Art has become third to only weapons and drugs as the preferred choice to steal, fake, embezzle, and just flat out launder money. Help us stop the foolishness.
Hijacked for greed
More and more art is part of our lives in ways that we really don´t even realize allows those that have to have more and those that don´t to stand aside and marvel. It is said that the best place to hide a crime is right in the public eye and that seems to more and more what public and private art has become.
Art has always been a bastion of the rich and powerful to employ hundreds, if not thousands of workers to portray their dominance, power, wealth, and ownership. There are very few civilizations that have not used art as much as a device to demonstrate power or obtain power over the centuries.
Let’s say you have USD10 million of dirty cash you need cleaning. Buy a piece of art worth that amount anonymously, then take that to Sotheby’s and put it up as collateral for a loan of USD9.8 million. Take the cash and there you have it. Clean money. Art is also attractive to criminals because of its ease in transportation. Gold or cash in equal value to that of a work of art would be far heavier to transport. Furthermore, the value art is not bound by markets or index since it holds no universal currency. This makes it far less risky compared to precious metals or currency whilst its price can be manipulated easily by private sales or at auctions.
The art market’s reputation has long suffered criticism for its relationship to money laundering. As the New York Times explained, “Secrecy has long been central to the art world. Anonymity protects privacy, adds mystique and cuts the taint of crass commerce from such transactions. But some experts are now saying this sort of discretion is not only quaint but also reckless when art is traded like a commodity and increasingly suspected in money laundering.”
For example we see time and time again how world leaders, corrupt and unjust ones that are eventually toppled by their populations, have almost endless amounts of paintings, sculptures, and decorations that have been paid for with taxes and theft. Why does this occure again and again? What makes art the perfect place for greed? And not only greed to have money or power, but to display that greed and power in the faces of everyone. What is about the human condition to not only be unjust, but to flash it without remorse?
Here’s just one example…
Last year, Leonardo DiCaprio had to hand over to authorities a USD 3.2 million Pablo Picasso painting and a USD 9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat collage after ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and its production company, owned by the former prime minister’s step-son, came under investigation. His paintings were gifted to him but the US Department of Justice’s anti-money-laundering division began claiming forfeiture of $540 million in assets that it says were bought with money stolen from the 1MDB fund and entities that it controlled. Upwards of $100 million worth of art were specified including in the Concetto Spaziale by Lucio Fontana (USD36 million,) and Tete de femme by Pablo Picasso (USD40 million.) This was on top of the Monet and Van Gogh paintings the Swiss authorities had already seized in 2016.
See who has been fooled lately…
Modern Art a Scam? The debate and the absurdity
I’m not sure it’s right to answer a question about modern art being a scam by discussing whether or not it’s art. Scam artists are indeed artists, after all. I’m going to go on a limb here and say modern art — the low-effort kind that became fashionable in the past century, that supposedly makesContinue reading “Modern Art a Scam? The debate and the absurdity”
Guggenheim Museum Lays Off 24 Workers, Citing Ongoing Losses
The Guggenheim Museum in New York (via Christopher Kemp/Flickr) The Guggenheim Museum in New York laid off 24 of its staff today, September 16. An additional eight employees who accepted voluntary separation packages will end their employment at the museum on September 30. “We have leaned into all the options we have available to us,Continue reading “Guggenheim Museum Lays Off 24 Workers, Citing Ongoing Losses”
Guggenheim Employees Call for Removal of Three Top Executives
The Guggenheim Museum in New York (via calamity_sal/Flickr) A group of current and former workers of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York is calling for the immediate resignation or removal of the museum’s top leadership. The group, called A Better Guggenheim, sent a letter to the museum today, September 16, listing allegations of sexism,Continue reading “Guggenheim Employees Call for Removal of Three Top Executives”
Christie’s to Sell $6 M. T. Rex Skeleton in October 20th Century Art Sale
Christie’s will offer a massive Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton this fall. Known as “Stan,” the specimen is 67 million years old. In an unexpected move, the fossil is set to hit the block during Christie’s evening sale of 20th Century art on October 6 and will be on public display at the house’s Rockefeller center locationContinue reading “Christie’s to Sell $6 M. T. Rex Skeleton in October 20th Century Art Sale”
Debt and Other Fabulations
During quarantine and amid worldwide Black Lives Matter protests, Silvia Federici—a Marxist feminist activist and academic—video chatted with Danish artist Hannah Toticki Anbert. The two discussed their respective work concerning debt as it relates to various fairy tales. Federici, who was born in Italy and is based in New York, is a key figure inContinue reading “Debt and Other Fabulations”
Art World Scammer Who Tricked Clients Out of $20 Million? Inigo Philbrick
Inigo Philbrick, the mysterious, stylish and formerly admired art dealer who ran galleries in London and Miami, was arrested by U.S. agents last Thursday after being found on the Pacific island of Vanuatu. Philbrick—a dashing dealer on the contemporary art scene until he wasn’t—made headlines towards the end of 2019 for his conspicuous disappearance in the wakeContinue reading “Art World Scammer Who Tricked Clients Out of $20 Million? Inigo Philbrick”
Are they worth the hype? Example – Richard Hambleton’s work?
Artist create art. Art is meant to provoke and inspire. So it can be said that art has created, provoked, and inspired a market of speculation far beyond what most people understand.
7 Iconic Art Scams you Should Know
Art and scams seem to become more and more synonymous as time goes by and good people come forward to tell about the smoke and mirrors. Here are 7 great scams that for their artistic talent is outstanding. For their ingenuity even more so. But like all great charades the curtain has to fall eventually…
Multi-millionaire Andy Hall fooled by mother and son
Hall was tricked by a mother-and-son team of master manipulators, but justice was served last week – in Concord, of all places – when a jury ordered Nikolas Gascard and mom Lorettann Gascard to pay Hall about $500,000 for selling him forged paintings.
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Have you seen something foolish?
Notice something in the art world that just seems off or doesn't add up? Unfortunately the art world is full of foolish people and acts. Tell us about your experiences and help us spread the world on the fraud that the art world has become for the average person.
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Aside from money-laundering, the world of art has had a rich and nefarious past. From theft to even murder, let’s have a look at some of the more fascinating stories behind art’s criminal past.
How we are foolish...
Vandalism
Vandalism is not a major crime but a chargeable offense none the less. Graffiti and street art are now certainly coming under the appreciation of being true art with artists like Banksy, enhancing areas as opposed to mere defacing. Vandalism of art itself, on the other hand, has caused far more financial distress. From the two separate slashings of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch to the spray painting of Picasso’s Guernica, vandals have always tried to make political or further artistic statements by being destructive. The most notorious of vandals is Hans-Joachim Bohlmann. Known as the ‘serial art vandal,’ he spent 29 years defacing over 50 works of art in public exhibitions. He threw sulfuric acid over works by masters including Rembrandt and Rubens, completely destroying one piece by Paul Klee. The total damage he caused to works of art before he died was estimated at over USD 180 million.
Theft
The art heist has been glamourised by countless Hollywood films but in reality, they were not that complicated to pull off before technological security advancements. In 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, arguably the Louvre’s most treasured artwork, went missing for two years. Vincenzo Perugia, an employee at the museum simply hid inside before it closed, removed the painting and walked off unobtrusively with it hidden under his smock once the museum had reopened the following morning. When he was finally caught in Italy trying to sell the masterpiece, he only served 6 months in prison as he was hailed a national hero for bringing Da Vinci’s work back home.
Two versions of Edward Munch’s The Scream was stolen. Once in 1994 when four men broke into the National Art Museum in Oslo and stole its version of the iconic painting, leaving behind a note that read, ‘Thanks for the poor security.’ Then in August 2004, two masked robbers entered Oslo’s Munch Museum, holding tourists and employees at gunpoint as they tore another version of “The Scream” as well as Munch’s “The Madonna” off the wall.
Unlike these examples, there are plenty of works that have been stolen and never recovered. The saddest of these cases would be Picasso’s Le Pigeon Aux Petits Pois, which the thief threw in the bin, shortly after it was stolen from the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The bin was emptied before authorities learned of its contents and it has never been recovered. If the painting hasn’t been destroyed, it will be worth over USD26 million at auction today.
Forgery
Like any item of luxury, if there is demand then there will be fakes. In 1996, art historian Thomas Hoving estimated that forged art comprised up to 40% of the art market. With modern day technology it is becoming a lot harder to sell forged works of art and smart forgers also intentionally make flaws or hide messages so as to protect themselves from criminal repercussion if they are caught. One forger who was exposed even capitalised on his infamy. Thomas Keating – who had claimed to have produced over 2,000 counterfeit paintings – served as a presenter on British television programs detailing the techniques of old masters. Some forgers make us question the world of art and those who claim to be experts in it. Wolfgang Beltracchi, duped the international art world for nearly 40 years by forging and selling paintings of early 20th-century masters, amassing a fortune in the millions.
Murder
Art seems to attract all types of criminal behaviour and the ultimate act of murder is no exception. Caravaggio is the most famous artists who committed this crime. Aggressive, ill-tempered and constantly in trouble for fighting and given to carrying a sword, Caravaggio eventually killed a man in 1606 during a fight and had to flee Rome. Whilst on the run from the law he painted some of his darkest works, full of regret and sin. Benvenuto Cellini, on the other hand, killed without much remorse in the 16th Century. He stabbed his brother’s murderer to death, killed a rival goldsmith and shot an innkeeper dead. He was never punished for his crimes as he was so admired as an artist.
In the 1980s, minimalist master Carl Andre was trialled for the second-degree murder of his wife, Ana Mendieta, who fell 34 floors to her death. Andre was eventually acquitted but the judgement remains questionable. It should be said that artists are not always the perpetrators but have also been the victim to attempts of murder. Andy Warhol was shot in his studio in 1968 by Valeria Solanas, who claimed Warhol had “too much control” over her life.
Some may argue that art will always have a dark side. It is what has been the motivation behind many famous canvases and only serves to enrich our experience of it.
“A work of art should be like a well-planned crime.”
Charles Baudelaire