Lost Art

Valuable works of art are stolen or looted every year, yet many governments consider art theft a luxury problem. With limited oversight, what prevents thieves, looters, and organized criminal gangs from flooding the market with stolen art? How can victims of theft get justice? And what happens if the legal definition of a good title is at odds with what is morally right?

Enter the Art Loss Register, a private database dedicated to tracking down stolen artworks. Blocking the sale of disputed artworks creates a space for private resolutions--often amicable and sometimes entertainingly adversarial. This book presents ten cases from the Art Loss Register's archive, showing how restitutions were negotiated, how priceless objects were retrieved from the economic underworld, and how thieves end up in court and behind bars.