LOST ART: The Art Loss Register Casebook: Volume One

Art theft is big business, and the international black market in art is peopled with shady characters doing deals in billions of dollars. This fascinating book takes a detailed look at ten case histories of stolen art being retrieved, the wheeler-dealers at the hub of the machinations, and the research and sheer persistence over decades that finally result in a legal victory. A key organisation at the centre of restitution is the ALR or Art Loss Register. At the end of the 20th century, the Bakwin family entered litigation to claim a stolen Cezanne. The lawyer Madirosian, who acted for the art thief Colvin, described how Colvin had consulted him about a gun crime before leaving for Florida to fence a bag of stolen paintings. Colvin was subsequently shot dead and a year later Madirosian found the bag of paintings stashed in his attic. He wanted to return them, but claimed a 10% finder's premium, and the case rumbled on for the next decade. The question of fakes and forgeries also enters the equation, with Wolfgang Beltracchi faking an elaborate photographic record for a fictitious collection which he filled with his own fake old masters. Another case history concerns a painting said to be by J M W Turner and looking very similar to the Tate's famous "Hurrah for the Whaler Erebus! Another Fish!". Faryab, the dealer who discovered the "sleeper", took it to the Tate and scientists examined the painting with its mysterious thumbprint. Provenance was at first good but when doubts were cast on Faryab's record, Sotheby's was not prepared to take the risk. Paintings looted in the Holocaust have been the subject of numerous court cases in the past 80 years, and the case history here is Picasso's "Femme en Blanc" of 1922. The current owner bought the painting in good faith in Paris in 1975 and eventually agreed to pay restitution in return for being acknowledged the rightful owner. 15.9 x 23.5 cm, 342pp, colour photos.