So logically there is a market. This scheme wasn't opportunistic, it was planned and involved some investment. The perpetrators therefore aren't complete morons; they have surely thought about what they'd do after making their getaway. I would like to know something about this market for stolen unique treasures.
Swedish journalist Anders Rydell wrote a book called 'Plundrarna: Hur nazisterna stal Europas konstskatter' a few years ago; with any luck it has been translated into a language you're comfortable with. It deals with how the nazis looted art prior to and during the war, but also devotes a few chapters to what happened after the war - dealing in artworks of dubious provenance, legal issues when heirs to the original owners wanted the looted art back &c.
Perhaps not quite what you had in mind, but most interesting and well researched.
Not really. The only planning apparent is "had an escape vehicle", which does not meet the requirements for "not morons".
> In 2013, a crown and sceptre used in the funeral of Sweden’s 16th-century King Johan III were stolen from Västerås, another city on the shore of Lake Mälaren. They turned up a few days later in two large rubbish bags at the side of a highway after a tip-off to police.
Obviously the thieves weren't after them for any mundane value they possessed. <insert story about occult conspiracy theory here> (Back when I ran tabletop RPGs, this is exactly the sort of thing the PCs would have done.)
Exactly. In 2012 seven priceless paintings (Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet) were stolen from Kunsthal museum, Rotterdam. Speculation about 'the art theft of the century' all over the place..
Appeared they were extreme amateurs that just smashed a window, carried away the paintings in the back of their car to Romania. Didn't know what to do with them, and when one of the robbers was caught, his mother burnt them all in the fireplace.
The last time The Scream was stolen, it was meant to create a diversion; Norway had recently had a Heat-style armed robbery in which a police officer was shot dead; The Scream was stolen in an effort to divert resources from the robbery investigation. (IIRC)
I saw an article on here a few days ago that suggested you could detect isotopes present in "more recent" forgeries that came about as the result of the nuclear testing age that would not be present on the originals.
You can test the pigments in the paint to see if period-correct materials were used. A lot of forgeries use pigments that wouldn't have been invented or otherwise available at the time.
Assuming there are copies, "the original" is the one everything believes to be the original. If the one actually created by Munch is a different one, it's not worth a whole lot if people don't generally believe that to be the case.
Nitpick: it is a bit weird to talk of the original or even of the Scream. Munch created four versions, two paintings and two pastels (in addition, about 45 prints of a lithograph were made, a few of which were hand-colored by Munch)
It seems we don’t know for sure which is the oldest. One of the paintings and one of the pastels both are from 1893. It’s natural to assume the pastel was a study for the painting, but we don’t know for sure.
Maybe there is a market, maybe not. Other possible goals could be also to attack the swedish crown distroying a symbol of their power, to humiliate the police, to seed insecurity and fear in the population and blame foreigners. Maybe the thieves where paid in advance... Is not easy to guess the real motivation currently.
>Other possible goals could be also to attack the swedish crown distroying a symbol of their power, to humiliate the police, to seed insecurity and fear in the population and blame foreigners.
That goes a little too deep into conspiracy theory territory. There are much easier ways for all of those things than making a heist, but even more importantly, more direct ways to send those messages.
To be fair it was well couched with words like “maybe”
and “possible... could be...” which are normally well understood as up front markers that the ideas presented are mere speculation. It is a bit out there but it’s an interesting line of inquiry.
How deep into conspiracy theory territory is positing an entire secret market of buyers and sellers of stolen artifacts? Because that seems much deeper than simply stealing jewels to make a political statement.
>How deep into conspiracy theory territory is positing an entire secret market of buyers and sellers of stolen artifacts?
Well, we do know (1) that fences' [1] are a thing and have existed since time immemorial, (2) all kinds of stolen jewlery and art pieces found buyers all the time, and (3) the majority of heists and burglaries (as opposed to symbolic or terrorist acts) are simply motivated by the money. Very few thieves ever proceeded to made some political statement (e.g. the Bonnot gang).
If it's intended as a "political statement", then they chose a very roundabout and ineffective way to go about it, not to mention one that could land them in jail. They could just as well storm the palace or the place where the goods were kept and put out some banners or make some (non felonious) noise without stealing anything (much less covertly). The "happening" statement in such cases has been done lots of times (has happened in the Luvre, in Notre Dam, in various palaces, in Italian museums, in official conferences, etc. Pussy Riot are a good late example).
Not much conspiracy there, as it's well known that such a market exists and that it has enough people who don't care about the source of aquiration. Such heists happen every some years.
Not if Occam's razor (plus centuries of actual experience with catching fences -"professional" buyers of stolen goods- in such the black markets) simply puts the profit motive as the most possible explanation.
It's as if people never heard of art and jewellery heists before...
I'm saying that cooperation between buyers and sellers is something that goes on since time immemorial not some big conspiracy with unknown motivations...
Not at all, the royal family in Sweden doesn't have more power than any other celebrity. Though the king has parliamentary immunity (that be said the consequences of obvious wrongdoing would be swift and severe).
Sure, the king is also a military general. But as with everything about the royal family it is mostly ceremonial.
This was a smash and grab of a church with some thought used for finding a quiet spot for the smashing part and to make a faster escape with bicycles.
It was admittedly clever to have a boat ready, since it's easy to vanish to Mälaren, make a landfall, dump the boat and switch to a getaway car.
Svenska kyrkan really needs to do a risk assessment and take this seriously, since it is not the first time and won't be the last either and relying on the good will of people is not a strategy for preventing theft of historical artefacts.
If anyone can find a good book about this (heavy on detail, not just a single anecdotal heist story), I'd love to hear about it. In fact, I'd love even more something super academical and theoretical. Sounds like an interesting change of pace.
I read about a Canadian thief, who was exceptionally good (can't remember his name now). He stole some priceless stuff, and just kept them in his basement. He did it for the thrill (one of the details I remember - he parachuted into a heavily guarded museum). He only got caught because of his arrogance.
Not saying these guys are thrill seekers, but apparently there are people who do it just for "fun" and don't care about selling their loot.
2004 break leading to original conviction: "Seeing a dolly and other odd equipment inside, he took down the license plate number. Police ran it. The vehicle had been rented from Avis by one Gerald Daniel Blanchard."
2017 arrest: "[O]fficers used video surveillance footage of the parking lot and traced the suspect’s licence plate to a car rented in Blanchard’s name."
Being a successful, repeat criminal must be so exhausting. Before the 2004 incident the guy already had several fake identities he presumably could have used. I guess there's no end to how much effort you can put into covering your tracks and eventually you just have to roll the dice.
Authorities found a parachute on the palace grounds hours after the heist. Perhaps subterfuge, but not unbelievable given how he undertook other heists--e.g. installing false ductwork in banks.
They arent going to sell it. These things have uses to criminals. For example, if ever caught for something else, knowing the location of a missing cultural treasure is a great chip during plea bargaining.
It is common knowledge in law enforcement. In Europe, the larger crime families have traditionally kept caches of valuable art. These jewels will be under someone's floorboards, perhaps for generations.
Something similar happened with lower-ranking German officers towards the end of the war. Art, like gold, transcends boarders and language.
The simplest plan now is to wait a week, then send an anonymous email to every newspaper in the country with a picture of the items over the day's newspaper and say "X bitcoins to this address for this item, Y bitcoins for this one". Reasonable prices, mind you. Aim for a year or two's salary for each thief maybe.
The police and government would know that the investigation will cost more than that amount. They'll look stupid to pay the money, but they'll not even bother trying to recover even one of them.
This reminds me of the opening scene of The Italian Job (one of my favorite movies), when they drop the safe through the floor into a Venice canal, where they crack it under-water while a decoy motorboat above-water leads police on a wild goose chase.
You should look out for the original Italian Job as well (if you haven't seen it). The mini driving is great (when the mini was in its heydey, winning rallies, left foot braking...)
I won't complain about it being a spoiler since the sentence begins by saying that it's from a movie so anybody could stop reading before reaching the description, but it is a spoiler, it's a twist that happens that is spoiled by knowing what happens.
George Clooney doesn't exactly phone it in, but we've seen this Act 1 before, and the plot eventually, and mercifully, ends on an unlikely emotional beat that neither satisfies nor offends his uncritical fans. 4/10.
There was a similar heist of Renoir and Rembrandt paintings from Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, where the thieves fled by boat too. Eventually they were found because they bought the boat the day before and the seller could lead the police to the suspects!
I hope they get away with it. Knowing that the royal jewels were successfully stolen is more interesting than looking at them behind some glass for 15 seconds.
There's a huge amount of 'interesting' things one can do which are illegal, immoral, depraved and worse. (I'd argue that stealing is generally at the very least illegal and immoral, but opinion may vary depending on who the 'injured' party is.)
Is "interesting" your #1 measure for the value of an action? That seems problematic. 9/11 was interesting as hell--we're still talking about it and retelling the stories.
I was exaggerating to make a point, obviously. I'm saying there are some clear problems with the idea that crime is OK as long as it's entertaining enough.
Except that's not what they said, there's plenty of context in both their statement and this entire thread you're willfully ignoring to make that leap.
Which context is that? Dokem thinks that getting to read about a heist is more "interesting" than having historical objects available for public viewing. The only other person who agrees with him offers no reason except that it's "hilarious."
Do you think the historical value doesn't count because it was on public display at a church instead of a museum? Or because it was on loan from a private (royal) collection? Or just that it's okay to rob historical displays as long as it entertains you? I don't understand your argument.
I don't understand yours. You're turning Dokem's specific comment about a museum heist into some kind of general attitude towards all crime being ok provided it's interesting.
The article clearly states nobody was hurt in the heist, there's no violence in this particular situation whatsoever and you're pulling in terrorists flying planes into skyscrapers.
They will be sold to a rich "private collector" who will keep them for a few generations then they'll be returned. The "private collector" will likely not have any issues with their moral turpitude.
Hum... I'm wondering if the police could trace a motorboat path, at least partially, studying the dislodged sediment, If you scan the bottom and find a fresh groove you could try to build a vector at least. If the trace is missing in some shallower canals, maybe they could refine the search.
What’s amazing to me is that the thieves face up to six years in prison for this. I feel like in the US it would be 30 years! Note that I don’t actually know, six years just struck me as short.
The general idea in Sweden used to be that en criminals should become rehabilitated, rather than punished.
The crime rate is much lower than US, but I doubt it's related to the relatively lenient sentences. Right now it seems to attract burglars from our eastern neighbours more than anything else, since they risk 3-4 month in jail compared to up to 10 years...
I also doubt that many people gets "rehabilitated" in Swedish prisons - probably higher risk they are recruited to ISIS. I think the trend is that you either never do another crime again, or you continue until you either die or get old.
Because of that, I would personally like to see much harsher punishments for crimes that involves physical violence (or threats thereof) and especially repeated offences - which is more or less not considered at all in Sweden, just to get rid of the criminals from the streets for longer periods, and also stop the recruiting into the growing number of criminal gangs.
> I also doubt that many people gets "rehabilitated" in Swedish prisons - probably higher risk they are recruited to ISIS. I think the trend is that you either never do another crime again, or you continue until you either die or get old.
Re-offending rates in Sweden have consistently been among the lowest in Europe by a huge margin. As of 2014 it was around the 40% mark, which is exceptionally low.
I'm far from an expert but the first google hit seems to indicate that the re-offending rate is higher in Sweden than in US, and on par with the rest of EU, except the other Nordic countries that have half the rate.
The paper looks legit. The numbers are not directly comparable, so they are probably just indicative. You might be an expert, so please correct me if that's the case.
Except for Singapore, the countries at the top have a strong welfare state. Singapore might have a strong judicial system (and good education) instead. The countries are also all quite small.
Here are the reported 2-year reconviction rates.
Norway 20%
Iceland 27%
Singapore 27%
Denmark 29%
Finland 36%
US 36%
Canada 41%
Sweden 43%
Scotland(1yr) 46%
N.Ireland 47%
Germany 48%
Netherlands 48%
Ireland 51%
France 59%
England/Wales 59%
Why Sweden comes out exceptionally bad compared to it closest neighbors is unfortunately not studied, and the authors are intrigued by this fact.
I'm not though; If there is an actual difference, I would guess it's related to difference in crime rate in general, which is basically caused by the much higher immigration.
It's not the crown jewels. It's a set of "royal jewels" that were crown jewels for a past king. They're not the crown jewels that are in use by the current royal family.
I want to know under whose responsibility they were when this happened. Because it should not be as easy as just smashing some glass to get to them, this feels like negligence.
Bold but stupid. They have no way to sell these objects. Unless it was made-to-order, the thieves are out of luck with monetization.
While the objects will likely be found, the saddest thing is that they will also likely be damaged when handled by a bunch of careless people. The objects are several hundreds of years old and are not made to be handled roughly. For example the Västerås objects were apparently dumped from a car and this left its marks. I'm hoping these will be returned.
I also hope the Svenska kyrkan starts to take better pre-emptive care of storing these culturally important objects.
The “crown jewels” stolen are actually jewelry, not simple jewels. They include two crowns and a royal orb; they are intricately worked and include soft metals (and, of course, settings with stones). Rough handling can damage the decorative the working, break the metal parts, knock jewels out if their settings, etc.
Damaging the jewels proper is not the main concern.
Of course, but these are historical artefacts (the crown jewels are kept in Stockholm) and their cultural value is way higher than the monetary value, and part of this value is that they are well preserved and have a traceable history.
So if the stolen objects are damaged it is just sad. Like someone snapping a finger off an old statue, or ripping pages off an old and culturally valuable book.
Why sell when you could just return them for a 'finders fee'? Send a demand into the authorities(with proof of possession of the artefacts) for $Xm in some crypto currency with good anonymity like monero or zcash. Once you receive the transaction, go leave the artefacts in the woods some where and then give the authorities the GPS coordinates.
>go leave the artefacts in the woods some where and then give the authorities the GPS coordinates.
Or don't. Who's going to stop you after you get the money? You still have the jewels you can still sell them, or put them in your own private collection.
That's why police don't usually comply with criminal demands for ransom; criminals don't obey the law in the first place, why would they be expected to hold up their end of a deal?
If there really isn't a market, then keeping them could only bring trouble if you're ever found with them. Maybe you really do care about the cultural value of them, but also want to get rich in the meanwhile.
Or sell bit-by-bit. With 50% before and 50% after the good are "delivered". Thereby building some level of trust and allowing the buyer not to take too much risk at once.
Subtitles is good so that you can speed up the video beyond the point where you can no longer hear what someone is saying. You can also watch without sound.
For the hard of hearing, non-native speakers who are used to subtitles from non-dubbed movies, etc. etc. I suppose.
I do know that, as a non-native English speaker, I've always appreciated having English subtitles for English-speaking films. It helps immensely if you miss a word, there's a little too much mumbling, or whatever. One of the best (in both ways) examples being the movie Snatch.
