The art world is mysterious, seductive and ripe for exploitation. It's a magnet for criminals looking to make big money from thefts and forgeries. Art crimes rake in $6 billion a year…from home invasions to museum heists to forgers passing off high-priced fakes. It's a crime that could be scripted in Hollywood but also one that destroys careers, reputations and bank accounts.
According to recent U.S. Justice Department statistics, art crime is an industry estimated at $6 billion — surpassed only by drug and gun trafficking trades.
A $6 billion art crime market may encourage thieves to go for the big paydays - but stealing art is often easier than unloading art.
In 2011, James Cornelius, curator of the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois, hired Barry Bauman, an art conservator, to restore one of the most famous paintings in the state's collection - a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the nation's 16th president, thought to have been painted in 1864. The restoration reveals a hundred year old scandal that rocks the State Capitol.
Quintanilla is an Emmy award-winning reporter and co-anchor of "Squawk on the Street" broadcast live from the NYSE.
