Art has always been the focus of Lynne Richardson’s career.
Having earned a master’s degree in museum studies from San Francisco State University, she has worked in museums all over the country – including Thomas Jefferson’s home in Charlottesville, Va.; the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington; and currently, the Hi-Desert Nature Museum in Southern California – and had tenure at the FBI.
At a glance
| Lynne Richardson will give two lectures at the University tomorrow. From 9 a.m. until noon, she will be in 249 Lawrence talking about her experience on the FBI’s Art Crime Team. At 2 p.m., she will discuss the legal aspect of art crime in Room 142 of the Knight Law School. Both lectures are free and open to the public. |
Tomorrow, Richardson will give two lectures at the University about her experience on the Art Crime Team, which she founded while serving as the organization’s Art Theft Program manager.
“I’m going to be talking about cultural property theft worldwide, the crime problem and different aspects of the crime problem: theft, fraud, looting or archaeological sites,” Richardson said in a phone interview from Yucca Valley, Calif.
During her first talk, an Arts & Administration Lecture at Lawrence Hall, Richardson will discuss art theft and fraud as it relates to art markets, both domestic and international. An afternoon lecture will take place at the law school, where she will focus more on the legal aspect of art crime.
Art thefts
| Nearly four years ago, Edvard Munch’s famous “The Scream” painting was stolen during the armed robbery of a museum in Oslo, Norway. “Madonna,” another Munch painting, was also stolen. Norman Rockwell’s “Russian Schoolroom” was stolen in Clayton, Mo., in 1973 and sold at an auction in New Orleans 15 years later. The piece was recovered last year from Steven Spielberg’s collection. Spielberg did not know the painting, which he had purchased in 1989, was stolen. In March 2004, San Felipe Sultepec Catholic Church in Tlaxcala, Mexico, reported three sculptures stolen. Five months later, six sculptures were stolen from the community house of worship in Tlaxcala’s Santa Anita Huiloac. |
“Art theft and cultural looting is probably second only to drug crimes in the world today,” said University professor Dominick Vetri, who teaches an art law course at the law school.
Vetri said art crime can include everything from stealing an expensive painting from someone’s house to the recovering of “Holocaust art.” During World War II, Nazi soldiers raided museums and private collections with the intention of putting the art in German museums after the war.
A potential issue is whether a piece of Holocaust art legally belongs to its present owner or the heir of its original owner, Vetri said.
The Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act, which Richardson will also talk about, mandates museums and federal agencies give cultural items, such as human remains and sacred objects, to lineal descendants and culturally affiliated Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations.
“I think it’s going to be very interesting,” said Tina Rinaldi, an adjunct instructor and assistant to the dean of Arts and Administration program in the School of Architecture & Allied Arts. “We are not very often privy to expertise on the ground, somebody who has actually worked in this function.”
Richardson described her lecture as “infotainment.”
“We’re going to be providing information,” she said, “but hopefully in a fun way.”
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