Former FBI Agent Answers Heist Questions

[00:00] with the FBI's Art Crime Team. [lively Percussive music]

[00:12] but there's all these lasers around the exhibit hall. #heist." the suspension of disbelief, you know,

[00:25] is kind of doing the limbo under all these lasers. They're not GONNA make it that easy for you Most museums employ what's called volumetric motion sensors,

[00:40] or any security facility for that matter, And if there's any interruption in that space, it's going to alert.

[00:53] Jfish2121 asks, "If I were to tweet would the FBI put me on some sort of watchlist?

[01:05] There isn't really a watchlist get the attention of the FBI, All right, so wesrerec asks, "Explain like I'm five:

[01:22] There's a number of cases where museums that turned out to be forgeries. where a museum in South America had a Matisse,

[01:36] There's different ways that museums can determine Some museums actually have provenance experts on staff. and conduct their provenance research.

[01:50] The experts can do scientific analysis on the pigments used, or the plaster that's used to determine an age. determine whether or not it's potentially a fake.

[02:04] Only about 20% of artwork that's stolen from a museum 80% of it is taken from the collection storage areas, If you look at a large museum,

[02:18] And what you actually see on the gallery walls may be in storage. pieces being replaced with forgeries.

[02:31] And realistically, it's just impossible for a museum on every single piece in their collection. about a particular piece being a fake

[02:44] All right, so nembmika, Honestly, Ben Affleck did his thing with this movie. I've ever seen in film."

[02:58] because I was one of the technical advisors on that film. I worked on Violent Crime Squad for about 25 years. And I was one of the case agents on the real Charlestown

[03:13] And Ben Affleck came to the FBI when he bought the rights of the Charlestown armored car robbers. that all the heists that were committed throughout that film

[03:29] and I had with Ben Affleck, I said to him, you know, 'cause we'll tell you what it's really like." Catalina Byrd asks, "What in 'The Thomas Crown Affair'

[03:44] We call it a smash-and-grab robbery, And I think they were in and out in seven minutes. which is getting away with it.

[03:59] I believe that, like, I think four suspects who were involved in that heist were arrested within days. You know, when you look at security

[04:12] including Paris, the number of video cameras that just envelops the entire city. You're gonna get picked up on traffic cameras.

[04:27] You're gonna get picked up by that just about every business in the city of Paris has. They're gonna be able to stitch it all together

[04:40] where something identifiable is going to be located. in today's surveillance world to commit a crime somewhere

[04:52] without somehow leaving a digital fingerprint mirrrroring gives a shout-out to George Clooney That [beeps] was fire."

[05:05] It was a fictional movie based on a real unit. and recover the priceless historical artwork that was at risk in Europe during World War II.

[05:19] for saving pieces of the Ghent Altarpiece, that was at a church in Ghent, And George Clooney, this character was loosely based

[05:34] They did a tremendous job during World War II recovering and was in danger of being destroyed from battle. the director of the Gardner Museum.

[05:50] the need for artwork to be portable in the event of civil unrest or natural disaster. the frames have were cut

[06:04] with little thumb screws to keep it in place. to evacuate this artwork rapidly, museum staff could just take these little thumb screws

[06:17] and leave the much larger, heavier, bulkier frame behind. lunchill asks, "What is security fog? Well, please don't.

[06:32] And basically, when it's activated, it releases this giant cloud of opaque, The whole room is enveloped in a cloud.

[06:46] but I think it's a terrible idea. of panicked thieves in a room filled with valuable artwork,

[06:58] panicking and running blindly through it. There's a number of security protocols that can be used by a museum to keep their facility safe

[07:11] "What criminal committed an almost perfect crime? The closest thing that came to the perfect heist by Leonardo Notarbartolo, which was in 2003.

[07:27] He and his crew stole about $100 million worth of diamonds They were able to defeat the alarm system and get in, And when you're talking about diamonds

[07:41] and other precious jewels, that's your best bet as a thief because these gems can be recut. It is a market unlike other cultural property

[07:54] They left garbage and other items of evidence because, of course, all of these items had DNA on it. You kind of expected more from them

[08:09] and skill into the execution of that robbery. He ended up going to prison. it was pretty close to being flawlessly executed.

[08:23] can you really disable video cameras or was that total bull [beeps]?" Of course, it's going to be one of the goals of a thief,

[08:38] If they're cellular, If it's a hard line, The thing you need to understand, though,

[08:50] it's immediately gonna alert the guards So it's not as effective as it probably was in the movie. "Is it true that Picasso once stole the 'Mona Lisa?'"

[09:05] but he did not steal it. by an Italian named Vincenzo Peruggia. He stayed in the Louvre

[09:17] with the "Mona Lisa" tucked under his arm. He brought it back to Italy, And during his trial,

[09:30] to repatriate this Italian piece back to Italy. but as a result, that really became the most famous theft. because if anybody's ever been to the Louvre,

[09:45] the piece is behind bulletproof glass and it's really difficult to experience the piece But that was the museum theft of La Gioconda 100 years ago.

[09:59] that [beeps] in '80s movies don't work no more, LOL." [laughs] Yeah, you're referring to a movie but it was a real event that occurred at a bank in the UK

[10:18] went through a, like, I think it was a fish and chip shop and then got into the safety deposit boxes. It would not work today because of security protocols

[10:32] You would not be able to tunnel into the bank or motion sensors or whatnot. and sophisticated as it is now.

[10:48] "Holy [beeps] of you haven't read 'Arsene Lupin, it's on line with "Thomas Crown Affair" and "Ocean's 11."

[11:00] The closest thing that I could come to Rita and Jerry Alter. called "Woman-Ochre"

[11:12] And it was taken by a man and a woman And when Rita died in 2018, the contents of her home

[11:24] And one of the pieces that had been hanging in her bedroom valued about $150 million.

[11:36] purely because of the love that they had for that piece, That's about as close as you're gonna get when you're talking about art thieves, to my knowledge.

[11:48] From bassistmuzikman, and "Explain like I'm five: Wouldn't it be impossible to sell?" because there is no market.

[12:00] Nobody wants to buy stolen artwork. or fence stolen property that's recognizable, your actual market, it shrinks,

[12:16] Stealing it is the easy part. You know, when I started working art theft, it was very difficult to move a stolen piece of artwork.

[12:29] Google Image Search will tell you within a second Let's say you steal a very valuable Rembrandt. who would be willing to purchase it and keep it secreted.

[12:45] Maybe some Russian oligarch or a drug trafficker. Everybody always talks about the dark web, Because if you go on the dark web

[12:58] stolen Rembrandt for sale, because there's probably gonna be a reward. to connect a thief who has a piece of stolen artwork

[13:12] with the very small collection of collectors So as a result, these guys end up just sitting on it, more of a liability than an asset.

[13:26] "CCTV monitoring or unarmed security guard?" when you're talking about security guards in a museum, is not to prevent, like, an "Ocean's 11"-type attack.

[13:43] That's the two most destructive elements So you're always gonna have security guards. CCTV, of course, it's the mainstay of museum security.

[13:56] AI has brought surveillance video cameras over where they were just a decade ago. non-AI security cameras where you have a couple of guards

[14:09] of, you know, 100 video monitors, watching, It's a Herculean task. the camera learns what the normal museum person

[14:24] Even if they're looking at one piece of artwork for hours, But it learns what is suspicious, So you don't need to have a couple of security guards

[14:37] The AI cameras will do it for you. of a security contingent at a museum, much more and more sophisticated,

[14:51] Something they need to have is disaster planning, if there's a flood or some other natural disaster, And in fact, we saw this terrible situation last year

[15:06] and we assisted out there to take their precious collections the worst possible things that can happen and plan for it.

[15:20] but if it does, you need to be prepared. "Cute date idea: we solved the Gardner Museum heist." It's probably over $1 billion worth of stolen artwork.

[15:35] were winding down, dressed as police officers, and they demanded entry. And against protocol, the night guard let them in.

[15:48] He said his partner was up doing rounds. His partner showed up, and they said, "Hey, you know, And the guard who was at the night desk

[16:02] there is a warrant for your arrest. put both guards against the wall, spread eagle. and they spent the next hour or so going through the museum

[16:17] including Rembrandt's only known seascape and a Vermeer, I worked the case for 22 years.

[16:29] One part was the whodunit part: who actually pulled it off. which is where the piece is now. Wasn't some Thomas Crown-like reclusive billionaire.

[16:44] Boston mobsters, who pulled it off. and the one that I continue to work on, I got the case in 2002, which was more than a dozen years

[16:56] it seemed that everyone who was actually involved Three members of that crew were violently murdered And a fourth died under very suspicious circumstances,

[17:12] So you have four people who were associated with the robbery And I think it had a chilling effect about coming forward with information

[17:26] babetron002 asked, There's less currency in circulation now. But with the security becoming so much more sophisticated,

[17:42] from standard currency There's not a need to replenish banks And so you do see a decline in armored car robberies

[17:58] D_RejectedStone: So the FBI did found an Art Crime Team in 2004, The impetus for it started about a year earlier

[18:14] During that period of instability, when looters broke into the National Museum of Iraq, culturally historically important museums in the world.

[18:29] And they stole about 15,000 objects there was a call from the U.S. government to the FBI to basically send in the Art Crime Team to investigate this.

[18:43] of starting an Art Crime Team. and some wonderful institutions As Art Crime Team members,

[18:55] like how do we package up valuable artwork? What resources do we have available Typically, when the FBI seizes something,

[19:09] I'm gonna scribble my initials on it in a Sharpie And that way, if I end up testifying at trial that, yes, this is the laptop I seized.

[19:23] Well, we can't do that with a priceless Rembrandt. that the FBI could use We could store items of cultural property

[19:36] so that eventually they can be returned TheDabitch asks, "Pro tip, remove the Nazi-stolen art from the walls."

[19:49] From, I think, 1930s until 1945, the Nazis seized hundreds of thousands of pieces of artwork The Fuhrer wanted to start his own Reichs Museum

[20:05] Over the years, these pieces have made it out and they've ended up on museum walls oblivious to the fact that it had been either seized

[20:20] from their Jewish owners or what we would call duress sales, Nazi-controlled Europe would sell artwork, or trade it in exchange to be allowed to leave.

[20:34] There's databases that are out there to make sure that it goes back to its rightful owners. In the United States, under our stolen property laws,

[20:49] Even if you purchased it legally from a reputable gallery the victim from whom it was stolen It's something that the FBI Art Crime Team

[21:04] to repatriate stolen Nazi-looted artwork There are private databases out there to see if this piece that you potentially want to purchase

[21:17] who's looking to buy a valuable piece of artwork that it's not stolen or wasn't looted by the Nazis. the museum jewelry heist in Paris

[21:32] Sounds more like lucky-ass dumb thieves to me." aren't recovered intact at some point. is throw it away if you steal artwork or jewelry

[21:49] Well, there's places you can hide it, you better have something to bargain. you really don't have a bargaining chip.

[22:02] "How are art thieves usually caught?" Well, like I said, they may steal televisions or watches, that they would have to fence their stolen property

[22:14] where they can go to try and sell high-end artwork. and they get kind of desperate to monetize it. he has this vision of making $1 million on this deal.

[22:30] that price drops and drops and drops. Enough people hear about the fact that he's got it, There's a reason why it's so enticing for thieves

[22:45] secure storage facilities for artwork. It's meant to be welcoming. and take a look at this beautiful collection.

[23:00] artwork in museums is just easy to steal, reallygoosename asks, when there are literal YouTube videos about picking locks

[23:17] And it's typically not going go be leaving fingerprints. Even bad thieves understand the concept

[23:30] because you're not gonna leave fingerprints. Like the sebaceous oils in your fingertips will leave DNA, But you're also going to get technology as their undoing.

[23:46] and the interconnectivity of all the different marketplaces that are out there, car rentals and tolls and E-ZPass There's so much technology that's out there

[24:00] commit a crime, not leave any DNA behind. but it's harder and harder to get away with it. do investigators usually continue to actively pursue leads?"

[24:18] for 22 years, I can tell you that they don't stop. until there's absolutely no leads left.

[24:30] In the United States, we have a statute of limitations, Back when the Gardner Museum heist happened in 1990, Because of the Gardner Heist, Senator Ted Kennedy in '94

[24:45] to make a theft from a museum statute to our law, But even after that statute of limitations expires, because in the United States, you can never get clear title

[25:00] And so, therefore, you can always be charged For me, getting the Gardner case in 2002, So it took many, many years to even get up to speed

[25:15] and to start re-interviewing people that were still around And then you're really just following the trail. who can give you answers that you're looking for.

[25:27] people don't think that it still has any importance. which people know is extremely important, I hope you learned something.

[25:42] [light groovy music]