Missing a Rembrandt? Check out your local priest’s office- apparently, some art thieves like to stash their stolen goods there. From NPR: “…the drawing was found by Father Michael Cooper, an assistant priest at St. Nicholas of Myra Episcopal Church in Encino. He opened the door to his office Monday night and noticed the framed drawing just inside. At first he thought it was a donation, but upon closer inspection, it hit him: It was the “The Judgment,” the 1655 work that had been plastered all over the news after it was stolen from the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey.” Read the whole article here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/17/139703773/stolen-rembrandt-found-in-a-church
“I hear a lot of the suspects have been framed.” - Stephen Colbert The 8/3 episode of the Colbert Report featured an interview with Robert Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. Paintings such as Goya’s “The Swing” have been recovered through investigations led by Wittman.  Watch the entire video here: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/393825/august-03-2011/robert-wittman
From ArtInfo.com: Chaos Follows Van Gogh Theft in Cairo A brief guide to the ridiculous theft of and resulting confusion surrounding Van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers,” worth an estimated $50 million. Looks like it’s time to ramp up security in the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo… The Hunt: Hosni has put border and airport officials on alert for the painting as part of an aggressive public effort to recover the work. His ministry came under fire following the burglary after it was determined that only seven of the 43 security cameras were functioning, and that alarms in the museum were not operational. Hosni has said that he was unaware that the security system was compromised. “The museum would have been closed if it had been known the warning system was not working,” he told a local newspaper, according to Al Jazeera English. (Of course, Egyptian museums aren’t the only ones to be embarrassed by faulty alarm systems.) Read more at: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35547/chaos-follows-van-gogh-theft-in-cairo-a-brief-guide/
From ArtInfo.com: At Last, a $19 Million Settlement for Schiele’s Nazi-Looted “Portrait of Wally” The work, a portrait of Valerie Neuzil, Schiele’s favored model and one-time mistress, was stolen from Jaray by Nazi dealer Frierich Welz, an act justified as a part of the process of “aryanizing” Jaray’s art dealership in 1930s Nazi-controlled Vienna. When World War II drew to a close, U.S. forces — falsely believing that “Wally” had belonged toHeinrich Rieger, who had died in a concentration camp — handed the work over to the Austrian government, who bequeathed the portrait to the Austrian National Gallery. Read more at: http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/35269/at-last-a-19-million-settlement-for-schieles-nazi-looted-portrait-of-wally/