Two men, Liam Hughes and Jason Parker, were jailed last year for stealing a £500,000 Henry Moore sculpture which they flogged for £46 to a scrap-metal yard.
Many historically important works, such as Moore's 1965 piece The Sundial, have been melted down in furnaces, lost forever to history. But in this case, as chief constable of Hertfordshire Andy Bliss remembers, the sculpture was saved. The dealer who bought it liked it and was going to take it home to his mother.
Two hundred crimes are committed against listed buildings every day in England alone, many of them no more than mindless vandalism. But criminal gangs are increasingly targeting cultural property, says Bliss, who leads the effort to tackle the crime.
The cost of damage to, or theft of, art and antiques throughout the UK is put at £300 million a year, but this figure is believed to only scratch the surface.
Those convicted tend to receive light sentences, because the blunt hand of the law seems unable to determine the worth to society of a work of artistic beauty.
The headline, “Painting worth £Xm stolen”, hinders rather than helps, says Mike Harlow of English Heritage, as it reduces public empathy.
A bit of a caper
"Sometimes people can see these as the problems of the rich, or that art crime is a bit of a caper," he told a meeting in the Tower of London this week.
“Sometimes I think it would be a good idea if judges could give historically appropriate punishments to match the age of the piece stolen.”
The British Library's Kristian Jensen said the public needed to understand that heritage is more than money.
In one case, a poorly-funded museum had to take 200 paintings off display after the theft of one because it could not afford to protect the others.
In another, thieves stole jade, rhino horns, vases and other ceramics from the Ming and Qing Chinese dynasties from provincial museums.
Churches too have been targeted. In one case an ancient organ was destroyed by water damage after lead was stolen from its roof.
In another, the lead haul was worth £70,000 to thieves, but it left the church with a £500,000 bill – one it could not meet because of falling numbers in its congregation.
However, there has been progress. New legislation came into force in October banning cash purchases by scrap-metal dealers. So far, metal theft is down by half.
But crime does not stand still. “Police (and others) must not be complacent in failing to identify new markets available through technological advances in online dealing,” says a new police report written by Bliss, released on Monday.
Meanwhile, the fight has gone global. Demand for rhino horn in China and South Asia is increasing every day.
“Why would these gangs risk extended custodial sentences for trafficking drugs such as heroin or cocaine when rhino horn will net them upwards of £45,000 per kilo,” says Bliss.
Training
Efforts are under way to collect better information about the scale of the crisis and to train British police forces in combating thieves. And there are a multitude of organisations involved in saving Britain's heritage.
“The extent to which they are aware of one another and share their knowledge, experience and intelligence with each other and law enforcement agencies, can vary greatly and sometimes prove inadequate,” the Bliss report warns.
Back in Hertfordshire, the Henry Moore Foundation lives with the threat of attack. “Art is available for us all to see, it is not just for the wealthy,” says its head Lesley Wake.
