Inside the GALLERY OF LOST ART

Picasso. Dali. Matisse. Just a few of the artists whose works have been stolen. In an exclusive interview with the head of Interpol’s stolen art unit, we learn the truth about the theft of the world’s most beautiful objects.

- GENEVIEVE GANNON

It’s late at night and The Weekly office is empty when a call from Paris comes through on an encrypted carrier. The face of a handsome Italian man in dark sunglasses flashes on the screen. Corrado Catesi started his career in the special unit of Italy’s Carabinieri, tasked with protecting art. After the 2009 earthquake, he was dispatched to the Abruzzo region where he swooped into damaged churches and cultural buildings to retrieve oil paintings and artefacts before they were buried in rubble forever. He now works for Interpol at the intersection where high art meets hard crime.

“People think that it’s not a serious crime,” Corrado says. “Police and customs, if they [have to investigate] a drug crime or a cultural crime they will decide on the drug crime because it appears to be strongest, but it’s not true.”

In 1995, Interpol established a virtual vault of missing works of art to track stolen masterpieces and ancient treasures being trafficked all over the world. It has become a powerful weapon against organised crime and terrorism, and it is the reason Corrado is calling tonight.

“Thanks to the Interpol database, we have recovered several items, not only stolen objects of art but also cultural items. A Leonardo. A Michelangelo,” he says, over a patchy phone connection. “The Interpol database was recognised by the monitoring team of the UN Security Council as a key tool to fight the illicit traffic [of cultural items] that gives terrorists the possibility to gain income.”