What can art security teach us about value, life, and taking kids to museums? Anthony M. Amore is the head of security at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (which was famously robbed in 1990 of several Rembrandts and a Vermeer) and an expert on art security. He sat down with Security Mom, Juliette Kayyem to talk to us about everything from Mr. No to school vacation.
Juliette Kayyem: D-d-did...You said Billion? 6-8 Billion? Okay.
AA: Exactly. It is third after drugs and guns and this includes everything from a drawing that your grandmother might have handed down to you that's precious to a museum to antiquities being looted uh from Italy and Greece or by terrorist organizations in the Middle East who are raiding archeological sites or museums who are taking these items into destroy for some twisted ideological belief or to monetize-- in order to raise money for their efforts.
JK: I mean that's-- just going to that, that's the story that sometimes not told is when ISIS um destroys art, it gets a lot of press because oh you know they're ruining these antiquities but uh you think they're also keeping a lot of it to sell it in a black market?
AA: Yeah! These different groups-- they're not just ISIS, they'll take items in order to raise money. They'll traffic in them because there is money to be made. Anything they can monetize they'll use to raise funds. Again, it's not just ISIS. It's a problem.
JK: I have this conception-- maybe it comes from watching too many James Bond movies-- some very rich gazillionaire with, you know, a lot of 20 year old girlfriends around you know, looking at his Rembrandt on the wall, you know smoking a cigarette 6:31 alone in a room and so who are the buyers and what's a common misperception about them? I assume my idea is probably not right?
AA: It's amazing you said that thought because in my field which consists of like half a dozen people-- people who look for stolen art, there is the thing called the Dr. No Theory, and it really comes from the James Bond film when Dr. No-- The Ian Flemming novel does not say this, but when screen writers made Dr. No, the first Bond film, they included a scene about the Duke of Wellington buying Goya being stolen. It happened during the filming, major heist from the national gallery in London. Everyone wanted to know where this went no one had an idea. So in the movie, you actually see Dr. No leading James Bond into his underground lair, and they walk by the Duke of Wellington, and um Bond looks back at it as if to say " oh that's where that went." It's like a cheeky reference to that theft, but people really do think it's these billionaires in their underground lairs with these paintings. In fact, when you talk about masterpieces, there is no market, you know people imagine this exact scenario you just laid out, but there is no precedent in History for this evil rich person to be coveting and collecting these masterworks.
JK: So what's the best recovery story given that you've studied decades-- or centuries of art heist-- what's you favorite recover story where actually something was found?
AA: One was uh a painting that was stolen from the Deung museum in the 70s uh-- a Rembrand "Portrait of a Rabbi" and it was held for ever, no one had any idea where it went. Finally, decades later, whoever had it just gave up and sent it back in a crate. They just sent it-- sent it back. When the museum got its hands on it, it was kept in such poor condition that the uh oil paining separated from the canvass by mold.
AA: Nevertheless, um, conservatives were able to repair it and put it back as it should be. However, art historians realized this wasn't a Rembrandt at all. It turned out to be uh one of his students or such. Um, but one of the most important recovery stories comes out of Massachusetts which is a real hot bed for art theft, unfortunately. And there's an art thief named Miles Connor-- famous Massachusetts criminal-- the greatest art thief who has ever lived. And um, I don't even think he realizes that. And he stole a Rembrandt from the MFA in 1975. Incredibly important painting. At the time it was called portrait of Elizabeth of Anne Rynd...
JK: Did he just gra-- how did he steal it?
AA: Daring heist! He and another guy go into the museum. They walk in with semi automatic weapons, they go directly to the second floor, it's an oak panel. They pull it off the wall, run out of the museum, fire warning shots as they're running out-- can you imagine hearing gun fire in this cement and marble hall? Uh, as they run down the stairs of the exit, they turn about and fire shots at the stares to make sure no one chases. One of the guards, who is in love with the art has a sense of duty, runs after them anyway, in the face of gunfire, grabs the painting, and there's a tug of war. One of the thieves puts a machine gun to his head-- that's in the van-- he and Miles Conner says don't shoot. So they just slam him in the head with the gun. He lets go. Painting goes away. No one has any idea where this painting is. Sometime later, Miles is in trouble for yet another crime involving art-- four Wyeth paintings he stole...uh he needs to get out of trouble and what does he use to negotiate his way out? The Rembrandt that he stole from the MFA.
JK: And you count the days because you are the chief investigator of it. So I've done enough interviews to know that at some stage you're gonna say it's a pending investigation but um uh there have been news--there have been blips of news, more recently in fact about uh uh maybe these were mob guys, or mafia guys, or old guys in Rhode Island. Uh, you don't have to talk about those leaks, but in your mind uh if this is gonna get solved, and the art is gonna get retrieved, what do you think is the most likely scenario about how that will be done.
AA: Oh well I think the most likely scenario is that um we will continue working really hard in this investigation which is why you see these blips of news. The har--the closer we get the more breaks there are. I think what you're gonna see is as we continue to get closer to recovering the art uh either I am going to approach someone or someone is going to approach me for the five million dollar reward that we're offering. Uh..
JK: The museum itself is offering five million still.
AA: Right, The biggest private reward ever offered. And um there's going to be a resolution to this Eventually it's going to come down to me and the person holding the paintings.
AA: The US Attorney's office has already spoken on immunity in this case. The FBI is committed to recovery rather than arrest so I think that everything is in place for a recovery to happen. So again it's going to come down to me being with the person whose controlling them, establishing the trust to prove to them that they're going to get the money and we're going to get the paintings back.
JK: Do you-- do you think you know who that person is now?
AA: No I think uh we know who took the thieves-- we announced this a couple of years ago--
JK: Yeah, yeah.
AA: I don't know who has them right now. If i did, I would be talking to them.
JK: Right, not me. Not in a public radio... right exactly.
AA: I would talk to you right after. If you look at art theft, what happens every day what you're looking at is a crime that mainly occurs out of people's homes. Um, again, it's this drawing that was done-- or an etching that was done by some famous artist that's handed down through a family. Or someone's a collector and doesn't have to be a major collector. You have a piece of art in your home that's important to you, and it's stolen from private homes more frequently than anywhere else. People's households are the number one place from which art is stolen.
JK: And that's from people coming in to fix the cable, people coming in to deal with the leak in the basement... just take something on the way out?
AA: Unfortunately it's true, you know some of my best friends are contractors but often times when these art heists happen out of people's home, you find that those people, you know you're walking an electrician up stairs to do some work and on the way you stop to say isn't this a beautiful drawing or painting that I have and give someone the wrong idea. So when you see these home thefts, it's usually someone who has worked inside the home and uh that's where the investigation usually begins.
JK: You know we've been talking about sort of scary stuff, you know theft, terrorism, black markets, uh but you recently wrote about an incident involving a ten year old boy, so I just want to hear you say that... but sometimes vulnerabilities are simply because uh let me just go back you guys hold on... Uh you know, you're talking about museums being open and so therefor they are vulnerable to theft and all sorts of other things but because they're open they're also vulnerable to human mistakes and recently there was an incident involving I think a ten year old boy?
AA: That's right, he was in a museum, and the exhibition is set up so people can get close to the painting and you're exactly right, security has to bot only be worried about the thief, but the accident. Uh the mundane. This young boy was walking by a painting uh he was, I see him has an adolescent, his feel were probably too big for his body at that time, he was holding a soda, and he tripped over his own feet and put his elbow-- tried to steady himself and put his arm through a painting-- a million dollar painting. And these are the things that happen in museums all the time. People kick furniture all the time. Sometimes people sit in the furniture, they don't realize it's not something for you to sit in. They touch things despite the do not touch signs. So guards really have to be on the look out the entire time because you know, if someone breaks a piece, it's just as bad as a theft.
JK: Right I have a ten year old son, and there but for the grace of god goes he. There's no liability right? The museum just has to deal with the one million dollar loss. Right if it's an accident you know, usually these things are insured for these things like this. You know you do also have people who are unstable who go into museums and cut paintings. They throw coffee cups at the uh Pieta. They've damaged priceless art all over the place so no there isn't liability when these accidents happen but just like when you were with Homeland Security headquarters, when an incident happens, it means a lot of meetings and rethinking everything that you're doing uh to see how we should have done it differently.
JK: okay last point, Anthony will you just tell me-- will you just say the Steve Wynn story? Because I had forgotten about it and sometimes accidents just happen?
AA: Right, Steve Wynn is a perfect example. He is a mogul of casinos um incredibly rich person who has an affinity for art-- especially dutch art-- and he acquired a Picasso painting. And I don't know how many people know that Steve Wynn has a vision issue-- and I think he attributes that to this-- he turned towards this-- I think the painting was in the tens of millions of dollars-- and turned and put his elbow right through the painting.
JK: Right through it??
AA: Right through it, creating a hole in the painting-- a massive tear. Um, but the happy ending is-- and I work with him, these conservators that work in museums that repair art and objects are the most talented committed individuals you'll ever meet, and they're magicians. What they can do to fix paintings will stun you. We have a painting on exhibition right now-- it's a 15th century Italian painting-- it was painted on a wood panel. Over the years, to preserve it, conservator's took the oil paint off of the wood, and put it on to canvas. I can't even get my mind around how they do this. The moral of the story is that when these things happen, there are dedicated people out there who fix them. So there's a happy ending with damage and not as happy a ending with art theft, but I do predict a happy ending with the Gardner.
