The Sotheby’s auctioneer scanned the room as the bidding continued for a first-century Roman bronze sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite. When the gavel finally came down and the sale price was recorded at more than $530,000, members of our art crime team observing the action were reminded once again that when it comes to the world of art, the stakes can be very high.

Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's "The Concert" was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. Learn more about the theft and see descriptions of the two suspects.

With so much money changing hands, is it any wonder that thieves and scammers steal valuable works and pass off fakes as originals?

The ability to deal with such crimes is one of the reasons the art crime team—made up of 13 agents from around the country and three special prosecutors from the Department of Justice—was established in 2004. It’s also why the team, which celebrated its fifth anniversary last October, recently gathered for a week-long training seminar in the art capital of the world, New York City.

Since the team’s inception, more than 2,400 objects of cultural property valued at more than $142 million have been recovered. A number of art criminals have been sent to jail, and many of the recovered items have been returned or repatriated. Even so, said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, who manages our Art Theft Program, “We are seeing an increase in these types of crimes.” Some estimates place the total losses due to art and cultural property crimes at $8 billion per year.

The training is an annual event that brings team members together to talk about their cases, to share investigative techniques, and to hear from experts in the field. Agents on the team must know how to investigate art crimes, but they also need to interact with art specialists, research a work’s provenance (history of ownership), and understand how to store and conserve seized works that may be worth millions of dollars.

A focus of this year’s training was on authentication—how to determine if a work is real or fake. Experts participating in panel discussions spoke of identifying forgeries using time-tested methods of scholarship and experience. One physicist discussed his use of cutting-edge technology to identify a work’s “image DNA.”

Consider the ramifications of a fake work being taken as an original: A fraudster bought a $100 unsigned painting, forged the signature of the artist Juan Gris, and sold it to a dealer for $65,000. The dealer then sold it to a collector for $135,000.

“The first buyer may know it’s a fake, but the second buyer doesn’t,” Gardiner said. “And then it’s in the marketplace.”

“Nobody wants to see stolen or forged artworks passing through the marketplace,” said Jane Levine, director of Sotheby’s worldwide compliance division. During a tour of the auction house, Levine told the team, “The work the FBI does investigating and prosecuting art crimes is necessary and important—and it’s good for the art business.”

The problem with fakes is significant. One long-time gallery owner told agents that about 30 percent of the works people bring him to sell are probably not authentic. (Some in the business illustrate the problem with a joke: Of the 4,000 paintings produced by the artist Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, 7,000 are in the United States.)

Collectively, members of the team have decades of experience investigating art crimes. Next, we’ll meet some of its agents and learn about their cases.

NOTICE - All Rights Reserved Except as Stipulated Below. PHOTOS MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM. Our reporters and journalists break or report stories and their sources and information are protected by the doctrine of free press as expressed in the First Ammendment, Reporters Privilege Statues, and also the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.This article if a feature or opinion piece is the opinion of the author or reports the news and opinions of others and is NOT INTENDED TO OFFER ADVICE. FOR OPINION STORIES: This story/article/ feature may be an opinion piece — and should be treated accordingly — or reporting on the opinions of others, and should never be considered as a sole source of information or as a suggestion, instruction or prescription. FOR CRIME STORIES: always read the word "allegedly" in any story mentioning "suspects" or "persons of interest". FOR BUSINESSS AND MONEY STORIES: For money/ trade and exchange stories, this magazine and its writers accept no responsibility for accuracy — always check with other sources for important decisions. FOR HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE STORIES: In the case of food/health stories, these facts have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Information stated here should be NOT be considered as medical, health, psychological or behavior advice. All information in this story and on this site is provided for educational or entertainment purposes ONLY. Always seek the advice of experts, including doctors for medical opinions. Only a licensed medical doctor can offer medical advice. FOR EXPERT, ADVICE OR HOW-TO STORIES: Legal advice or other expert advice is best referred to experts in their respective fields. NO RESPONSIBILITY: The publishers and editors, authors, researchers, employees, heirs and assigns accept no responsibility whatsoever for any advice, facts, opinions in this story, nor for resulting actions of readers of this information. ALL READERS ACCEPT THAT THIS INFORMATION IS PRESENTED ONLY AS NEWS, EDUCATION, ENTERTAINMENT OR OPINION/INFORMATION AND AGREE IN READING THIS STORY OR THIS SITE THAT USE OF THIS INFORMATION IS SOLELY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE READER. Copyright by the byline author unless otherwise indicated. EXCERPTS from other magazines or media sources are posted under fair use doctrine, on the basis of no more than 5-10% of content with links and credit to source for the complete story. These are posted in the interest of providing interesting links (description as excerpt) with navigation to the source. Likewise, we encourage our many subscribers to excerpt with credit and links to our e-zines, up to 10% of content. To use more content than 10%, please contact the e-zine for permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED except as stipulated herein. IMPORTANT: this web content also includes a forum and comments function, which allows for posting from users not employed by this publication. We accept no responsibility for posts, content, language or accuracy of posts from outside parties but will attempt to correct any inaccuracies reported within the context of free speach. Where possible, spam, lewd or obscene comments WILL BE REMOVED.

Persona Corp. and Blogertize publishes several webzines, magazines, e-zines for news, entertainment and information, but cautions readers to read the NOTICE above:

• Films and Books