Art Theft Archive Newsletter

Three shocking thefts in one month (from the Santa Barbara Museum, the M. H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, and the Art Institute of Chicago) raise questions about the integrity of the museums' security systems and the possibility of a new form of "patronage" for the theft of important works of art

In O'Keeffe v. Snyder, (July 7, 1978) the New Jersey Superior Court held that Georgia O'Keeffe was barred by the statute of limitations from recovering paintings, stolen in 1946 and innocently bought from a third party by Princeton art dealer Barry Snyder. This case illustrates the need for a central clearinghouse on stolen art, such as IFAR’s Art Theft Archive.

Carl G. Allen, working for Los Angeles art insurance broker Fred S. James & Co, proposes a "Standard Operating Procedure," to counteract the alarming rise in art thefts in 1978. Such an SOP for avoiding and handling art thefts might be widely distributed among museum employees.

Jeffrey Haywood Shore is the subject of an FBI warrant for the theft of many works (by Giacometti, de Kooning, Leger, Jawlensky and Modigliani) from Southampton, NY, and included in this issue of Art Theft Archive.