies, Hyper-ion spokesman Bob Schettino says:We have people who come to usand say, I really like what you guysare doing. I want to look at job op-portunities at your company.

Kim Clark

The popular and gas-saving Toyota Prius hybrid

Stop Guzzling, Start Cashing In

8/8/2019 The Art of the Heist

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more banaland tragictale. It is an un-derground business driven by common

criminals and petty thieves who walkinto museums in broad daylight andsteal from churches and libraries andpeoples homes. Much of what is stolenis damaged or destroyed in the hands ofrough amateurs, and in the UnitedStates only an estimated 5 percent is everrecovered. The reststolen paintingsand icons, looted antiquities, and rarebooksis a $4 billion to $6 billion in-dustry estimated to be the third-largestblack market in the world, after illegaldrugs and illicit arms.

A stolen painting or first-edition base-

ball card is worth only one tenth its valueon the street, but to a burglar, it stillcould be more valuable than a stolen

stereo and may be just as easy to obtain.Petty thieves have come on to the fact

that stealing art is more profitable thanconventional crime, says fbi SpecialAgent Robert Wittman, who has been onthe art beat for over 15 years. An aver-age bank robbery is less than a thousanddollars, and one Rembrandt is worth atleast a million, so one art theft is like athousand bank burglaries.

Easy money. Stealing a painting, itseems, is sometimes easier than robbinga bank. Many museums have small se-curity budgets and spend more moneyon acquiring new art than on securingit. Then there is the Catch-22 of putting

art on display: If the public has accessto the paintings, so do the thieves. Whentwo masked thieves sauntered into the

Munch Museum in Oslo in August2004, they did so in broad daylight.

Brandishing pistols, they yanked two ofMunchs most famous paintingsTheMadonna and The Screamright off thewalls in front of stunned museumgoersand security guards. The thieves walkedout, shoved the paintings into the backof a black Audi, and drove off. They arestill at large.

The biggest art heist in America hap-pened in an equally prosaic fashion. Fif-teen years ago, two thieves masquerad-ing as cops were ushered into theIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum inBoston by a sleepy security guard on

night duty. The thieves quickly over-powered the museums two guards,handcuffed them, and spent the next

Its notThe Thomas CrownAffair,but theft of artworkis a big-bucks business

The Gardner Museumleft empty frames asa reminder of thefts.

OF THE HEIST

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, U.K. / BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY; NASJONALGALLERIET,OSLO, NORWAY / BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY; ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, BOSTON / BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

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hour and a half plucking some of theworlds most valuable artwork from the walls. The stash of art they made offwithnow estimated to be worth at least$300 millionincluded Rembrandtsonly known seascape, The Storm on the

Sea of Galilee, an oil work by Jan Ver-meer, five drawings by Degas, and abronze Chinese beaker, thought to haveoriginated in 12001100 B.C. All of thisartwork is part of a cultural history, saysAnne Hawley, director of the GardnerMuseum. When these materials are re-moved, its as if BeethovensFifth Sym-

phony is removed. Its more than a mon-etary theftits a cultural theft, whichmakes it so heinous. The Gardner casealso remains unsolved.

But while big heists of brand-name artmake headlines, a steady trickle of valu-

able, albeit less famous, stolen col-

lectibles makes up the bulk of the blackmarket: Civil War-era swords and Amer-icana, rare-edition books, B-list paint-ings. The Art Loss Register, the worlds

largest database of stolen cultural prop-erty, lists over 160,000 paintings, sculp-tures, and other antiquities, adding10,000 to 15,000 new entries a year.(Among the items listed are the 13 itemsstolen from the Gardner Museum, some300 works by Marc Chagall, and over500 Picassos.) My greatest regret is thatthere isnt a universal database, saysDorit Straus, a vice president at ChubbInsurance Group and one of the Art LossRegisters subscribers. Its very difficultto match things up with their rightfulowners, even if you have a good de-

scription, even if you think art is unique.How many reclining nudes did Picassopaint? Theres just no way.

Meanwhile, the ap-petite for art in Americais only growing, makingit the biggest consumermarket in the world forstolen art, experts say.

You have a lot morepeople who have money, who want status, andare looking to buy art,says Straus, throwing herarms into the air. Wereinsatiable here! Peoplebuild bigger and biggerhouses. There isnt evenenough inventory to fillthe demand for art.

Straus says it is verydifficult to sell a pur-loined painting in a busi-

ness that runs on reputation, because nolegitimate art dealer or auc-tion house will want to tradein stolen property. The art ofart theft lies in the ability toconvert stolen property intohard currency. Though fewgood statistics from the crim-inal underworld are available,experts say that paintings,which are easier to transfer in-conspicuously across interna-tional borders than large sumsof money, are often used as

collateral in drug trades.No deals.Art thieves mightalso try to claim a ransom ona painting, which in the shortterm costs the insurer a frac-tion of the cost of paying out apolicy. But art-napping is apractice insurance companiessay they are loath to encourage.Its the same as governments

who dont negotiate with terrorists, saysStraus. If youre going tonegotiate with thieves,youre going to encourage

more of the same.The more likely sce-nario is that a thief, hav-ing realized that a stolenvan Gogh is not so easy todispose of, will simply siton the painting until hethinks it is safe for it tosurface. Thieves hold onto it until they either finda seller or die, says fbiagent Wittman. AnytimeIve ever seen paintingscome back, its through

people trying to sellthem. And Wittman hasrecovered a lot of cultur-

al property$140 millionworth since 1999 alone,including an originalcopy of the Bill of Rights,missing since 1865, andfive Norman Rockwells

that were stolen in the1970s. Wittman says heoften recovers items insting operations or whenhe gets wind of an up-coming sale.

Stolen art can pop upat thousands of auctionhouses, flea markets, andestate sales across Amer-ica. In an industry where business is often doneanonymously, by privatecontract or in backroom

dealings, the auction is the most publicand transparent forum, an unofficial sys-tem of checks and balances. Everything were going to sell is available online[and] from time to time, people will callin and say, Wait a minute! Thats myproperty, says Jo Backer Laird, seniorvice president and general counsel inChristies New York office.

After the massive looting of archaeo- logical sites in Iraq, the fbi expectsstolen antiquities to soon flood the U.S.marketplace. People dont even reallyknow whats being stolen, says David

Shillingford, who runs the Art Loss Reg-isters New York office. If something isbeing dug out of the ground, you donteven know it was stolen because thefirst person to see it for 6,000 years isthe thief.

Partly in anticipation of an influx ofIraqi artifacts, the fbi fielded an artcrime team last year (previously, artwas lumped into the broad category ofproperty theft). Wittman shepherded

seven agents through amini art school to teachthem the difference be-

tween a Rembrandt anda Picasso. Unlike theItalian carabinieri or theSpanish art theft squad, which boasts hundredsof art cops, Wittman re-mains the fbis only full-time man on the job.

Whoever would haveheard of a baseball cardgoing for $500,000?asks Wittman, shakinghis head. Its becometreasure, get-rich-quick

stuff. [And] as the valuegoes up, so does thefraud. l

The Madonna

Thieves stole a versionof this Munch work in

Oslo. Value: $15 million.

The Storm

on the Sea of

Galilee

Rembrandts seascape.

Value: Unknown.

Money & Business

View of Auvers-Sur-Oise

This Czanne was taken from the University ofOxfords Ashmolean Museum. Value: $3 million.