How to Recover Stolen Artwork?
When less than 10% of stolen works are found, what can owners do when they are robbed of artworks?
When artworks are stolen, they generally end up on the black market and sold to an individual buyer for a diminished price. The way to combat this is to notify the FBI and Art Recovery Group of the theft. This will allow reputable buyers access to the theft information, alerting them that the work was stolen.
The risk of going public with the theft is that thieves will often abandon or destroy the work when the case becomes high-profile. Because the chance of being caught selling the work raises, thieves may consider the diminished value of the work worth the risk. The decision to report a theft or not proves to be a great challenge and contributes to the minute percent of successful recoveries.