Art Theft

In a case of slight exaggeration-

Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, which operates a database to help recover lost and stolen art equated art thieves with murders and child slavers.

Whoever took “Russian Schoolroom” from the suburban St. Louis gallery in 1973, or the masterpieces from the Boston museum 1980, or the works lifted in Zurich this week, shouldn’t be mistaken for a high-society, tuxedo-wearing, “Thomas Crown Affair” kind of thief, Radcliffe said.”These people are the worst sort of criminal. They are just like the criminals who traffic individuals or sell children, or murder.

Now, I am all for art, but to equate people who are basically fancy shoplifters with murders…that is a grand exaggeration. I think it is another case of someone whose vision has become so myopic, so involved in one’s field that s/he has lost perspective.