Crime After 80 Years, a Long-Lost Painting Looted by U.S. Soldiers During World War II Has Been Returned to Germany An anonymous tipster called Art Recovery International to admit their uncle had stolen the painting from a German museum. By Sarah Cascone, Oct 20, 2023
Museums & Institutions In the Wake of a Major Theft Scandal, the British Museum Plans to Spend $12 Million to Fully Digitize Its Collection The museum expects the digitization project will take five years to complete. By Adam Schrader, Oct 19, 2023
Museums & Institutions U.K. Museums Maintain That Art Theft Is ‘Rare’ Following Reports Exaggerating the Scale of the Problem Reports of thousands of missing items have come following the British Museum scandal this summer. By Adam Schrader, Oct 12, 2023
Crime The Great Wall of China Has Suffered ‘Irreversible’ Damage After Two Workers Excavated a Shortcut Through the Cultural Relic The pair have been detained and charged with destroying a cultural relic. By Adam Schrader, Sep 28, 2023
Crime Disgraced Dealer Inigo Philbrick’s Co-Conspirator, Robert Newland, Sentenced to 20 Months in Prison Newland, who helped Philbrick execute and perpetuate the massive fraud, will serve just over one and a half years in jail. By Eileen Kinsella, Sep 20, 2023
Law & Politics Prosecutors Seek Prison Time for Ex-Dealer Robert Newland for Orchestrating an $86 Million ‘Ponzi-Like Scheme’ With Inigo Philbrick The government says Newland must serve a "meaningful" sentence to send a message to the "unregulated art market" By Eileen Kinsella, Sep 14, 2023
Crime Fake Celebrities, Code Names, and ‘Stuffing’: Inigo Philbrick’s Collaborator Reveals the Elaborate Plots They Used to Con Collectors Out of Millions 'I’d quickly come to learn that a fair amount of deception was accepted practice in the art world,' disgraced dealer Robert Newland said. By Eileen Kinsella, Sep 12, 2023
Crime The Manhattan D.A. Seized a $20 Million Statue of Marcus Aurelius From the Cleveland Museum of Art, Continuing a Spree of Raids Seeking Looted Turkish Art The D.A. is looking to return Turkey's stolen Bubon bronzes, and has also seized a sculpture from Fordham University's antiquities museum. By Sarah Cascone, Sep 1, 2023
Law & Politics The U.S. Government Is Chasing Down a $1.3 Million Picasso as Part of Ongoing Efforts to Recover Assets From Jho Low’s Infamous 1MDB Fund The fallout from the massive embezzlement scheme continues with art seizures. By Eileen Kinsella, Sep 1, 2023
Museums & Institutions After a 25-Year Dispute, the Chrysler Museum Will Return the Neoclassical Masterpiece ‘Wounded Indian’ to Its Rightful Owner The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association thought the sculpture had been destroyed when its longtime headquarters was demolished in the late 1950s. By Sarah Cascone, Aug 14, 2023
Crime Three Ancient Roman Coins That Were Part of a Hoard Found in the U.K. Were Mysteriously Swapped With Other, More Valuable Coins The three coins were found missing during an inquest into the original find. By Adam Schrader, Jul 31, 2023
Law & Politics A London Court Fined an Art Dealer $142,700 for Losing a Bosco Sodi Work That a Judge Likened to a ‘Burnt Digestive Biscuit’ The dealer Esparanza Koren claims to not know the whereabouts of the abstract painting. By Adam Schrader, Jul 27, 2023
Crime Thieves Have Been Stealing the Weird Props From the Vermont Set of ‘Beetlejuice 2,’ Including a 150-Pound ‘Abstract Art Statue’ A lamppost with a pumpkin decoration has also gone missing from the set. By Adam Schrader, Jul 24, 2023
Crime German Police Have Arrested Four Men Suspected of Stealing 483 Ancient Celtic Coins in an Elaborate Museum Heist The men were found in possession of gold bars, likely made by melting down the stolen coins. By Adam Schrader, Jul 21, 2023
Books Looking for a Smart Beach Read? Here Are 15 of the Most Gripping New Art-World Books to Crack Open This Summer From the stranger-than-fiction tale of the world's biggest art theft to an ambitious meta-fiction of an enigmatic art star with a secret history, here is what we are reading this season. By Artnet News, Jul 21, 2023
