NCJ Number
166502
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 63 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1996) Pages: 19-23
Date Published
1996
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes multiagency/multijurisdictional international cooperation in combating art theft.
Abstract
A part of the growing internationalization of crime is the phenomenon of art theft across borders. The French National Police established an Art Theft Squad and have developed significant expertise in art theft investigation and recovery. United States law enforcement, through the Office of the Legal Attache in Paris, has formed a cooperative relationship with the Art Theft Squad. A conference in December 1995 brought together investigators from the French National Police, French Customs and French Gendarmes to meet with representatives from both headquarters and field components of the US Customs Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The French brought extensive knowledge of the art world, its markets, dealers and brokers; the FBI contributed its expertise in long-term multijurisdictional investigations. The US-French collaboration was a major contributor to the recovery of a 17th-century tapestry which had been stolen in 1989 from the 11th-century Church of the Holy Cross in Aubusson, France. At a 1996 celebration in Aubosson to mark the tapestry's return, the French police commissioner in charge of the investigation acknowledged the very efficient help of the FBI, and stated that without their help the tapestry would not have been recovered.