In a murder investigation the trail can grow colder and colder with every passing day. With art theft, however, the more time passes, the closer investigators tend to get to cracking the crime. Statistically, most art thefts take several years or even decades to solve.

In the knowledge that a recently stolen work could be spotted by even the general public in a highly publicised case, thieves often keep the art hidden for a long time before trying to fence it. This is one reason why as little as 20% of stolen art is ever recovered. While many art auction houses, including leading ones like Christie's and Sotheby's, make it a policy to check if an art work is stolen before accepting it for auction, there is no requirement to do so by law, making it easy for stolen art to slip through the cracks with smaller establishments.

According to Art Loss Register findings, 54% of stolen art is discovered by auction catalogues, 31% by the police, 6% by art dealers and 6% through the Art Loss registered search. Vital in the fight to expose art crime is the scientific expert who can authenticate the genuine article or reveal a forgery from examining the tiniest pinprick of paint. Equipped with carbon dating, pigment analysis and UV fluorescence techniques, these specialists can expose the most professional of forgeries. For example, try passing off a painting as a 17th century Vermeer or Velázquez when it contains Prussian blue pigment and you’ve had it – the pigment was only introduced in 1704!