Chap­ter 15 of The Art Thief deep­ens the explo­ration of art crime, as it fol­lows the inves­ti­ga­tion led by Alexan­dre Von der Müh­ll, one of Switzer­land’s few spe­cial­ized inspec­tors in the field. Von der Müh­ll, who is known for his sharp ana­lyt­i­cal mind and ded­i­ca­tion to jus­tice, finds him­self dis­sect­ing the sur­veil­lance footage from the Alex­is Forel Muse­um. In the footage, a young cou­ple is seen exe­cut­ing a well-coor­di­nat­ed heist, using their inti­mate knowl­edge of the muse­um’s secu­ri­ty sys­tems to steal a valu­able serv­ing plat­ter. This inci­dent is just one in a trou­bling rise of art thefts, pri­mar­i­ly occur­ring in Switzer­land, which Von der Müh­ll believes are linked. His expe­ri­ence in art theft, com­bined with a deep appre­ci­a­tion for artis­tic her­itage, fuels his inves­ti­ga­tion. As he watch­es the footage, he begins to see pat­terns that lead him to believe the thefts are part of a larg­er, more orga­nized crime net­work. His obser­va­tions spark a broad­er inves­ti­ga­tion that will uncov­er the com­plex­i­ties of art theft on an inter­na­tion­al scale.

As Von der Müh­ll digs deep­er into the case, he begins to rec­og­nize a pat­tern in the stolen art­works: they are pri­mar­i­ly less­er-known but high­ly valu­able works from the late Renais­sance. This indi­cates that the per­pe­tra­tors are not typ­i­cal thieves look­ing to sell high-pro­file pieces for quick cash. Instead, they seem to have a refined under­stand­ing of art and a pen­chant for choos­ing spe­cif­ic items with par­tic­u­lar val­ue, not just finan­cial but also cul­tur­al. The cou­ple, Von der Müh­ll deduces, has like­ly tar­get­ed these less­er-known works for their unique­ness and the rel­a­tive ease with which they can be stolen and sold. As he ana­lyzes their actions, Von der Müh­ll sur­mis­es that the moti­va­tion behind the thefts may be root­ed in a more sophis­ti­cat­ed under­stand­ing of art’s val­ue. These crim­i­nals may view their actions as an exploita­tion of an art mar­ket that has seen an unprece­dent­ed boom in recent years, with art fetch­ing increas­ing­ly high­er prices at auc­tions world­wide. This grow­ing finan­cial val­ue in the art mar­ket is mak­ing it a prime tar­get for orga­nized crim­i­nals, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the efforts of law enforce­ment.

The chap­ter also high­lights the alarm­ing glob­al preva­lence of art theft. Sta­tis­tics reveal that there are at least fifty thou­sand art thefts each year world­wide, con­tribut­ing to a crim­i­nal econ­o­my worth bil­lions. These num­bers illus­trate the mag­ni­tude of the issue and under­line how art theft has become a sig­nif­i­cant prob­lem for law enforce­ment agen­cies across the globe. The thefts also involve some of the most famous artists in his­to­ry, such as Pablo Picas­so. Picas­so, despite being a renowned artist, was also wrong­ful­ly impli­cat­ed in the infa­mous theft of the Mona Lisa in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, despite his pri­or involve­ment in art mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion. This sit­u­a­tion sheds light on the com­plex­i­ty of art crime, where even promi­nent artists and their works can become the sub­ject of crim­i­nal activ­i­ty. In addi­tion to Picas­so, artists like Sal­vador Dalí and Andy Warhol have also been tar­get­ed due to their icon­ic works, which are high­ly sought after in both the art world and the crim­i­nal under­ground. While these artists are not as wide­ly known for being involved in art thefts as Picas­so, their works con­tin­ue to be prime tar­gets for crim­i­nals look­ing to prof­it from high-val­ue pieces.

The chap­ter con­tin­ues by recount­ing a major suc­cess in the fight against art crime. In 1976, a sig­nif­i­cant recov­ery oper­a­tion led to the return of 118 stolen works by Picas­so, demon­strat­ing the poten­tial suc­cess of spe­cial­ized law enforce­ment units that focus specif­i­cal­ly on art theft. This recov­ery marks an impor­tant moment for art crime law enforce­ment, show­ing that with the right tools and col­lab­o­ra­tion, even large-scale thefts can be undone. Coun­tries like Italy and France have long been at the fore­front of these efforts, devel­op­ing spe­cial­ized art-crime units to address the grow­ing prob­lem. These units are ded­i­cat­ed to com­bat­ing art theft and recov­er­ing stolen pieces, and their suc­cess has con­tributed to the glob­al effort to pre­serve artis­tic her­itage. While Switzerland’s art-crime force is small­er com­pared to oth­er nations, it still reflects the increas­ing inter­na­tion­al aware­ness of the need to fight art theft. The chap­ter clos­es by empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of these efforts, high­light­ing how the fight against art theft is becom­ing a glob­al pri­or­i­ty. With more coor­di­nat­ed inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion, the chances of appre­hend­ing art crim­i­nals and recov­er­ing stolen pieces con­tin­ue to rise, but the chal­lenge remains immense.