Smuggling Art Across Borders: The Art Market

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Art increases in value over time. Many persons buy art as an investment. Some declare these assets while others are involved in smuggling art and secretly hide away valuable art in order to avoid losing any of the profit from a possible future sale, by paying taxes on the transaction.

Smuggling art earns some people a significant profit. This art is sold at a high price.   

A secret stash of art was recently discovered hidden away in Italy. The collection, which has work from artists including Cezanne and Picasso, is valued at 100 million Euros.

Apparently, one of the pieces was just about to be sold on the black market, earning the seller a significant profit that he would never pay taxes on.

That’s not the only reason why some holders of beautiful works of art don’t declare what they have.

Some wealthy collectors aren’t interested in reselling a piece. They only want to be able to own and appreciate the work at their leisure and they will go to any means necessary to do so, even if it requires stealing. Also, countries may restrict the removal of certain cultural artifacts but a buyer may decide that those rules don’t apply to them and decide to get the art anyway. Interpol has indicated that France and Italy are the two countries most affected by theft of cultural objects.

Some pieces first entered the black market in times of war, when valuable pieces would be stolen in bulk during raids. Hundreds of paintings went missing during World War Two. Other works of art enter the black market via art thieves, who earn their living by stealing important works of art, sometimes after receiving a request from a potential buyer. For example, in 2000, a museum in Stockholm lost two Renoirs and a Rembrandt to by armed robbers. On November 23, this year, a painting by Jan Brueghel was stolen from an art fair in Belgium. The painting is valued at 50000 Euros.

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The black market in fine art is said to be worth about 5 billion dollars a year.

Art that is stolen in order to be sold to a private collector is less likely to be recovered.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a special team of 13 agents to investigate art thefts. The team is supported by three Special Trial attorneys who can prosecute persons involved in the black market.

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