While art invokes the spectrum of our feelings, art buyers are also purchasing peace of mind because collectors generally trust artists and dealers. Confidence in these transactions is the principal support for valuation, so it’s puzzling that only a small fraction of art sold carries robust authentication.

Art crime remains the third highest-grossing criminal trade in the world. Counterfeit persists and is hard to measure beyond high profile cases like Philip Righter, but theft is common, with “grab and run” accounting for about half of the loss according to the FBI.

Most artists, galleries, and collectors rely on some level of physical security. Over time, arts protective layers have grown more sophisticated, from guards and glass to cameras and sensors. Even the science of authentication continues to advance in the face of persistent threats.

Working toward nominal authenticity and physical security are certainly worthwhile pursuits. However, the market thinks art businesses can do more. In fact, Deloitte’s Art & Finance reporting finds stakeholders persistently agree that the art market needs to modernize its business practices to meet the expected standards of a transparent, trustworthy, and developed marketplace.

FOCUSING ON WHAT MATTERS

In this context, let’s reinforce that most artists and galleries are simply trying to run a business – building relationships and making sales in a highly fragmented industry.

 “We spend a lot of time with our clients,” says Susan Watts, owner of Olson-Larsen Galleries, a full-service gallery in Iowa representing Midwest artists. “Our sales cycle is usually quite long – weeks, if not months. Our relationships are so important to our business and investing in relationships has benefitted us during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Further, the basic need to keep track of inventory and sales is not unique to art businesses, and modernizing business practices looks a lot like what Metalcraft has seen in other industries – moving from spreadsheets to more sophisticated systems for asset tracking. Specifically, there are now a host of cloud-based management systems for galleries and collectors. For example, Watts relies on Art Systems, an automated database software, for managing her gallery’s business.

Metalcraft got its start supporting asset identification and tracking processes in 1950, building a global business selling bar code tags, which still deliver value today by reducing the time and errors associated with manual data entry. However, barcodes – like spreadsheets – require significant human effort. Modernizing art businesses also can involve what Metalcraft has seen in other industries: evolving systems to address security and management challenges using radio frequency identification (RFID).

THE CASE FOR RFID

RFID technology automates many business processes by using electromagnetic fields to transmit data from an RFID tag to a reader, allowing for accurate, real-time data useful for management tasks – for example, tracking artwork as it is received, moved, or sold. The tags can be read by handheld devices or fixed antennae at doors or points of sale.

Indeed, the needs of art businesses aren’t much different than others Metalcraft has served in developing a range of RFID tags to durably meet the demands of customers tracking inventory and other assets. They supported their first art tracking project in 2012 when Silent Partner Technologies brought their background in RFID and barcode tracking to the development of a flexible RFID solution for asset management and theft deterrence for art collectors and galleries.

“Display, storage, transfers, and sales are all important events when we’re talking about high-value art,” said Ted Kostis, president of Silent Partner Technologies. “You want to know where your artwork is at all times.”

The company’s web-based solution uses a mix of technologies suited to the needs of the individual collection manager. For some galleries, Kostis installs antennae to complete a web-based inventory automatically every few minutes. Other art clients are content to complete inventory with a handheld RFID reader during periodic inventory or handling – moving from storage to display, for example.

In all instances, the premise is that each piece of art is detailed in a database and assigned to an RFID tag that is attached discretely to the back or inside of the artwork – each tag’s pre-encoded number links to the data, allowing a traceable history of each piece accessible via the Web. 

“One of the real benefits of RFID is that it greatly reduces the time to locate art and removes the need to handle a piece during identification,” said Kostis. Wireless scanning via RFID also reduces the potential for catastrophe, such as dropping or destroying a work of art. Collection managers can identify art without moving it in a gallery or unpacking it from a shipping crate because tags can be read right through the crate — reducing labor, time, and potential damage. 

Using RFID in an asset tracking solution gives owners and sellers improved visibility and control of high-ticketed gallery and museum artworks. They can run more frequent inventory counts to get a handle on the whereabouts of the pieces of art at each location.

“Many in the art world still don’t know that RFID exists,” said Kostis. “There’s so much potential. RFID can help art sellers confidently expand. Museums and private collections get better visibility to high-value artwork with less effort.” For example, Kostis’ testing with Metalcraft tags inventoried 93 larger paintings in a 30,000 square foot floor in a New York City high-rise in under three minutes and read 237 paintings inside of a storage room under two minutes. “How could one person do that work without RFID?” asks Kostis. “It would easily take an hour, but most pieces aren’t even moveable alone.”

AUTHENTICITY AND TRUST

At Metalcraft, RFID promises faster, better art collection management. Beyond saving time and money, it allows people to focus on relationship-building that strengthens trust.

In October, Metalcraft introduced a tamper-proof RFID tag for stronger asset tracking and authentication. The DuraDestruct RFID security tags are durable and can’t be transferred, featuring a patent-pending construction that renders labels useless upon tampering or removal. These are discrete tags, only 4 inches wide, 1 inch tall and just .02 inches thick, that can be read from a distance of 40 feet in the context of an RFID-based art tracking system. For galleries and collectors, it’s another way to offer peace of mind to buyers as it provides an additional level of security for tracking and authenticating high-value assets. 

Art remains vital. Now more than ever, it’s important to build efficiency and confidence in the sharing of art with the world.

About the author:

Kyle Bermel is Chief Operating Officer of Metalcraft, a designer, engineer, and manufacturer of custom property identification solutions.

The post Building Peace of Mind Through Positive Identification appeared first on Art Business News.

By Melissa Hart

The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that thieves steal $4 billion to $6 billion worth of art worldwide each year from galleries, museums, and private homes. Some art thieves covet a particular piece and take it for their own enjoyment. Others pilfer paintings, sculptures, and
photographs with the intention of selling them, sometimes funding terrorist activities and other illegal pursuits with the profits. Still others—private owners—fake art theft to cash in on insurance claims. Both public and
private organizations maintain vast image databases with information on provenance and sales history of works of art and employ individuals who dedicate their days to recovering missing art.

Among the organizations focused on the search and recovery of stolen art is the Art Theft Detail of the Los Angeles Police Department. It maintains a webpage that describes cases on which its detectives have worked. “These stories are presented to you for several reasons,” the website states. “First, they will give you the flavor of what it is like to be an art cop. You will see that art investigations involve many different crimes, including burglary, theft, consignment fraud, investment scams, fraudulent art, insurance fraud, elder abuse, and phony estate sales.”

One of the LAPD’s most memorable case studies, “Tibetan Artifacts and Pot-Bellied Pigs,” involved a New York City collector and scholar of Tibetan art who trusted a handyman with her keys. The man, pretending to be a student of Buddhism, stole more than 200 antiquities from her collection. Detectives received a tip 11 years later that the thief might reside in Los Angeles. They found him living in the house of a frail retiree, with some of the stolen Tibetan pieces, by then cracked and crumbling, displayed in a room. In an adjoining room, they discovered a group of pot-bellied pigs rooting around in urine and feces.

Since 1993, LAPD’s Art Theft Detail has recovered more than $121 million worth of stolen art. Many of the cases it describes are colorful—even absurd—and often preventable. Other case titles on the website include “The Chauffeur Did It,” “The Butler Did It,” and “Trust Me, I Work Here.”

“Most art theft is [done by] people who actually saw [the piece],” says LAPD Detective Brent Johnson. “It’s someone who’s been invited into the home to work.”

Databases: A Road to Recovery

Detective Don Hrycyk has been a full-time LAPD art cop for more than 20 years. When he and Johnson hear about a case of art theft, they search for fingerprints, DNA, and video footage at the crime scene. They also request high-resolution photos of the stolen piece to put up on the LAPD website. “If we think it left the country, we put it up on Interpol and Art Loss Register,” says Johnson. “Hopefully, it will come up for auction or go up for sale.”

Several databases exist worldwide to document stolen art and thwart illegal sales. Aside from those sites maintained by police departments, Interpol, and the FBI, private databases give detectives and others the ability to spread the word about new thefts and claims.

Years before the LAPD established its Art Theft Detail, the International Foundation for Art Research created an art-theft archive to curtail theft. The organization’s Stolen Art Alert became the Art Loss Register (ALR), a private database of lost and stolen art. The foundation offers both item registration and search-and-recovery services. “The ALR acts as a significant deterrent on the theft of art,” the website reads. “Criminals are now well-aware of the risk … they face in trying to sell stolen pieces of art.”

One of these pieces is Paul Cézanne’s “Bouilloire et Fruits,” a vibrant still life of apples, oranges, and lemons around a silver pitcher that was stolen from a Boston residence in 1978. It reappeared two decades later when a retired lawyer hiding his identity tried unsuccessfully to sell the painting. He demanded money from the theft victim, who then contacted the ALR. Its members worked with the FBI and Swiss police to recover the painting, which later sold for $29.3 million.

Jerome Hasler works as head of communications and strategy for Art Recovery Group (ARG), a private organization that partners with law-enforcement agencies and professionals in the international art market to reduce art theft. “Our experience has shown that the sharing of information about losses or claims is the surest way to recover works of art,” Hasler says. “That’s why we built the ArtClaim Database. We encourage loss victims and claimants to register losses for free on our database so that any attempt to sell claimed works anywhere in the world can be identified.”

In 1986, four individuals held fractional shares in Duccio di Buoninsegna’s “Madonna and Child,” a tempera and gold image that the artist painted on wood between 1290 and 1300. One of the owners vanished after stealing the painting from a bank vault in Geneva; the painting surfaced 30 years later when it was consigned for sale at Sotheby’s in New York in January 2014. The ArtClaim Database matched the painting to the stolen art, and Sotheby’s took it off the market.

Two of the surviving claimants appointed ARG, which led the resolution process with the many heirs of the original owners, according to Hasler. After successful negotiations, the United States District Court recognized the painting’s clear title in May 2015.

The staff of ARG also advises clients who receive ownership claims. In 1945, for example, Nazis seized the home and property of Viennese industrialist Julius Priester. One of the paintings stolen was El Greco’s “Portrait of a Gentleman,” painted in 1570 by the Spanish Renaissance artist. The work disappeared for almost 70 years. In June 2014, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe identified the painting, which was then for sale in a gallery. The possessing dealer hired the ARG to advise on the restitution process, according to Hasler. The painting was unconditionally restituted to Priester’s heirs in March 2015.

In 2003, thieves looted the Baghdad Museum, stealing thousands of antiquities. These thefts inspired the FBI in 2004 to establish its Art Theft Program. The program employs 13 special agents and a program manager, who accept pertinent cases referred by local police departments reporting on museum and residence thefts. They also maintain the National Stolen Art File, a database of items that are valued at more than $2,000 each.

A short video on the FBI’s website features Art Theft Program Manager Bonnie Magness-Gardiner. “We get tips from the public, and I would like to encourage the public, if they have any knowledge of stolen art, looted art, or art fraud that meets the criteria for our investigation, to submit a tip via the tip line or call their local FBI office,” she says.

Provenance: The Critical Component

Most people involved in the recovery of stolen art emphasize the important of provenance. Some artists offer a buyer’s packet to every client with a receipt and forms that prohibit the reproduction of the art. This process establishes provenance, which will likely increase the value of the artist’s artwork in years to come.

As a national fine art specialist at Chubb Insurance, Laura Doyle meets with private collectors and advises them on everything from security to packing and transit. “It really comes down to … advising the stewards of our cultural heritage,” she says. “Our clients have collections [that] encompass some of the most valuable objects in the world.”

A year ago, noting the growth of the art market over the past decade, Chubb Insurance created a formal consultation and art service program. Doyle and others went through intensive training on fine art display and the intricacies of security systems. The company maintains a relationship with the FBI and Interpol, as well as Art Recovery International and Art Loss Register. “Any reputable gallery or auction house is going to check those databases before they consign or accept consignments,” she says.

She emphasizes the importance of understanding ownership history before buying a piece of art. “Make sure the piece has clear provenance,” she says. “Most auction sales records list provenance history, including private collections and museum shows where the piece has been displayed. For pieces by living artists, you can get a certificate of authenticity. Independent provenance researchers can trace the history of a piece for you.”

Documentation and Security are Key

Doyle stresses the importance of conducting background checks on all people hired to do work in one’s home. “Keep an inventory of your collections and make sure you update it anytime an item is bought, sold, or relocated,” she says.

LAPD’s Johnson suggests how best to document art for online databases: Provide high-resolution photos of the front and back of the artwork and images of any paperwork on provenance. Documentation aside, he tells people to increase their personal home security. “A lot of people collect art, but … people [still] leave … their houses unlocked,” he says.

Security, of course, is a critical component when protecting art in private homes, museums, or galleries. “Larger-scale museums have high-end security,” Johnson says. He explains that smaller museums and galleries without large budgets are those at the greatest risk.

Burt Wolf’s Travels and Traditions on PBS includes a 19-minute “Art Cops” segment (artcops.com). The segment offers viewers a vivid sense of those professionals who work to recover stolen art. A supplemental website describes some of the most intriguing unsolved cases. One involves Lucian Freud’s small portrait of Francis Bacon, which the Tate Museum loaned to Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. The gallery hung the painting on a wall built for the exhibition. In 1988, a thief walked into the gallery, took the small portrait off a wall that hadn’t been linked to an alarm system, and walked out.

Laurie Taylor, public relations specialist at Chubb, describes a similar incident that occurred a few years ago. “Someone walked into a gallery, took our client’s consigned artwork, and walked out undetected,” she says. “The thief eventually mailed the piece back to the gallery and was subsequently caught because his fingerprints were on the artwork and he had a prior shoplifting charge.”

Sleuth around the online accounts of stolen art, and you’ll be struck by two things: First, so much of the theft is preventable. Second, the stories surrounding stolen art are often bizarre.

“We had an elderly client a few years ago with a large collection of porcelain,” Doyle says. “A handyman had worked in her home for several years. She didn’t realize that, over time, pieces from her collection were disappearing.”

The woman, hoping to sell some of her items, went online and found a website listing pieces from her collection for sale. “Working with her state’s police department, she found out who had access to her home and who had been taking the pieces,” says Doyle. “She recovered her art.”

Freelance writer Melissa Hart is the author of the memoir Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family (Lyons, 2014).

The post The Bizarre World of Art Theft appeared first on Art Business News.