Art thefts are big business
By Ooi Kok Chuen
June 2015 PENANG PALETTE
As art masterpieces become more desirable, better security against thieves and tricksters is required.The theft of well-known Indonesian artist Affandi’s Self-Portrait With Pipe (1973), which was sold at the Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction for 5 billion rupiah in May 2014, was solved with the arrest of two suspects in May this year.According to the Indonesian mass media, the electrician contracted to the owner’s family and his driver hatched a plan to have the painting duplicated in 2006. They first spirited...
Ooi Kok Chuen
is an art-writer and journalist, and the author of MAHSURI: A Legend Reborn (Ooi Peeps Publishing), an adult contemporary fantasy “movel” (a novel conceived as a mock movie) spun from a local legend.
