Sky-breaking traps frequently stage the global museum art thefts inventory

When the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics talked about the theft of the Forbidden City a few days ago, the difficulty in safety management of Wenbo units is not that of immovable ancient building protection, but the safety of movable cultural relics inside the museum.

In fact, since the museum was built, it seems that the theft of art has not stopped. Edwards, a scholar of American art crimes research, described in the book “It is theft of a famous masterpiece”: “The art works that are stolen in the world can form a museum that is comparable to any of the world’s greatest museums.”

In recent years, the number of stolen works of art has been increasing year by year. What's more unfortunate is that only about 5% of the stolen art can be recovered. According to the 2010 report, since 1976, the United Kingdom has been the world’s most stolen art work. A total of 53,709 pieces of art were stolen; the United States ranked second, with 21,079 stolen art items registered; France, Italy Third and fourth place.

Why are thefts linked to museums that are considered to be as safe as iron walls? The answer may be as pointed out by Liu Chaoying, deputy director of the Bureau of Cultural Relics of Beijing Municipality: “The biggest flaw in the museum is the awareness and responsibility of the people.” This has become a worldwide problem.

British Museum

Alarm device

The Museum of the British Museum has a large area and many exhibits. However, the number of security personnel is limited. There are only one or two staff members in each exhibition room. They are responsible for answering questions from visitors, so the thieves can take advantage of it.

A spokesman for the British Museum said: "There is a highly sensitive alarm system in the exhibition hall. When the thieves break their locks, they should immediately report an alarm, but for unknown reasons, the alarm does not ring. It is because the stolen artwork is small and convenient. Hidden, some art objects will not cause an alarm once they are taken out of the showcase, and it is really difficult to ensure that all the cultural relics in the museum are foolproof.”

For example, in 2004, the British Museum in the United Kingdom had two consecutive cases of Chinese cultural property theft. During the period of opening to the public, 15 items of Chinese jewellery and art treasures were missing. The police suspect that these two thefts may be directed by a private collector. However, six years later, the case is still under investigation.

French Museum

Security system is fragile as paper

After the theft of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France in May last year, the official in charge of cultural affairs in Paris said: “This is a serious criminal act that infringes the heritage of humanity.” Afterwards, the French media described the thief as a “lonely thief” and “walking alone”. The thief's assailed the museum's generally fragile security system, such as "paper."

The deputy mayor of Marseille, France, said: “The good and bad security warning system is a major cause of museum theft. Sometimes the alarm sounds too late and sometimes it will not ring at all.”

Japanese Museum

Leaked monitor

In most museums in Japan, each exhibition hall is equipped with at least one staff member when it is open to the public. As a part of the prevention work, the main task of these workers is to deal with various emergencies that have occurred in the venue. They have undergone emergency training, including responding to fire and earthquakes, responding to stolen works, and coping with the detection of suspicious individuals. In addition, 24-hour surveillance video and night-time mechanical security systems are indispensable for preventive measures in every major museum.

However, a hundred secrets, a number of defense facilities are not in place of museums will still let the thieves take advantage of the loopholes. In 2010, a stolen event took place at the Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan. The medal for a 1896 Athens Olympic Gymnastics Gymnastics Competition held here was lost on the opening day less than two hours. After the investigation by the police, it was discovered that the museum’s staff did not set up necessary monitors near the exhibits.

The treasure of the town hall was cut off during the day

Suspected insider

Venue: Mahmoud Khalil Museum of Modern Art, Egypt

At noon on August 21, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art of Mahmoud Khalil discovered that the collection of Van Gogh's “Flowers” ​​was stolen and its whereabouts were unknown.

Shortly after the opening on the morning of the 21st, staff members discovered that the oil painting was stolen from the frame. Staff said that before the opening of the day, the painting was still hanging in the same place. The police then entered the museum, looked at the surveillance video, searched for live fingerprints and asked all the librarians. Surveillance video shows that in the morning, only 10 visitors entered the museum. After the museum reported the loss, the government immediately informed the nation’s airports and ports to take special measures to prevent famous paintings from smuggling abroad.

According to media reports on September 27, the Egyptian Ministry of the Interior stated that an employee of the museum was suspected of involvement in theft. He said: "There are indications that a museum employee has participated in the theft or that the employee is a thief." He also revealed that Egypt is still working with Interpol to search for paintings in Egypt and elsewhere. whereabouts.

The market value of "Flowers" exceeds $55 million. In 1978, this masterpiece was stolen in Egypt and returned to Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum as a treasure of the town hall. Government investigations revealed that there were several security loopholes in the Khalil Museum, and only seven of the 47 surveillance cameras in the museum were able to work properly, and the alarm system completely failed.

Five world famous paintings were stolen late at night

Security did not see anything

Location: Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France

On May 19th, 2010, a real "The Sky-Passing Traps" was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France. Five world-famous paintings worth hundreds of millions of euros were secretly stolen overnight.

The Paris Museum of Modern Art is located between the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, near the most prosperous area in Paris. Five famous paintings in the museum were stolen on the night of the 19th. When the museum staff opened the door in the morning, they discovered that the famous painting had disappeared.

According to Girard, an official of the Municipal Ministry of Culture in Paris, when the incident occurred, the thieves closed the museum's security system, cut off the padlock on the gate and destroyed a window, and then masked and sneaked into the museum. Taken by a surveillance camera. There were 3 security personnel on duty that night, but they "had nothing to see". It was not until 7 o'clock in the morning that a night guard discovered that the famous painting had disappeared.

** During the inspection, it was discovered that the paintings in the frame seemed to have been carefully removed, rather than simply cut away. According to Girard, its total value is about 100 million euros. Among the stolen paintings, Picasso's “Pigeon and Green Bean” is worth about 23 million Euros. Another Henri Matisse painting “Idyllic Music” is worth about 15 million Euros. The other three stolen paintings are George Braque. The olive trees near Estark, Ameidio Modigliani's The Woman of the Fan, and Lagère's Still Life and Chandelier.

The largest art theft in the United States

The robbers are amateurs

Location: Gardner Museum of Art, Boston

Twenty years ago, two robbers entered the Gardner Museum of Art in Boston, USA, creating the largest art theft in the history of the United States. Over time, these works of art worth up to 500 million U.S. dollars are still missing.

At 1 a.m. on March 18, 1990, two white men wearing uniforms came to the Gardner Museum. They received an alarm on the pretext of checking the security of the museum. However, when the two security guards put them in, they show off in a fierce manner, subduing security and detaining them in two museum basements that are located far apart from each other. Throughout the entire process, the robbers did not have weapons, nor were they masked.

The two robbers made it easy to “see” the museum. They selectively took 13 paintings (these paintings were not mounted on the back). Among them, the most valuable was the concert of Dutch master Vermeer. The robbers also found surveillance videos and took them away when they left. In this way, investigators can only rely on the memories of two security guards who have not been determined.

"I suspect that the two robbers would wake up the next morning and see the news in the newspapers. They exclaimed: 'We created the largest art theft in history,'" Emmer said.

The stolen paintings also included three Rembrandt works, five pieces of Degas's works, and Manet's works. Due to the large area of ​​some paintings, the robbers mercilessly cut them out of the picture frame with a knife. The two robbers made the process of robbery seamless, but they apparently lacked the vision to identify the value of the artwork. This made a few valuable masterpieces survive. Emmer said: "If we can talk to thieves, I would like to ask them: 'Why did you take this away? Why did you turn a blind eye from Raphael's works?" The robbers ignored some of the more valuable works. - This includes a rare Rembrandt self-portrait that has been removed from the wall. The police therefore believe that the robbers are "outsiders" who do not understand painting.

Since these paintings were stolen, the U.S. police and the FBI have issued a high reward of 5 million U.S. dollars, but none has been recovered so far. In view of the considerable progress made in analytical techniques, the FBI is currently retesting the DNA samples collected at the crime scene to determine the true identity of the robbers.

Egyptian Museum

Settle on the sheep

After the museum's famous high-profile painting “Flowers” ​​was stolen, it caused widespread shocks in various circles in Egypt – who should be responsible for the theft of this famous painting? Egypt’s Attorney-General Mahmoud issued a detention order on the same day, announcing a four-day investigation and detention of five relevant staff members who neglected their duties in theft, including the Deputy Minister of Culture of Egypt, Mohammed Muhsin. .

Since then, the Egyptian Administrative Inspectorate has established a special committee for the theft of museums to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the safety of all museums in the country. The special committee also focused on investigating whether security personnel can properly use security equipment.

The highest Egyptian cultural relics committee, Hawass, said that strict measures will be taken to protect the country’s rich cultural relics and artworks. In a statement, he said that in order to strengthen the protection of cultural relics and works of art, Egypt plans to establish a security monitoring center. After the upgrade of the alarm system of all museums in Egypt, they will all be connected to the monitoring center, so that all museums can be monitored 24 hours a day.

Egyptian Minister of Culture Husny also stated that he would cooperate with the agencies on the issue of the security of cultural relics and works of art throughout the country, and conduct further job training for museum staff to increase their awareness of safety.