Martin Bailey, "The Art Theft-Drug Smuggling Link Exposed," The Art Newspaper, London, UK, VoL 7, No. 66, January 1997.

Mr. Bailey is a journalist who writes regularly about the arts.

London. The Beit theft is being used by Scotland Yard to warn of the close links be- tween art crime and chugs. A complex diagram produced by the Metropolitan Police shows the movement of the stolen pictures, drugs and money, providing a dramatic illustration of international links in the criminal underworld.

International Linkr in the Cr im ina l Underworld

MONEY - -- -J~

STOLEN WORKS OF ART

ILUCIT DRUGS

Source: Metropolitan Police, UK

In 1986 eighteen Old Masters were stolen from Russborough House outside Dublin, the home of millionaire collector Sir Alfred Beit. Along with the raid on the Gardner Museum in Boston, this was probably the biggest art theft in the post-war era. The haul, which included works by Vermeer and Goya, was then valued at over s million.

Although the mastermind was never charged, a Scotland Yard detective now says that the main villain was Dublin crime boss Martin Cahill, known as "The General". He was at the centre of a spider's web, organising the operation and despatching the stolen pictures to Istanbul, London and Antwerp. "Cahill wanted to become a major drug distributor throughout the British Isles. The stolen works of art were to raise money for that venture," says Detective Chief Inspector Charles Hill, a specialist on art crime.

Seven of the pictures were abandoned after the raid and discovered in a nearby ditch, but this left eleven works with the Dublin gang. Metsu's "A young woman reading a letter," was sent to Istanbul. Turkish police seized the Metsu in 1990 and believe it was about to be swapped for a large consignment of heroin for importation into the British Isles.

46 ~ IN ORGANtZ~ C ~ / SPRING 1997

Three paintings were sent to London. In 1992 detectives investigating a drugs gang found Gainsborough's "Portrait of Madame Baccelli" in the back of a van. A year later two other pictures were recovered. Palamedesz's "The Music party" was found aban- doned in a left-luggage office at Euston Station. Ruben's "Portrait of a monk" was seized from a house in Borehamwood where it had been hidden under a sofa.

The finest of the Beit pictures went to Belgium: Vermeer's "A lady writing a letter with her maid," Goya's "Portrait of Dofia Antonia ~ t e , " Metsu's "A young man writing a letter," and Vestier's "Portrait of Madame Lamballe." Cahill's gang sent the works to an Antwerp diamond dealer, who kept the pictures as security for a loan de- positing them in a Luxembourg bank vault.

The money borrowed from the diamond dealer was then used to buy a stake in a bank on the Caribbean Island of Antigua. The Hanover Bank was intended to serve as a vehicle for laundering drug profits. The drugs would have been bought in Marbella and smuggled into the British Isles for resale.

An Oslo fixer helped the Cahill gang buy their way into the Hanover Bank. He also used the Antigua-registered bank to handle a $30 million Isle of Man offshore invest- ment fund for a major insurance company. This sum was being transferred through Limassol in Cyprus when lawyers caught up with it and froze the money. Another of the Oslo fixer's ventures involved a securities scam on the Frankfurt market.

By this time police were onto the track of the four Beit pictures sent to Belgium and in September 1993 an undercover operation led to a successful recovery. Enticing the crooks with a prospect of a sale, the paintings were moved to Antwerp, where they were seized in a raid by heavily armed police. Three Irishman and a Yugoslav were arrested, although later released on a technicality. Fortunately the pictures were not badly dam- aged, although the Vermeer had slight scratches and the Goya had suffered from being rolled up and stuffed into a bag.

Ownership of four of the stolen Beit paintings had been transferred to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1987, and the Vermeer, Goya and two Metsus are now on show at the Dublin gallery. The other works were returned to the Beit family.

This leaves three pictures still missing. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Rubens's "Head of a cavalier" may have been damaged beyond repair by a Northern Irish Protes- tant paramilitary who received it from Cahill, although other sources believe it still survives, possibly in Ireland. Two Guardi capriccio views are thought to have gone to a collector in Miami. Cahill, the mastermind, never benefited from the crime. In August 1994 he was shot in the head outside his home on the orders of the IRA.

As Scotland Yard points out, the Beit theft is indeed "a cautionary tale." The only way that art thieves who steal well-known works can benefit from crime is to use their booty in the underworld. Usually this involves drugs, and valuable pictures are passed on for a fraction of their open-market value to acquire supplies for smuggling or resale. For crooks, art masterpieces represent venture capital to raise money for drug trafficking.

�9 Copyright Umberto Allemandi & Co. Publishing. Reprinted with permission.

COMBATING FINANCIAL CRIME AND MONEY LAUNDERING 47