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Serial art thief arrested again

theartnewspaper.com

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Re: Serial art thief arrested again

#41

Post by tonyedgecombe »

roscorollo wrote: post #33
PakG1 wrote: post #31

I couldn't understand why people steal famous art because there can't be any buyers who would feel safe about displaying it in their homes. There's no market to fence it. I tried googling for an answer and found only the explanation that there's no good rhyme or reason, the thieves are just that stupid. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/here-s-why-art-thieves-st...

I've looked into this before, following the same question you had. The most logical answer I found was the criminal version of an insurance policy. Basically they would steal said artwork but instead of selling, the point is to keep it in hidden storage. Then if at some point further down the line the criminal gets arrested in relation to another crime, they use the location of the artwork as leverage during plea bar…

I think this was going on with the mafia because the Italian legal system was conducive to it.

Re: Serial art thief arrested again

#43

Post by tonyedgecombe »

saagarjha wrote: post #39
hesk wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring a red light as a pedestrian carries a 5 € fine in Germany [1]. 10 € if it causes an accident. Jaywalking (crossing the street where you're not supposed to) also carries a 10 € fine. [1] https://www.bussgeldkatalog.org/fussgaenger/

That’s a pretty small fine for some pretty serious consequences…

It probably isn't meant to be punitive, just a deterrent. A 5p charge for plastic bags cut the usage massively in the UK.

Re: Serial art thief arrested again

#45

Post by Fnoord »

PakG1 wrote: post #31

I couldn't understand why people steal famous art because there can't be any buyers who would feel safe about displaying it in their homes. There's no market to fence it. I tried googling for an answer and found only the explanation that there's no good rhyme or reason, the thieves are just that stupid. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/here-s-why-art-thieves-st...

I'd assume its two-fold:

The deed itself; the kick of doing something which isn't allowed.

Owning the stolen goods; owning something unique akin to a trophy.

However a legit buyer of a piece of art can show it off (like people -mostly male, it seems- seem to have this urge to show off materialistic things such as their cars or smartphones). Someone who stole something, especially if its unique, cannot show it off because it increases the chance of them getting busted. So eventually, they need a normal income while they own these expensive trophies, or they need to launder the goods. Which doesn't work very well with such unique antiquities.

Re: Serial art thief arrested again

#46

Post by slap »

jacquesm wrote: post #37
gnulinux wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait WTF how does that even work? The guy picked up the painting while an entire crowd was looking at it, and proceeded to walk away... That's Borat level absurdity.

Many years ago at a car trade show in Amsterdam a high end luxury car was stolen under the noses of 10's of thousands of visitors and attendants. Thief #1 put a scratch in the paint of the car, thieves #2, #3 and #4 calmly drove a flatbed truck backwards through the crowded tradeshow to the stand of the brand whose car was stolen and pushed it on to remove the 'damaged car' from the trade show floor at the instructio…

Got a link about that theft?

Re: Serial art thief arrested again

#47

Post by jacquesm »

slap wrote: post #46
jacquesm wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many years ago at a car trade show in Amsterdam a high end luxury car was stolen under the noses of 10's of thousands of visitors and attendants. Thief #1 put a scratch in the paint of the car, thieves #2, #3 and #4 calmly drove a flatbed truck backwards through the crowded tradeshow to the stand of the brand whose car was stolen and pushed it on to remove the 'damaged car' from the trade show floor at the instructio…

Got a link about that theft?

It was well before the days of the internet, and it happened at Amsterdam Auto RAI.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoRAI

Possibly some newspaper morgue has an article about it, it caused quite a few giggles at the time. The funny thing is that nobody could describe the perps but everybody could describe their overalls.

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