Saturday, October 20, 2012

Rotterdam Update

In the New York Times this morning, the museum "denied accusations of sloppy security."

The ARCA blog is really the go to place for news on the theft.  Just keep scrolling.

ARCA founder Noah Charney had a piece at ARTINFO maintaining that "there is a good chance that the art was stolen only in order to be ransomed back to the victim ... or their insurers."

The Daily Beast's Megan McArdle says "the big mystery is ... why thieves continue to steal the stuff" (since it's so hard to sell).  She quotes retired FBI art theft agent Robert Wittman that "the general pattern is that the criminals who do these jobs, these heists, are good thieves, but they're terrible businessmen. That's what it comes down to."  (Full interview with Wittman here.)

Tom Flynn dissents from the view that the thieves are stupid.