Art Crime Specialist to Discuss Forgeries, Fraud at Law School Forum

INDIANAPOLIS – The man responsible for the recovery of more than $150 million of stolen art and cultural property will be the guest speaker for the annual IU School of Law-Indianapolis forum on legal and business issues impacting the art world.

The third annual Jordan H. and Joan R. Leibman Annual Forum on the Legal & Business Environment of Art takes place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006, in the Wynne Courtroom of the IU School of Law-Indianapolis, located on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus at 530 W. New York St.

FBI Special Agent Robert Wittman, senior investigator with the FBI’s rapid deployment national Art Crime Team (ACT), is the featured speaker for the program titled “It’s Not a Pretty Sight: Art Forgery, Fraud and Theft.”

Wittman’s most recent recoveries include:

• One of the original 14 copies of the Bill of Rights which is valued at $30 million and which was sent to North Carolina for ratification in 1789 and stolen by a Union soldier during the Civil War.
• Recovery of Rembrandt’s “Self-Portrait” stolen from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm and valued at $36 million.
• Five Norman Rockwell paintings stolen from a private gallery in Minneapolis, three of which were recovered by Wittman from a farmhouse in Brazil.
• The recovery of the Native American Apache medicine man Geronimo’s eagle feathered war bonnet valued at $1.2 million.

Joining Wittman on the program will be Indianapolis Museum of Art Chief Conservator Martin Radecki who will discuss forgeries from a local angle.

Radecki has served as chief conservator since 1975, managing a staff of 12 conservators, technicians and assistants in the operation of the state’s largest conservation facility. He has served as a consultant on the authenticity of paintings for the Indiana State Police.

In conjunction with the lecture, a reception and a gallery exhibit will take place from 7 to 8 p.m., Nov. 14 at Herron School of Art and Design, located at 735 W. New York St., one block west of the law school. The exhibit, located in the art school’s Marsh Gallery, is titled “Forgery: Art in the Age of Fraudulent Reproductions.”

The Leibman Annual Forum is funded through a gift made by a law school alumna in honor of Jordan Leibman. It is co-sponsored by the IU School of Law-Indianapolis, the IU Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, and the IU Herron School of Art and Design.