Art theft

Art theft is usually for the purpose of resale or for ransom (sometimes called artnapping). Stolen art is sometimes used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—estimates range from 5 to 10%. This means that little is known about the scope and characteristics of art theft.

Individual theft

Many thieves are motivated by the fact that valuable art pieces are worth millions of dollars and weigh only a few kilograms at most. Transport for items such as paintings is also trivial, assuming the thief is willing to inflict some damage to the painting by cutting it off the frame and rolling it up into a tube carrier. Also, while most high-profile museums have extremely tight security, many places with multi-million art collections works have disproportionately poor security measures. That makes them susceptible to thefts that are slightly more complicated than a typical smash-and-grab, but offer a huge potential payoff. Thieves sometimes target works based on their own familiarity with the artist, rather than the artist's reputation in the art world or the theoretical value of the work.

Art Heist

Art Heist is a 2004 film starring Ellen Pompeo, William Baldwin, and Spanish actor Abel Folk. Written by Diane Fine and Evan Spiliotopoulos, produced by Manual Corbi, and released on July 13, 2004.

Plot summary

Art Heist is a romantic thriller that features love and action with many twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the film. The movie starts off by showing a daring, well-planned robbery of a very famous and expensive painting from the MNAC art museum in Barcelona, Spain. The museum has many security features that are problematic for the thieves, but because of their skill they are able to circumvent the security and steal the famous El Greco Christ Carrying the Cross on display courtesy of Victor Boyd (Ed Lauter.)

After the first heist, Sandra Walker (Ellen Pompeo), is called by her boss Victor Boyd and sent to Spain to ensure his El Greco is returned. Victor Boyd, the owner of the stolen El Greco, is a very rich and powerful businessman who Sandra works for as an art consultant. She is called in to find the stolen El Greco because she persuaded Victor to display it at the MNAC art museum, from which it was ultimately stolen. While getting ready for her trip to Spain to track down the missing El Greco, the audience is given some insight into Sandra’s life: She is separated from an NYPD detective, Bruce (William Baldwin), and they have a young daughter together, Allison (Madison Goeres.) The couple appears to be going through a bit of a rough patch, but still seem to love each other. Sandra is able to convince her husband to watch their daughter while she’s away. Bruce is skeptical of the whole situation and worried about Sandra’s well-being.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (ISGM) or Fenway Court, as the museum was known during Isabella Stewart Gardner's lifetime, is a museum in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located within walking distance of the Museum of Fine Arts (although the Museum of Fine Arts's Huntington Avenue location was constructed after Fenway Court) and near the Back Bay Fens. The museum houses an art collection of world importance, including significant examples of European, Asian, and American art, from paintings and sculpture to tapestries and decorative arts. In 1990, thirteen of the museum's works were stolen; the high-profile crime remains unsolved and the artwork's location is still unknown.

Today, the museum hosts exhibitions of historic and contemporary art, as well as concerts, lectures, family and community programs, and changing courtyard displays. In accordance with the will of Isabella Stewart Gardner, admittance is discounted to those wearing Boston Red Sox memorabilia, and is free to anyone named Isabella.

Isabella Stewart

Isabella Stewart may refer to:

Isabella Stewart Gardner

Isabella Stewart Gardner (April 14, 1840 – July 17, 1924) was a leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. She founded the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Isabella Stewart Gardner had a zest for life, an energetic intellectual curiosity and a love of travel. She was a friend of noted artists and writers of the day, including John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Dennis Miller Bunker, Anders Zorn, Henry James, Okakura Kakuzo and Francis Marion Crawford.

Gardner created much fodder for the gossip columns of the day with her reputation for stylish tastes and unconventional behavior. The Boston society pages called her by many names, including "Belle," "Donna Isabella," "Isabella of Boston," and "Mrs. Jack". Her surprising appearance at a 1912 concert (at what was then a very formal Boston Symphony Orchestra) wearing a white headband emblazoned with "Oh, you Red Sox" was reported at the time to have "almost caused a panic", and remains still in Boston one of the most talked about of her eccentricities.