New York City is a financial center in the international art market, where phenomenal amounts of money and art changes hands daily. In the early seventies, the New York Police Department established the Art Squad ( officially known as the Art Identification Team), which was a part of the Burglary/ Larceny Division. The brass of the NYPD chose Detective Robert Volpe to head this team. Volpe was ideal for this specialized position, because besides the investigative skills he acquired on the streets of Manhattan, he was also an artist who spent most of his off duty hours in his studio painting. He studied art at the School of Art & Design, Parsons, and the Arts Students League. Being an artist facilitated his entry into artistic circles. Volpe knew how to relate to the art world habitués, because he knew their concerns and feelings when they were victimized in the often brutal N.Y. arena of art.

   Volpe, a native New Yorker, was born in Dec/1942, to third generation Italian American parents. He grew up in South Brooklyn and entered the NYPD Police Academy in 1964.

   After the academy, he was assigned to patrol in the 9th precinct, which covered the area bounded by E. Houston St. to E. 14th St., and from the Bowery to Avenue D. He walked the beat for a short time until he was assigned to a squad car with a partner.

   From Dec/1964 until Nov/1966, Volpe did undercover work in the Police Commissioner's Confidential Investigating Unit. At the P.C.C.I.U., Volpe worked on confidential investigations of Organized Crime, which consisted of undercover surveillance and wires.

   In Nov/1966 until 1971, Volpe was assigned to the Narcotics Bureau, which was located at Old Slip and South Street Station. One of the major investigations that this unit conducted was the heroin smuggling operation known as the "French Connection".

   In 1971 until his retirement in 1983, Volpe was assigned to the Art Squad and worked solely on art related crimes , such as art theft (burglaries and robberies from art galleries), dealer fraud (ex.- a dealer taking an artist's works on consignment, selling them and never paying the artist), as well as detecting fakes and forgeries, and vandalism (ex.- In 1974, Tony Shafrazi entered the Modern Museum of Art (MoMa) and spray painted "Kill Lies All" in red across Pablo Picasso's Guernica. Refer to the Tony Shafrazi Link on our Artist's Crimes Page for further info on this case).

   Robert Volpe and his partner, Detective Marie Cirile, conducted many major investigations and made several recoveries of stolen art. They viewed themselves as guardians of patrimony, and desired the Art Team to become a permanent unit in the NYPD, which unfortunately, it did not. They believed that it was important for a cultural center like New York City to have a specialized unit to investigate art crimes; A unit that was made up of detectives who were trained in art and art history who could generate leads and contacts in the art community with ease. The art community has proven, at times, to be just as tight lipped as Mob controlled Italian enclaves. Many in that community don't relate well, or take to law enforcement personnel (especially in the anti-establishment atmosphere of the early seventies). Artistic investigators were a necessary link between the Police Department and the artists who were often victimized in the arena.

   Volpe's work was written about in a book The Art Cop, written in 1974 by Laurie Adams. A more recent tribute to Robert Volpe was a chapter dedicated to him in the book Framed, written by the art dealer Tod Volpe (no relation). Robert recovered a piece that was stolen from Tod in the seventies and they have been friends ever since. In this book Tod Volpe described Robert Volpe as the Archangel of the NY art scene.