Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

How an Art Theft’s Publicity and Documentation Can Impact the Stolen Object’s Recovery Rate

2011; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 27; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1043986211418886

1552-5406

Mark Durney,

Forensic and Genetic Research

This article quantifies the importance of documentation associated with a stolen work of art to its eventual recovery. The article offers an interpretation of statistical evidence related to works of art registered stolen and in some cases recovered on the Art Loss Register’s (ALR) database between 2000-2009. It utilizes the 1874 theft of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s altarpiece from the baptistery of the Cathedral of Seville to underscore how a painting’s historical importance, the substantial news coverage that surrounds its theft, and the public’s interest in the cathedral’s tragic loss facilitated its quick recovery. Although in 1874, the painting could not be registered on international stolen art databases, it is evident the amount of documentation written about the historical work and its tragic theft functioned similarly to the databases available to theft victims today.