Dear friends,

The purpose of this web portal is to promote:

"an awareness of the underworld activity in the arena of art.”

   We are not attempting to attract the attention of investigators or law enforcement agents. We are targeting art world habitués, artists and brothers and sisters of the arts (musicians, poets, writers), as well as the shadier element of the art underworld: art thieves, smugglers, street/graffiti artists, to name a few. We are aware that art and crime always crossed paths and artists have always lived on the margins of life, especially in Bohemia, where practically everyone was an anarchist at heart, drugs and absinthe were consumed as if a nutritious part of dinner, dueling was the normal way to end disputes, and stealing artist supplies to create was always an accepted practice.

   Law enforcement agents want bodies. They are predatory and prey on criminals. But they don’t know or love art. They are more interested in arresting culprits than recovering stolen art work. You are either a good guy who fits within the narrow margins of what describes a “good guy”, or you are a dirt bag. They see the world as a colorless book written in black and white and they are too often very judgmental. If they see a guy with dread locks, he could be the nicest guy on earth, but he has to be a dirt bag. Artists are weird, drug using people who lead scandalous lives. If a guy is a recovered addict, he has to be a dirt bag. If a thief reforms his life, he is always a dirt bag. They will smile in your face while you are feeding them info, but when you are back on the street you are just another concrete cockroach. If you have a problem, info on a crime, or something you want recovered, it behooves you to avoid all the other investigators and agencies and contact us. We will respect you and protect you!

Confidential info may be submitted using this address:
confidentialinfo@yourbrushwiththelaw.com

Any information regarding art related crimes will be kept totally confidential and your identity will be respected and protected.
Informed citizens are our best weapon in solving, and preventing, art crimes!
Any help we receive is greatly appreciated.

   In Ulrich Boser’s outstanding book The Gardner Heist (Harper’s Collins, 2009; ISBN: 978-0-06-145183-6), he stated that Harold Smith, one of the greatest art world gumshoes that ever lived, explained that when it comes to fine art, the boundaries between right and wrong, rich and poor, beautiful and ugly often become thin and hazy. Some of the art world’s most famous personalities have been some of its least savory characters. Vincent Van Gogh sold only one work during his lifetime; now his paintings regularly go for a million dollars or more. While art dealer Joseph Duveen helped create the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, he instructed his employees to scrape the ancient patina off the Elgin Marbles in order to boost the selling price of the precious sculptures. Rembrandt ran art scams, stole from his son’s inheritance, and once had a mistress imprisoned in a mental institution rather than pay her alimony. For Smith, this aspect of the art world was part of its fascination. “It’s what I love about the business. There is no rule book, nothing that tells you what to do,” Smith told Mr. Boser. “Everyday is a surprise.”

   This lack of rules, rejection of social norms and conventionality, and anarchistic spirit is what we at YourBrushWithTheLaw love about the “business” as well. We see the art world as a community that stands apart from the rest of conventional society. Unlike the bloodless, grey, bourgeois society that surrounds us, we will not judge the poor artist that steals art supplies or material to create, we will not condemn the creative genius who dies of a drug overdose, or commits suicide, nor will we look down on thieves that steal art and come to us to for assistance in brokering the artworks return. We are artists and our first priority is the art! So many of our art world heroes, as well as our contemporary artist brothers and sisters, have crept in the dark alleyways of life’s walk and have refused to walk down the middle of the well lit streets of acceptable bourgeois society. In Bohemian Paris J. Siegal writes: “…artists, the young, shady but inventive characters, all shared- with the gypsies whose name they bore (bohemian) a marginal existence based on the refusal or inability to take on a stable and limited social identity. All lived simultaneously within ordinary society and outside it.” Caravaggio was violent and committed a homicide, Courbet and Baudelaire fought at the barricades in the revolution of 1848, Verlaine and Rimbaud were followed by the secret police in Paris (who kept secret records on many poets and artists they spied on), Picasso bought works that were stolen from the Louvre and he and his friends were regular opium smokers. The list goes on and on. These artist crimes and antics can be read on our “Artist Crimes” page.

   Ordinary society, and the governments that governed them, have always viewed the art world suspiciously and in contempt. Max Nordan’s words in his study Degeneration influenced Hitler’s policies toward modern art: “degenerates are not always criminals, anarchists, and pronounced lunatics; they are often authors and artists.” Our contemporary societies have proven to be just as closed minded and willing to control and censure our creations.

   Here at YourBrushWithTheLaw we will accept you for the creators that you are. You will be respected and we will fight to defend you. If you have been beaten, cheated, taken advantage of, ripped off or censured, please share your story with us. Also, if you have an interesting story to tell, we are always excited about conducting interviews.

   As for open minded police officers who protect and support artists, they have been few in number, but there are a few honorable examples, such as NYPD Art Theft Detective Robert Volpe (refer to “Heat” page) and French Police Commissioner Zamaron, who at the beginning of the 20th century befriended many of the legendary artists of Bohemian Monmartre and Montparnasse, Paris.

   The artist colonies of Monmartre and Montparnasse were made up of many different nationalities…French, Italian, Dutch, Mexican, Scandinavian, Russian, Spaniards, to name a few. The artists of Montmartre and Montparnasse had a special friend and protector named Zamaron. Commissioner Zamaron was the officer in charge of foreign nationals at the Prefecture of Police in Paris. He was an ardent art lover and always came to the assistance of the artists in need, especially his personal favorite, Maurice Utrillo. When off duty, this police officer would seek out his artist friends at the cafes such as the Dome and the Rotonde for drinks and good intellectual conversations. His friend’s paintings covered the walls of his police station office; there Zamaron proudly displayed works by the Italian Modigliani, the Lithuanian Kikoine, the Belarus-born Lithuanian Soutine, the Montmartre native Utrillo, and Utrillo’s mother, Suzanne Valadon. There was another, less honest officer named Descaves in Paris who loved art as well. Descaves would shake down the artists for their art works. Once in a while he would take a painting and pay a tiny installment after instructing the artist to stop by his office for the remaining sum on a future date. Of course the artists knew better not to do so. The honorable Zamaron was constantly protecting the artists from the dirty Descaves.

   As you can imagine, the artists kept Zamaron quite busy. Modigliani and his pal Utrillo were constantly being picked up for drunk and disorderly conduct; Utrillo was an alcoholic and drank eight liters of wine a day. Both Picasso and Alfred Jarry (but Jarry was a more frequent violator) cocked and waved their pistols in the faces of drunken adversaries at the slightest insult and they loved to shoot out the gas lamps that lined the streets. In fact, pistol packing was in vogue in the artist quarters of those days; Picasso carried a browning every where he went, which he shot in the air in festive drunken folly and fired out of his bedroom window every morning as an alarm clock to awaken his friends. While dueling was illegal in this era, fistfights were not considered gentlemanly behavior, so the artists resorted to crossing swords and cocking pistols quite frequently. These neighborhoods, and a few of the cafes located in them, were breeding grounds for the popular anarchist movement. A number of illegal anarchist newspapers were being printed and distributed there. The artist Juan Gris was erroneously arrested after police officials mistakenly identified him as an anarchist named Garnier, who was a main suspect in a band of political bombers in Paris.

   One of the most famous police encounters involved Picasso and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire after the Monalisa, which was painted by Leonardo DaVinci, was stolen from the Louvre on Aug 21, 1911. Both Picasso and Apollinaire were both brought in for questioning as suspects in this crime. In 1907, a friend of Apollinaire’s named Ge’ry Pieret, stole several valuable artifacts from a storeroom at the Louvre, simply by placing them under his overcoat and walking out. Pieret was a former boxer from Belgium who turned to writing. Both Picasso and Apollinaire bought objects from Pieret and later denied knowing they were stolen. Picasso’s lover, Fernande Olivier, stated that Pieret warned Picasso on the day he bought two small Iberian heads, not to display them but to keep them hidden from view. Picasso kept the objects in an inconspicuous place, fully aware of their illicit nature.

   After the theft of the Monalisa, Pieret sold his story, along with a full confession and a statuette from the museum, to the Paris-Journal. Pieret wanted a little cash and some notoriety. The article further humiliated the Louvre and implemented Picasso and Apollinaire; both were overcome with fear and contemplated throwing the artifacts into the Seine. Picasso was brought in for questioning, where he turned over the artifacts he possessed, and was released. Apollinaire was arrested on Sept 7, 1911. He was not released until Sept 12, 1911. Apollinaire was extremely frightened and hated his stay in a cell, however, for years after the fact, he would boast of being the only man in France to be arrested for the famous crime. The real culprit, Vincenzo Perugia, was arrested for this crime on Dec 11, 1913 in Florence, Italy. Perugia declared he was an Italian patriot and only stole the Monalisa so he could return her to Italy where she belonged. He incorrectly believed that Napoleon Bonaparte stole the painting from Italy as war loot and couldn’t stand seeing her in French hands.

   Law enforcement agents want bodies. They are predatory and prey on criminals. But they don’t know or love art. They are more interested in arresting culprits than recovering stolen art work. You are either a good guy who fits within the narrow margins of what describes a “good guy”, or you are a dirt bag. They see the world as a colorless book written in black and white and they are too often very judge mental. If they see a guy with dread locks, he could be the nicest guy on earth, but he has to be a dirt bag. Artists are weird, drug using people who lead scandalous lives. If a guy is a recovered addict, he has to be a dirt bag. If a thief reforms his life , he is always a dirt bag. They will smile in your face while you are feeding them info, but when you are back on the street you are just another concrete cockroach. If you have a problem, info on a crime, or something you want recovered, It behooves you to avoid all the other investigators and contact us. We will respect you and protect you!

Confidential info may be submitted using this address:
confidentialinfo@yourbrushwiththelaw.com

Any information regarding art related crimes will be kept totally confidential and your identity will be respected and protected.
Informed citizens are our best weapon in solving, and preventing, art crimes!
Any help we receive is greatly appreciated.