Art Theft in the 1920s

Art Theft in the 1920s

Interestingly, the first historically documented case of art theft comes to us from an Egyptian papyrus dated around 1134 BC, one of the oldest documents around. So it isn't exactly a new concept. In the 1920's, well prior to the mass looting by the Nazis, the most famous case of art theft in the Western world would undoubtedly have been the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre; it was not recovered for two years, and during that time spawned a thriving industry of con artists who sold copies which they claimed were the real thing to gullible rich people.

Theft from museums has been a chronic problem throughout the ages - no matter how good the security is, the entire point of a public museum is allowing the public access to valuable works of art. Art thefts from museums continue even after the introduction of surveillance cameras and electronic security systems; in 1925, before either of those existed, it was even easier. Similarly, thefts from archeological dig sites were notoriously hard to control - it can be awfully hard to guard a large hole in the ground twenty-four hours a day.

Of course, in some countries it was easier to steal than in others. Russia throughout the Communist period had a strict policy governing what kinds of artworks were permitted to leave the country; art was considered to belong to the people, and stealing it for private profit was considered particularly heinous. 

During several periods, the KGB and its predecessors were noted for cracking down on art theft rings. Of course, none of this prevented art theft rings from thriving, and art theft was often a booming business in Russia (Katya will note that capitalist countries with similar policies, such as Italy, usually have worse problems, and will also presciently point out that if Communism were to fall in, oh, say 1989, the problem would get infinitely worse as greedy protocapitalists rape the nation and the Russian Mafia becomes the de facto ruler of large parts of the country.)

At any rate, in light of that, it is interesting to note that the Hermitage Museum colection is so large that the part of its holdings which are not out for public view have never been completely catalogued, and no one living knows exactly what's down there. During the more turbulent periods of Russian history - like the 1920's - it was very likely an art thief's wet dream . . .

Of course, the majority of art theft that was going on in the 1920's wasn't being perpetrated by individual crooks at all, but by governments and their pet archeological teams, who would habitually go into militarily weaker foreign countries and pretty much take whatever they felt like. Resentment over wholesale thefts of national treasures from a variety of countries persists to this day. Of course, these archeologists did differ in some ways from their less successful criminal compatriots; archeologists were, of course, doing it for science rather than personal profit, for clearly none of them were hoping that there efforts would bring them, say, a cushy job at a university or research foundation.