"I was undercover at that point as an authenticator for an Eastern European mob group," he tells Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies. After weeks of negotiation, he agreed to meet the thieves in a hotel room in Copenhagen. After founding the FBI's Art Crime Team, he revolutionized the way the bureau tracks down criminals who swipe paintings and antiquities in high-profile heists around the world.įor the Swedish case, Wittman went into the field, posing as a crooked art dealer looking to swap cash for the Rembrandt. Wittman, who spent 20 years with the FBI, is one of the world's leading authorities on recovering stolen art and cultural property. Swedish authorities called in Robert Wittman to help them track down the paintings - and the thieves who stole them. As the thieves made their getaway in a high-speed boat, police could not access the museum because the highways were completely blocked. Simultaneously, two car bombs went off on the main roads leading to the museum, located on a small peninsula in central Stockholm. For the next 40 minutes, the thieves ran through the museum, taking two Renoir paintings and a 1630 self-portrait by Rembrandt - a painting valued at $36 million. In late December 2000, three people armed with machine guns went into the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm and ordered everyone to get down on the floor. Robert Wittman's book, Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures is now out in paperback. This interview was originally broadcast on July 12, 2010.
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