An art dealer disappeared with $50M. 17 years later a documentary crew found him

[eddhead]

Isn't all of the global art marketplace, a swindle to begin with? It's a money laundering industry in its entirely with almost barely any money actually reaching the original artist. It could have easily been him selling something he drew up in 2 days, make up a bullshit backstory, sell it for 50 million and he'd actually not have to disappear

[milofeynman]

Right now another common use of high end art is to avoid taxes by purchasing expensive art and storing it in a Freeport[0].

[0] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/02/09/584555705/epis...

[friendlybus]

I repeatedly see a cynicism around art on HN and other tech blogs, does no-one here see the inherent value in art or culture?

Jackson Pollock's art pieces get a lot of flack for basically having no publicly presented interpretive structure, the artist came up with a technique for doing 'plastic depth' that was a novel innovation. Irvine Kershner who directed Empire Strikes Back and met Pollock made fun of him at the time for his work appearing to be off the rails, and later came to appreciate it.

Taking out the market manipulation of fine art still leaves it with an intrinsic value whether it is technique or the meaning imbued in having a piece of work produced by an artist. Is that worth millions? Who knows, if I give you any old guitar, and a guitar that Elvis played on I know the second will be valued higher.

[saagarjha]

> It's a money laundering industry in its entirely with almost barely any money actually reaching the original artist.

Considering the original artist is often deceased, I think it would be rather difficult for them to get the money.

[redis_mlc]

> Isn't all of the global art marketplace, a swindle to begin with?

According to press reports, most artworks for sale are forged.

(The corollary is that old collections are even more valuable.)

[t_akosuke]

As an artist who wants to deliver some value for the hard work I put into it... I'm appalled shit still works like this

[Enginerrrd]

> I think the reason he felt safe in taking part in the documentary is because he is in a country where he is beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement.

>And yet he doesn't have money ... so there's no point in anyone coming after him because a civil suit wouldn't get them any money at all, and the FBI can't get him because he's out of their reach.

Title conflicts with the statements in the article. Though IMO, there's probably good reason to wonder if this claim is true.

[justinclift]

> There is a certain point in the film where there's a little flicker of remorse, but more than anything he feels that his actions were in some way justifiable.

One of my relatives is like that. :(

She'll lie, cheat, steal and generally screw over people. But pretend innocence to the outside world, and come up with truly bizarre reasons to justify things when asked by people who've realised what she's doing.

It's unfortunate, as it's so destructive. :(

[fnord77]

what countries out outside the reach of interpol / US extradition for this type of crime? Guessing he's still in South America someplace.

[unstrafed]

Taiwan and North Korea are the only two countries I've found that seem to have no extradition and no (formal) interface to law enforcement abroad through Interpol.

Palau, Tuvalu and Micronesia in the Pacific are not members of Interpol, but they do have extradition treaties with the US, and then there are a host of countries in Interpol that have no US extradition.

[mushufasa]

farther. us has extradition with all south america, and is widely believed to have a large cia presence as well. (lots of historical evidence for that). https://www.voanews.com/archive/explainer-extradition-and-us interpol has 194 member countries. https://www.interpol.int/en/Who-we-are/Member-countries google says there are currently 195 countries.

somehow, though, I don't believe they're in North Korea? Nor that the documentary filmmaker could get there...

[sailfast]

Yeah - my money would be in Venezuela or Cuba.

[findyoucef]

He's in France and france doesn't extradide french citizens. They will extradite other nationalities though.

[dmolony]

The documentary says he is in France.

[findyoucef]

how can i watch this?

[eeh]

BBC have a steaming subscription available to Canada/US: https://www.britbox.com/

[kristofferR]

It's available the places BBC content is available, except iPlayer.

It's so damn dumb to force people to seek pirate sources by not providing legal options.

[abstrct]

Gerald Cotten next maybe?