According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, art theft is a growing international problem. Cases go unsolved 90 percent of the time, usually because of poor documentation at the time of theft, as well as a lack of security and recovery methods in the art market. Organizations like the FBI, Interpol, and the Scotland Yard have private art investigators that travel the world tracking stolen pieces. Yet, the recovery of stolen art still needs to improve. In an interview on Independent Lens with Paul “Turbocharger” Hendry, an art investigator, he explains why the recovery of stolen art can be stalled:

"It is little known that because of the current laws surrounding stolen art recovery, rewards cannot be paid without breaching laws covering money laundering and proceeds of crime legislation. Conventional law enforcement will not allow the private sector to recover stolen art without arrests any more, so the recovery rate has fallen by 90 percent in the last two years."

Paul additionally stated that one reason people steal art in the first place is that the penalties for stealing art are much less severe other crimes such as auto theft, drugs trafficking, bank robbery, etc. In November 2001, a young man named Stephane Breitwieser was arrested for attempting to steal a bugle from a museum in Lucerne, Switzerland. He admitted to stealing 239 pieces of artwork since 1995, together valued at $1.4 billion. In January 2005, he began his 26-month prison sentence.

Even with the many obstacles that stand in the way of investigators, recently several stolen paintings have been found intact. In February two paintings, Claude Monet’s Poppy Field at Vetheuil and Vincent van Gogh's Blooming Chestnut Branches, were recovered in Zurich, Switzerland, in the trunk of a white sedan in the parking lot of a mental hospital. The two paintings were among four that are together worth $163 million which were stolen from a private museum on February 10, 2008. The recovered paintings were found in good condition and under the original glass frame. The museum director would not disclose whether a ransom was paid for the return of the paintings.

According to INTERPOL, owners should follow these suggestions to combat this art theft crisis.

-Compile inventories of collections by taking photographs and perfect descriptions of each object.

-Make objects easily identifiable by marking the object with the owner’s name.

-Protect the premises where the collections are held.

-Report thefts immediately to the police or other law-enforcement authorities and provide them with a full list of stolen items together with  photographs.

Additionally, during the INTERPOL conference on art theft in Central and Eastern Europe, INTERPOL recomends its Member Countries:

1. to adapt the national legislation on the protection of cultural property and the resources to combat cultural property crimes to the needs identified in each country,

2. to provide UNESCO with national cultural heritage legislation and their regular updates, to be included in UNESCO’s legislation database,

3. to consider ratifying the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention if they are not already State Parties,

4. to establish close and continuous co-operation on a national level between all bodies, agencies and institutions concerned with the safeguarding of cultural property,

5. to improve protection in museums, public collections, places of worship and archaeological sites,

6. to promote the setting up of inventories, including photographs, using internationally recognised description standards such as Object ID, and to encourage ICOM and UNESCO to provide Object ID training in their countries,

7. to regularly check offers on the art market and the sales of cultural property over the Internet, and to encourage the implementation of the Basic Actions concerning cultural objects being offered for sale over the Internet,

8. to communicate relevant information about cultural property thefts, stolen or recovered objects, and details on the criminal individuals and networks involved in the illicit trafficking, to the INTERPOL General Secretariat for data entry and crime analysis purposes,

9. to use the INTERPOL e-ASF works of art database for remote queries and extend connectivity to that database beyond the NCB to all law enforcement agencies investigating cultural property crimes,

10. to consider establishing joint cultural property crime investigation teams through bilateral or multilateral agreements according to the Council framework decision of 13 June 2002 on joint investigation teams,

11. to encourage authorities in charge of postal services to strengthen checks on packages likely to contain illicit cultural property.

As you can see, great strides have been made to make public more aware of the problem that we face. Obviously there is no way we can completey prevent this problem. However, if we all band together we can help reduce the amount of priceless treasures that are taken from our culture.