Friday, March 6, 2009

FBI top ten art crimes

Iraqi Looted and Stolen Artifacts
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft
Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco
Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius
The Van Gogh Museum Robbery
Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise
Theft of the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals, Panels 3-A and 3-B
Theft from the Museu Chacara do Céu
Theft of Van Mieris's A Cavalier
Theft from E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich

FBI Art Squad -- It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

Check this out -- from the website of the FBI art squad (and you thought I made them up!):

Art and cultural property crime - which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines -- is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.

Art Crime Team logoTo recover these precious pieces--and to bring these criminals to justice--the FBI uses a dedicated Art Crime Team of 13 Special Agents to investigate, supported by three Special Trial Attorneys for prosecutions...and it mans the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural properties for the use of law enforcement agencies across the world.

Please note: U.S. persons and organizations requiring access to the National Stolen Art File should contact their closest FBI Field Office; international organizations should contact their closest FBI Legal Attaché Office.uad

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Arsenic and Old Paint -- the Fourth in the Series!

I'm so excited to announce that the fourth book in the Art Lover's Mystery series, Arsenic and Old Paint, will be published in 2010 by Perseverance Press. I know 2010 seems like a long time from now, but after all, we have to finish writing the book, and then our wonderful new publisher has to do all their publishing magic!

Arsenic and Old Paint
finds Annie Kincaid on the trail of a forged, and stolen, piece of erotica that turns up at auction, and may have been used in an insurance scam. She winds up working in an exclusive men's club on Nob Hill, investigating tunnels under Chinatown, and tracking down a stolen 600-pound statue of Hermes with the dubious assistance of her new business partner, Michael-the-ex-art-thief, and her landlord Frank DeBenton-- who may hiding something from his own past.