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Mastering the Art of Solving Crime
Robert Wittman talks about his work as an undercover agent on the FBI Art Crime Team
Images courtesy of Robert Wittman and Donna Wittman.
In 2001 in Brazil, Wittman recovered three Norman Rockwell paintings that thieves had stolen in the late 1970s.
Scholastic Art: What is your job?
Robert Wittman
Robert Wittman: I was the founder of the FBI Art Crime Team in 2005 and served as a senior investigator there for 20 years. Before that, art crimes weren’t considered a specialty. Now I have my own business specializing in art recovery and security.
Thieves stole this Rembrandt self-portrait from the Swedish national museum in Stockholm. Wittman used $250,000 to bait and arrest the thieves in Copenhagen, Denmark.
SA: What kind of art crime cases did you work on at the FBI?
RW: I worked on cases involving fraud, forgeries and fakes, and theft. These included art crimes committed against museums, colleges and universities, and also private individuals. The FBI categorizes stolen art as not only the theft of paintings, prints, and sculptures, but also things like collectibles. The art industry itself generates $200 billion each year worldwide. I recovered more than $300 million of stolen art and cultural property during my career at the FBI.
These masks were stolen from the national museum of Zimbabwe and recovered in Poland.
SA: What was a typical day like for you on the FBI Art Crime Team?
RW: Well, I was an undercover agent, so for 12 years I was always somewhere in the world working undercover. I traveled to 20 different countries to solve cases for the FBI. I was frequently assigned to multiple cases taking place in different countries—all at the same time.
SA: What is one of your most successful cases?
RW: One of my best recoveries was finding a $35 million painting by Rembrandt van Rijn that had been stolen from the Swedish national museum in Stockholm. We did an undercover operation in Copenhagen, Denmark, and that’s how we were able to recover that painting.
Wittman recovered this Peruvian gold accessory in Philadelphia.
SA: Did you receive any art training?
RW: Yes, I studied fine art, diamonds, jewelry, and gemstones.
In 2002, Wittman found Francisco Goya’s The Swing in an undercover operation in Madrid, Spain.
SA: What do you find most fulfilling about your job?
Wittman wrote a book about his career.
RW: Helping people. That’s what’s most gratifying. I recently recovered a painting by artist Margaret Keane that had been missing for 50 years! The woman who hired me was the subject of the painting, and her family never gave up looking for it. It was a very gratifying feeling to help that family get their heritage back.
SA: What advice do you have for students interested in a career like yours?
RW: It’s good for young people who are interested in art to know that there are many art-related careers they can get involved with. There are jobs in security, investigation, provenance review (examining documents that prove the history and authenticity of a piece of art), and research.
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