FBI names its most-wanted stolen works of art , $6bn-a-year

[emad]

From Boston to Baghdad, missing treasures add up to a $6bn-a-year black market

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday November 17, 2005
The Guardian


In August last year, two masked robbers armed with submachine guns shouldered through the Sunday afternoon crowd at an Oslo museum and coolly tore Edvard Munch's The Scream off the wall, making their escape in a waiting black Audi.

The Scream is the most iconic of the images on a newly published FBI list of top 10 art crimes, a catalogue of missing masterpieces worth $600m (£345m) which includes works by Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Degas, Cezanne and Van Gogh, as well as thousands of artifacts looted from the Iraqi museum in Baghdad.

The FBI issued its list in the hope of enlisting public help in solving some of the world's most notorious art thefts, and curtailing a black market trade worth an estimated $6bn a year.

The agency posted photos of the stolen artwork on its website, along with descriptions of the theft, hoping it will prompt the public to come forward with information on the stolen treasures.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1644166,00.html

[waiting for hope]

1. Can't the FBI

post of list of thieves connected with the rape of this country in the cases of Halliburton and the alleged oil scam? Will that prompt a few insiders to come out of hiding and tell the truth?