Art Crime

Abstract

Art crime is a type of crime that quite often triggers the public’s fascination. Images of gentlemen thieves, large-scale heists, and elites illicitly engaging with high-priced works of art are one of the first things that come to mind. However, art crime is a type of crime that presents severe problems in countries around the world. First defined simply as “criminally punishable acts that involve works of art” in Art Crime by J. E. Conklin (Westport, CT: Praeger,1994: 3), the crime was initially classified into four broad categories: theft of art and antiquities, looting and plunder of antiquities, vandalism, and fakery and forgery. Art crime is not an unambiguous term: it does not consist of a single definition and it encompasses many different types of crime, also outside of the categories mentioned in the aforementioned Art Crime. Art crime has been considered a victimless crime, but as the works presented here show very clearly, the damages that these types of crimes do are often severely threatening to local communities, national heritage, and people’s identity. Art crime is a serious crime that has therefore seen increasing involvement of law enforcement to counteract it. Different countries implement different strategies to counteract this crime, where Italy has emerged as one of the leaders of art crime policing. The diversity however in definitions and categories of art crime, make the often transnational crime difficult to enforce. Additionally, art crime, and especially the trafficking of illegally excavated and looted antiquities fuels global inequality between what authors consider to be “source” and “market” countries, a discussion that is omnipresent within this bibliography. More recently, authors started to make parallels between different types of art crime, and organized crime, with primary scholarship focusing on undermining, money laundering, and smuggling and trafficking. This bibliography presents an overview of key sources, from a criminological perspective, on art crime. It is divided between the initial classifications of art crimes by Conklin 1994, under General Overviews of Art Crime, with added citations of distinct categories such as graffiti and illicit street art, manuscript and rare book theft, human remains trafficking, wildlife trafficking, and fossils. And, since it does trigger the public imagination, this bibliography presents an overview of some of the most striking narratives around highly publicized art crime cases. This bibliography presents articles from a predominantly criminological perspective, so readers interested in the legal discussion around art and heritage crime should consult the Oxford Bibliographies in Classics article “Looting and the Antiquities Market”.