An archive of art crime, law, and controversy.
COA — Crimes of Art — is being built as the definitive online library and publication dedicated to art crime, law, and controversy. It documents theft, forgery, fraud, looting, restitution, cultural heritage crime, censorship, authentication disputes, museum scandals, and the legal battles and provocations that shape how we make, hold, and lose the objects we call priceless.
Not everyone in these pages is a criminal. Alongside thieves and forgers stand the artists who tested boundaries, the investigators who chased stolen works, the institutions caught in scandal, and the courts that decided who owns the past. COA is structured like an institution rather than a true-crime feed: every case connects to the people, artworks, and museums around it, so one entry opens outward into a network of evidence, biography, and consequence designed to grow into thousands of interlinked records.
Alongside the library sits a working publication: reported news, long-form essays, a podcast, and a lighter gallery of museum mishaps. And at any point you may consult the Archivist, an assistant grounded in the collection, to ask questions and request summaries.
Incidents and episodes across art crime, law, and controversy — theft, forgery, looting, fraud, restitution, censorship, and landmark legal battles.
Artists, thieves, forgers, investigators, dealers, and the figures — culpable or not — who shaped these stories.
Stolen, forged, recovered, and disputed objects at the heart of the cases.
Institutions that have been targets, custodians, and battlegrounds of cultural heritage.
Current reporting on restitution, recoveries, trials, and the art market.
Long-form conversations and investigations from the COA studio.
Criticism and reflection on the culture, ethics, and aesthetics of art crime.
A gallery of blunders — the tourists, toddlers, cleaners, and champagne corks that met priceless art and lost.
Get in touch with COA.
Tips, corrections, contributions, press, and rights enquiries are all welcome. Reach the editorial desk directly by email.
crimesofart@gmail.comKnow a dirty dealer? Chasing a stolen masterpiece?
Send us your tips on art theft, forgery, looted antiquities, shady dealers, museum scandals, and unsolved mysteries. If it's a crime involving art, COA wants to hear about it.
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