Art Theft: Big Money, Big Problems

March 19 -- How to Steal a Million. Entrapment. The Thomas Crown Affair.

The story of an art thief is a common tale in Hollywood — but it may be even more common in real life.

Tens of thousands of works of art are stolen yearly, experts say. In 1998 alone, over 60,000 works of art were stolen, according to the international police organization, Interpol.

Interpol says art theft is a crime exceeded in dollar value only by drug trafficking, money laundering and arms dealing. Estimates have put the losses at $4 to 6 billion worldwide.

In the most spectacular art heist in modern history, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990, the take was said to be as much as $300 million.

Two men, dressed as Boston police officers, talked their way into the compound after hours and overpowered the staff. They tied them up, and then took 12 works of art, including five Degas, three Rembrants, a Vermeer, and a Manet — all in an hour-and-a-half.

The pair removed the surveillance tape before they left, and more than a decade later, they still have not been caught.

No Mr. Big

There have been suggestions that a collector may have been behind the theft at the Gardner Museum, because it involved such a coherent group of pieces. But it's very unlikely that an unscrupulous cabal of tycoons is commissioning art thefts the world over, experts say.

"We've always heard this about private collectors [sponsoring these heists,]" said Lynne Chaffinch, the manager of the FBI's art theft program. "But in all my years I've never found one of these infamous private collectors."

The truth is, most art thefts are committed by everyday opportunists.

"A criminal that will steal a car or a VCR is the most likely person to steal a piece of art," said David Shillingford, the Director of Marketing and Operations at The Art Loss Register.

The Art Loss Register is a database that lists stolen works of art that any potential buyers can check if a piece of work has been stolen.