AIBU to wonder what happens to stolen famous artworks afterwards?

[risingup]

Why do people steal valuable things like paintings by Renoir etc and Faberge eggs?

What do they do with it once they've got it - I mean it's not as if they can sell it to someone who can show it off.

This. From the little I know this is how i understand it. It’s absolutely fascinating- I hadn’t even realised how un scientific provenance is, many works have been misclassified or rediscovered.

stolen nazi works are sold now. There are not only factions/ organised crime who deal in this, but entire countries where this sort of thing can happen.

also i think it opens up really interesting questions about monetary value and how it’s assigned- ie digital art that can be deleted, the guy who bought the banana then ate it, the shredder etc…. What is art and how do we exchange it for money?! What is money even worth? The philosophy of it all is endless 😂

What I don’t understand is how the art retains its value to even be used as currency. How is the ‘currency’ not redundant if it can’t ever be known about/it’s existence acknowledged/shown off?

I guess at the same time, why does it lose value because it’s been stolen. If it’s intrinsically valuable it should retain it to some degree surely?

like how can you say one day the Mona Lisa is worth a trillion pounds then the next nothing because it’s stolen? What made it worth a trillion in the first place in that case?

Passed on to dictators, dodgy collectors, drug barons or oligarchs. Please note the fate of "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies" by van Clomp.

It’s not quite the same as this latest theft but I’d really recommend the book The Art Thief. Fascinating.

I suppose so. Maybe it’s an individual thing as well, maybe I would be a very uncultured drug lord crime boss, but if I were offered payment with a Da Vinci in lieu of cash, I’d say no thank you I’ll have the money so I can blow it on things I won’t have to hide or which would blow my cover if discovered 😂
Great thread.

noah Charney or Micheal fikel? Just adding to my wish list!

Because it's traded in circles where the people buying and selling don't care about legalities. One gang of drug dealers aren't going to be bothered about a stolen painting "worth" millions because they know another drug gang will take it in payment for a container of drugs, and the recipient will then hold it and keep it to use as "currency" for another drug deal, and so it goes on. Likewise arms, people/child trafficking etc.

It;s like any precious commodity, i.e. gold, diamonds, a super yacht, a super car, or whatever. It's "worth" what it's worth because someone is prepared to pay that for it, whether in cash or "money's worth". Someone accepting a stolen painting worth say £10m regards it as "worth" £10 million because they know/expect to be able to either get cash or goods for that amount by "selling" it or exchanging it to someone else.

Well Obviously 🤣

Ooh please tell me it was the toilet!