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Case Studies

The case studies provided here are intended to provide examples of ways of dealing with often complex issues and acting responsibly. The headlines and introduction for each case study are included in this page. The full stories are found in Learn More.

Return of Greek statue stolen during World War II
On June 16th 2005 a British dealer in ancient art returned a 4 1/2-inch bronze statue of a smiling youth to the Aegean Sea island of Samos after realising the piece had been stolen during World War II.

David Teniers stolen from London Dealer
In the early 1990's a thief walked into the gallery of a well known and reputable Bond Street dealer. Whilst the attention of the staff was elsewhere, he managed to calmly remove a painting by David Teniers from the wall and left the gallery with the picture hidden underneath his coat.

Stolen Set of Audubon's Birds of America
In 1996 Christie's in London was offered a complete set of pages from Audubon's Birds of America by a Russian vendor. The pages had been neatly trimmed and although out of their bindings were in good condition. When the vendor claimed that he had inherited them from his father Christie's decided to research from which of the known volumes the pages had come. Academic and forensic investigations provided the authorities with evidence that the pages had been taken from a set owned by the Russian State Library in St. Petersburg.

Successful negotiation prevents litigation
In 2006 Andrew Hartley's auctioneers, a well-established auction house in Yorkshire, had one of its consigned items - J.O. Imbertson Stained Glass panels within oak frames in an Islamic style - for an upcoming sale identified as being on the Art Loss Register database.