Art Attack

Can science help solve art crime?
Purloined paintings recovered in Mexico. Quick police action, helped by sketches of the thieves, ensured the quick return of 12 stolen Rufino Tamayo canvases, intact, to the gallery in Mexico City. But the Jan. 28 robbery made The Why Files curious: How does science help to solve fraud -- the most popular category of art crime?

Art fakery is a peculiar beast. Sometimes driven by pure greed. Sometimes it's driven by misplaced artistic admiration -- these thieves don't steal for profit, but because they covet art objects for their personal enjoyment.

How long has this been going on?
The following tidbits lead us to believe that art crime is one of the older professions.

Ancient Romans adored ancient Greek art, and workshops in the imperial city were cranking out chariot-loads of reproductions. Some of this stuff was good. Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, writes that "Today it's almost impossible to tell what's genuinely ancient Greek and what's Roman fakery." (See his engaging wrap-up of fraud through the ages in "False Impressions..." in the bibliography.)

Art forgery had a rebirth during the Renaissance, which Hoving termed "a watershed for fakes." Now that ancient Rome was cool, Europeans were copying Romans, just as Romans once aped Greeks. The most popular forgeries included gems, coins and ancient inscriptions.

It wasn't just art that got faked. The Shroud of Turin, considered by many the cloth that cloaked Christ's body after his crucifixion, was crafted in the 14th century, according to carbon-14 dating. Nonetheless, the faithful still venerate the shroud, arguing for its authenticity against the scientific evidence.

Although their actions were not considered fraud, master painters during the Renaissance had a workshop system, and signed work by employees and apprentices. That practice spawned a whole industry that tries to confirm the actual authorship of many big-name artworks.

In a specialty called document forgery, Mark Hofmann, a rare-documents dealer, made the Mormon Church squirm in the 1980s by threatening to expose damaging documents he'd "uncovered." The case ended in 1987, when Hofmann was convicted of forgery and two murders committed to conceal his crimes (see "Salamander:..." in the bibliography).

Shall we steal?
Ancient artifacts have been a magnet for forgers. And archeological sites have been a magnet for looters.

Perhaps the largest art rip-offs in history occurred in the 1930s and 1940s, when Nazi Germany, and then the Soviet Union, systematically plundered art from their conquered lands. Much of this art remains stolen.

On a slightly smaller scale, the 1990 theft of 13 paintings from the Gardner Museum in Boston, by thieves dressed as police officers, remains unsolved. In 1998, two convicts claimed they could produce the booty, valued at $200 million. But they were apparently just con men trying to get themselves sprung from prison.

For an illuminating look at the long history of art forgery, see "Fake?... " in the bibliography.

Stealing. Forging. Ain't it a wonderful art world?
How much art is stolen? There's no easy way to measure it, but th. FBI says the "illicit trade in art and cultural artifacts has increased dramatically in recent years." (We asked the FBI to tell us how they investigate stolen art, but they couldn't be bothered to respond...). The Art Loss Register lists some stolen art.

Who's doing all the stealing? Professional thieves frequently steal on assignment. But a surprising amount is done by collectors, connoisseurs and experts, many of whom are convinced they can adore work better than visitors to museums, galleries and churches.

Not convinced? Art Crime (see bibliography), tells of Stephen Blumberg, "a specialist in the theft of books and manuscripts from libraries... also stole paintings, prints, stained glass windows, and antique furniture." The FBI searched Blumberg's house, and recovered $40 million worth of assorted bric-a-brac, including 21,000 rare books. Talk about using your specialty...

TRAINING

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners

Interviewing Techniques for Auditors: Eliciting Information

January 22-23, 2006
Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, 2900 Bayport Drive, Tampa, FL 33607

18th Annual ACFE Fraud Conference and Exhibition

Orlando, Florida

Tampa Bay Chapter

Dinner Meetings

January 9, 2007
Jean Joanne Perrino
J.J. Berrie & Associates, Inc

February 13, 2007
Melody Shimmell
Century Bank

March 13, 2007
Darrin Morgan, Assistant Vice President, Special Investigations Unit, Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati, OH

April 10, 2007

8th Annual Fraud & Computer Crimes Seminar

May 8-9, 2007
Ruth Eckerd Hall
Clearwater, Florida1111 McMullen Booth Road
Clearwater, FL 33759

2005 - 2006
OFFICERS & DIRECTORS

PRESIDENT
Christine Dever, CPA, CFE
Accountabilties Consulting Services
(813) 417-1825

VICE PRESIDENT
Gary Chapman, CFE, CGAP
City of Tampa, Internal Audit
(813) 274-7163

SECRETARY
William H. Miles, CFE
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
(863) 701-1474

TREASURER
Laura Krueger Brock, CPA, CFE
Cherry, Bekaert, Holland, LLP
(727) 822-8811

DIRECTOR
Mark Dubina, CFE
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
(813) 878-7366

DIRECTOR
Ellen Wilcox, CFE
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
(727) 298-2482

DIRECTOR
Steve Hooper, CIA, CFE, CCSA
Clerk of the Circuit Court Hillsborough County, FL
(813) 276-2029 x3703

CHAPTER TRAINING
Wayne Boytim, CFE
City of Tampa, Internal Audit
(813) 274-7167

Can't steal just one
European churches display much more art than those in the United States, and that makes them more common targets for thieves. Nonetheless, Art Crime (p. 132) records this story of a worshipper who must have flunked the Sunday-school quiz on commandment 8: (Thou shalt not steal). "A man who stole three paintings from a Boston church said that while praying he had been overcome with an urge to take some of the beautiful objects in the sanctuary."

As with theft, there's no single measure of the total cost of art fakery and fraud. But Thomas Hoving says he looked at about 50,000 works of "art" during 16 years at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and found 40 percent not what it was represented to be (see p. 17 of "False Impressions" in the bibliography). "The fact is that there are so many phonies and doctored pieces around these days that at times, I almost believe that there are as many bogus works as genuine ones."

Arrayed against this motley crew of forgers and wanna-be Rembrandts is a small squad of experts who call themselves fakebusters. Some are technical whizzes in chemistry, art conservation or physics. Others are connoisseurs and museum directors like Hoving.

The Greek mathematician Archimedes may have been the original fakebuster. Remember? He was the smart fellow who tested a king's "gold" crown without destroying it. Using water displacement, he calculated the crown's density -- and found that it was less dense than gold.

Credit: Courtesy University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

News from the ACFE

December 31st Deadline for Board of Regents Election
The ACFE’s Nominations Committee has selected six candidates to compete for two positions on the 2007-2008 Board of Regents. Certified Fraud Examiners in good standing may vote now through December 31, 2006. Voting is fast and easy. Visit ACFE.com/Regents-Election-2006.asp to view candidate information and then sign in to cast your vote. If you encounter problems while logging in or casting your ballot, email membership@ACFE.com.

ACFE Call for Speakers: Submit Your Proposal Online!

In our continuing effort to provide the best training possible, the ACFE invites experienced anti-fraud experts to provide speaking presentations for ACFE conference sessions and courses. Please note that submissions must include your curriculum vitae and professional references. Visit www.ACFE.com to learn more, and submit your proposal today.

CFEs: Deadline to Certify CPE Compliance is January 31, 2007

Just a reminder, annual CPE reporting for CFEs is due January 31, 2007. All active CFEs are required to complete 20 hours of CPE per calendar year of which at least 10 hours must relate directly to the detection and deterrence of fraud. CFEs are responsible for keeping track of their CPE documentation for three years, such as proof of attendance and completion of courses. You can track your CPE online at the My Account section of ACFE.com.

Fraud Auditing and Forensic Accounting, Third Edition

With the responsibility of detecting and preventing fraud placed directly on the accounting profession, you are responsible for recognizing fraud and learning the tools and strategies necessary to stop it. Fraud Auditing and Forensic Accounting, Third Edition shows you how to develop an investigative eye toward both internal and external fraud and provides crucial information on how to deal with it when discovered.

Visit www.ACFE.com/Shop -- Where the Experts Shop.

Dinner Meeting News

Our next Dinner Meeting is scheduled for January 9th

Jean will present "Fake & the Art of Deception." This will be a lead-in to her presentation at our 2-day seminar in May. Jean will detail actual cases she has worked and discuss the types of cases, methods employed, and how equipment can help with erasures, obliterations, etc.

The dinner meeting will be held at the Westshore Hotel (Best Western), located at 1200 N. Westshore Boulevard in the Hyde Park Room (first floor). The hotel is just north of I-275 and Cypress Avenue on the east side of Westshore (map). Evenings will begin with a social at 6:00 P.M., followed by a buffet dinner at 6:30 and a presentation at 7:00. The cost is $20, payable at the door.

To make your reservation, please use the following link Chapter Meeting Reservation and complete the form at the bottom of the page.  You can also make your reservation by emailing Wayne Boytim or calling him at (813) 274-7167 by the Friday before the meeting date. Reservations will be accepted after that date and walk-ups are always welcome. Please remember that cancellations are accepted up to the afternoon of the meeting. No shows will be billed after the second missed meeting. Please help us keep our costs down by letting us know if you are unable to attend.

October 17th Dinner Meeting

The October Dinner Meeting was the second to be held at our new venue, the Best Western Hotel located on Westshore Boulevard. Positive comments by those attending further confirm that the Best Western was a good choice for our dinner meetings. Having a steak house on premise is also a plus.

Approximately 41 people attended the meeting. This number includes several “first timers” and eight USF students along with their instructor, Jerry Lander. Chapter Officers in attendance included President Christine Dever, Secretary William Miles, Vice President Gary Chapman, Chapter Training Director Wayne Boytim and Directors Mark Dubina, Ellen Wilcox and Steve Hooper. Our Dinner Meeting attendance seems to be on the increase and we hope that this trend will continue with the January meeting.

After a wonderful steak dinner, Chapter President Christine Dever introduced the night’s speaker, Tom Palermo. Tom is an Assistant State Attorney in the 13th Judicial Circuit, covering Hillsborough County. Tom is the current Deputy Chief Prosecutor in the Economic Crime Section and has been with the State Attorney’s Office for three years. Tom has a vast educational and professional background and is well suited for his current assignment.

Tom’s topic for the evening was Identity Theft - Prevention, Detection and Prosecution. With the time allotted, Tom was only able to cover the high points of his Power Point presentation, but this was very informative and well received by the audience. Tom agreed to have the full presentation posted on our Chapter Web Site.

The next Dinner Meeting is set for January 9th. If you know a Chapter Member that has not been to a Dinner Meeting in the recent past, please encourage them to attend.

Submitted by Bill Miles, Chapter Secretary

Art Attack  (continued)

More ways to skin a canvas
Most of the high-tech ways to detect phony art were invented for another reason. Here are some of the techniques we've run across.

When considering these techniques, remember this limitation: Walter McCrone, a veteran analyst who heads the McCrone Research Institute in Chicago, says analytical techniques cannot prove that somebody actually painted a work of art. They can, however, rule out that possibility, by proving that the materials used were unavailable when it was supposedly painted.

McCrone was co-editor of an informative 1999 book on art analytical techniques called "Fakebusters" (see bibliography).

Is it blood or is it paint? Walter McCrone says these micrographs (below) prove the Shroud of Turin is paint on linen.  Courtesy Walter McCrone, McCrone Research Institute.

 

Real blood (McCrone's) on linen. Note brown color. Magnification 5X.	Shroud blood on linen. Note the red color unlike blood (left). Magnification 10X.
A tape of the real blood-image above - real blood, again brown, unlike the Shroud paint. Magnification 1000X.	A tape of a Shroud blood-image shows only a red ochre paint. Magnification 1000X.

Say you want to test an important painting -- like the Mona Lisa or a Rembrandt. Let's say the painting's owner would shudder at the thought of you scraping off some paint or snipping off some canvas. Then you can't use "destructive testing," like the in-reactor method we just saw.

Instead, you need "non-destructive testing" -- the proverbial better idea. One non-destructive technique, X-ray fluorescence, shares much with neutron activation analysis. You zap the object with energy and the radiation is characteristic of the elements in the sample.

But while neutron activation measures gamma rays, X-ray fluoresence measures X-rays. More important, X-ray fluorescence can operate outside a reactor. And it works on a small area, so if the irradiated section of a painting does change color, the problem is small.

Pity the poor art forger
With analytical techniques getting better every day, it's getting harder to pass off bogus art.

But the intrusion of high-tech into the art world also has a more benign side. In Rembrandt's time, studio heads routinely signed the work of apprentices. Nowadays, that would be considered fine-art fraud. Even if we can't accuse old masters of forgery for failing to follow today's ethos, we are still curious who actually brushed "their" canvases.

The results can be unsettling: After a long examination of paintings attributed to Rembrandt, the Netherlands Association for the Advancement of Pure Research found that at least half of them were not, in the modern sense, his work.

Has this quibbling stopped the thieves? Hardly.

The human dimension
Despite our emphasis on analytical technique, analyzing art fraud is not just a technical game. Gut instinct, wisdom and experience probably play an equal role in detecting fraud. Thomas Hoving, who directed the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, says some people have a visceral reaction to bogus art. He says art historian Bernard Berenson "was a natural fakebuster" who could sometimes only say "that his stomach felt wrong. He felt a curious ringing in his ears. He was struck by a momentary depression."

For his part, Hoving wrote that when he begins to suspect fakery, his "internal discussion" of a work can turn "obscene."

Credit: Courtesy University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

President's Message

Hello there. Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season. It is hard to believe that the year went by so quickly. This upcoming year we have a number of goals which need to have everyone’s participation to meet.

Over the past couple weeks, our officers met with Beta Alpha Psi (Accounting Honorary Organization) and had many other opportunities to speak about our ACFE Chapter and what we contribute back to the community. We had a number of volunteers speak at Gerry Lander’s Fraud and Forensic classes. Thank you to the volunteers who help make this happen and thank you to Gerry for extending the invitation. Thank you to the University of Tampa for allowing us to attend your meetings and share information with so many young individuals. It has given us the opportunity to talk to your rising stars who want to get involved.

I have briefly discussed a goal with our board, but must have other members’ involvement to make it happen. Our goal would be to start a shadowing and mentoring program for University students majoring in areas such as fraud & forensics, criminology, and accounting and eventually develop a student board. Our officers participate in the community, maintain their full time positions, and uphold their officer duties. This is where you come in! We have students ready and willing to help get this program off the ground, but we need your participation. Please email me if you would be interested in participating in either/both of these projects. In the upcoming months, the board will be discussing the formation of this program and may be contacting you for your assistance. This is a wonderful opportunity for our Chapter to develop something special that can expand our membership and make our fight against fraud that much stronger!

Here is just one example of how we make a difference. Below is Rich Brody’s message of goodbye to our Chapter. Rich sent this shortly after he left, but it did not make our earlier newsletter:

Tampa ACFE Members:

If you have not heard, I have left the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Due to the fact that my move happened somewhat quickly, I did not have a chance to say goodbye and thank you to many of you who have helped me and the students at USFSP over the past two years. I did want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to you for your support of the program at USFSP and a special thanks to those of you who visited my classes and spoke to my students. It was a pleasure chatting with many of you at the monthly meetings and I wish you all the best of luck. My new job has brought me to enchanting Albuquerque where I am now on the faculty at the University of New Mexico. If you ever find yourself passing through the area, please feel free to get in touch with me. I am developing a series of fraud courses here at UNM and I can always find a spot for a guest speaker (so now your vacation here has been converted into a business expense!).

Take good care and, again, thank you for all of your support, friendship and knowledge.

Rich Brody

Please get involved. We have a very large Chapter here in the Tampa Bay Area with an excellent array of skills, knowledge, and experience. It’s time to share and give back! Please let us know anytime you go out and speak to the community and groups and share information about our Chapter as we have information you can bring with you and would like to share these visits with the Chapter.


Have a safe and Happy New Year! Best wishes to all of you!

Christine A. Dever, CPA, CFE