Unloading stolen art will be harder than grabbing it was

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NEW YORK -- One of the largest thefts of fine art in European history has left investigators scratching their heads over why someone would nab more than $160 million worth of impressionist and modern works when recent high-profile art heists have a poor track record of profitable paydays.The shocking theft took place in Zurich, Switzerland, at the E. G. Buehrle Collection on Sunday, when three men wearing ski masks burst into the private museum shortly before closing. One held staff on the floor at gunpoint while the others collected paintings by Monet, Degas, van Gogh and Cezanne. The thieves made off in a getaway car with the paintings visible in the open van, witnesses said."This is the biggest robbery in Switzerland in an art museum and one of the biggest art robberies in Europe," said Peter Rueegger, head of investigations for the Zurich police. But experts say the thieves will find it more difficult to unload the works than it was to nab them in the first place."I think the speed of communications, the speed of photographs on the Internet, the quickness that police are given the information, all tend to make it much more difficult to try to sell the pieces," Robert Wittman, the senior investigator on the FBI's art-crime team, said. "Today it's a whole different world, communication moves so quickly that you can't outrun it."Paintings taken in high-profile thefts during the past couple of years, including a Goya lifted in November, 2006, from a transportation truck in a rural Pennsylvania parking lot, two works by Picasso taken last March from the home of the painter's granddaughter and two works taken in December from a museum in Rio de Janeiro, have all been recovered.Two paintings by Edvard Munch stolen in August, 2004, from the Munch Museum in Oslo were recovered two years later by Norwegian police, damaged but salvageable.The E. G. Buehrle thieves got away with Monet's Poppies Near Vetheuil (1880), Degas's Count Lepic and his Daughters (1871), Van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches (1890) and Cezanne's Boy in the Red Waistcoat (1894-95).This comes on the heels of another heist last week near Zurich, in which two Picasso oil paintings were lifted while on loan from the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany.Most art thefts target mid-market pieces, paintings that are worth less than $1-million and which, therefore, do not capture the world's attention. But the strength of the art market the past few years has sparked interest among thieves.The thefts in Zurich, however, were almost certainly not the result of an order by a well-heeled collector looking to pick up masterpieces on the cheap."If someone has $100-million, they could buy their own art and have it legitimately, legally, and not worry about having the police catch them," Wittman said. "A collector wants to show his collection. They enjoy the attention they get by sharing these pieces with their collecting friends. When you have stolen property like that you can't show to anybody, so it takes away from your own private enjoyment."Still, ordered thefts do occur, albeit not masterminded by evil art-collecting billionaires. Organized crime rings are known to use stolen art as collateral for arms and drugs, and intelligence agencies have suggested that terrorist activities have been funded by the illegal trade in antiquities from Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries in turmoil. Even at a highly discounted rate, art and antiquities can be easier to obtain and convert into cash than other sources of funding.Museums around the world generally do not arm their guards, preferring to prevent thefts by limiting possible exit routes and erecting barriers rather than risk gun battles that could harm both artworks and patrons.(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)