I've always been interested in art. I love going to museums and
looking at paintings and sculpture. I have been to some of the finest
art museums in the world. I have been to the Louvre, The Musee d'Orsay,
The National Gallery of Art, The Hermitage, The Academia. I have seen
the Mona Lisa. I have viewed the works of Matisse, Van Gough, Degas, Manet, Monet, Lichtenstein, O'Keefe, Seurat, Rembrandt, and Rodin, to name but a few.
A few years ago, I read an appellate court case involving a
woman's attempt to recover a painting from a Swiss museum that her
family lost during the Holocaust. That got me interested in stolen art.
Before World War II, art was bought and sold on the open market
without much question of where the piece came from (its provenance). The art world's
history is rife with theft and looting. Most of the great museums in
the world acquired large parts of their collections more than a hundred
years ago via looting and theft of ancient places - Greece, Egypt,
Italy, the Middle East, and China. Victors in wars often took art as spoils of victory. Art was never returned to rightful owners after the conflict ended.
During World War II, there was theft and looting of art works on a
scale not seen before or since. The Germans stole from everyone. The
great stained-glass windows in Notre Dame in Paris were disassembled,
pane by pane, labeled and numbered and hidden from the Nazis. The
Hermitage hid its gigantic collection from the Germans. But the Germans
managed to steal many thousands of pieces of art from private
collections, mostly Jewish. Some Jewish people stored their works of
art in Swiss banks in an effort to outwit the Nazis and leave something
for them to come back for. Little did they know the Swiss would pull a
fast one on them later by refusing to give the art back without proper
documentation, which in most cases, had been lost or destroyed.
The theft during World War II was so prolific that the United
States Army assembled a unit of soldiers who did nothing but repatriate
art with its owners after the war. Smithsonian Magazine had a
fascinating article about the Army's efforts to return stolen art last
year. It was the first time in history that the winning side in a war
returned the spoils to their rightful owners. And it set the model for
what happened in Baghdad after the invasion. Matthew Bogdonas led a
unit that tried to recover the art looted from the Baghdad museum after
the invasion (his book Thieves of Baghdad relates his story of trying to recover the looted pieces). They recovered 6,000 pieces. 9,000 pieces are still
missing and many were destroyed in the looting that occurred after we
invaded.
The Baghdad Museum opened last week for the first time since the
invasion. Even with pieces missing the the building still not
completely repaired, the director of the museum wanted to re-open to
add one more piece of civility to Baghdad. The Baghdad Museum, by the
way, has made claims with many museums all over the world, including
some in the United States, for the return of pilfered artifacts. The
Chinese Government has made loud rumblings in the international community for the return of pieces looted more than one hundred years
ago. Greece has made claims with the British Museum to get the Elgin
marbles back. In perhaps the most famous case, the Getty Museum in Los
Angeles agreed to return many artifacts to Italy after it was
discovered the curator obtained the pieces with questionable provenance
and agreed to tighten its standards for obtaining pieces for its
collection.
Sometimes museums are the victims of theft. In 1994, Edvard
Munch's The Scream was stolen from its museum in Oslo. It was the
second time it was stolen. The painting is actually chalk and pastels
and is very fragile. The museum, like so many in the world, had lax
security and the painting was easy to steal. It was recovered thanks to
the tireless efforts of an undercover Scotland Yard agent.
In 1990, the greatest art heist in history happened right here in
the United States. The Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston was
robbed of $500 million dollars worth of art. 5 Degas paintings, a
Vermeer and two Rembrandt were stolen by two men dressed as police
officers. The theft occurred on St. Patrick's Day. The Museum had lax
security and offered a $5 million reward for the return of the
paintings. Speculation has abounded as to who stole the paintings. Many
think the paintings were stolen to fund IRA activities. The crime
remains unsolved.
The FBI has a website that keeps track of stolen and recovered art. It can be found here .
Becky talked on her blog the other day about who should own art. Whether people should buy and sell art and keep it from public view. I'm of mixed feelings. I think that everyone should have access to art. But we live in a capitalist society in which people buy and sell art for ridiculous amounts of money. I'm truly impressed with those who buy it and allow it to be hung in a museum where others can enjoy it. As art prices continue to rise to meteoric heights, museums will more and more be unable to afford new acquisitions and more and more art will fall into private hands. It's a loss for everyone.
If a private party owned the Mona Lisa, I would never have been able to see it. Or Rodin's Thinker. Or Michelangelo's David. I would not be the same for not having seen them. Art can have a tremendous impact on people. It has emotional power. I remember standing in front of David and wondering how Michelangelo chiseled such a perfect sculpture. I remember standing in front of Maximilian Luce's painting of Notre Dame and feeling such awe over the use of color and light. Art can be powerful and emotional and it makes me sad to think that irreplaceable pieces are lost to thieves or hidden away from public view.
It's an issue that will continue to invite debate and controversy. And probably will not be solved easily or soon.
[Edited to add: I had a pretty shitty weekend and Monday. So I changed my video to Maroon 5 because Adam Levine is a tall drink of water on a really hot day and I needed that today. Not that you all care, but I just thought I'd mention it.]
