The story’s got international criminal intrigue and an administrative angle that dates to World War II. It even touts a biblical connection, one that speaks to human nature’s role in the battle between good and evil. If the central figure in question ever cops to the spiritual upshot of his act, he may want to check the title of the painting he stole. To some, it’s interchangeable with the verdict.
Meanwhile, “The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden” “” a colonial Mexican painting that until recently resided on the wrong side of the border “” is back in the proper hands. Mexican officials had been chasing it down for four years beginning in 2000, finally hitting pay dirt with the cooperation of the San Diego Museum of Art.
In fact, it turns out, the museum was an unwitting party to the whole affair.
A database search by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Mexican government determined that the painting, which the museum purchased in 2000 from a Mexico City dealer for $45,000, was slashed out of its frame from a small church in San Juan Tepemazalco, located in Hidalgo state, the same year. Mexican authorities traced the art to San Diego in 2004 and sought the U.S. government’s assistance under a series of binational cultural treaties. The San Diego U.S. attorney’s office gathered the pertinent evidence, and last August, the work was relinquished to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, who then transferred it to Mexican officials.
“Expulsion,” painted in 1728 by an unknown artist, was not on display when the museum was notified of the investigation.
“The recovery of this painting,” said San Diego Mexican Consul General Luis Cabrera, “is another example of the fruitful cooperation that exists between law enforcement authorities of Mexico and the United States. The government of Mexico conveys its gratitude”¦ for the seizure, protection and restitution of this painting of great historic and cultural value to Mexico.”
“We use every tool at our disposal,” added U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, “to assist our treaty partners in recovering stolen cultural property that is smuggled across the border. This is another fine example of the cooperative efforts”¦ to enforce the rule of law and ensure that cultural property is protected.”
Safeguarding national patrimony, said museum executive director Derrick Cartwright, “is one of the most critical and complex issues in the art world of our time. Theft of cultural property, irrespective of its monetary value, is a deeply troubling fact facing all art museums today. Doing the right thing in this instance was the obvious course of action for the San Diego Museum of Art.”
Chris Zook, museum director of communications, said that the venue adheres to Association of Art Museum Directors guidelines in such matters. Those guidelines state that the affected museum shall make the alleged confiscation public and shall offer to resolve the matter “in an equitable, appropriate and mutually agreeable manner.”
The guidelines evolved during World War II amid wholesale Nazi art thefts.
While the details of this episode are safely consigned to the record books, they reflect only a fraction of activity among the art world’s criminal element — FBI statistics reflect that U.S. art thefts yield losses of $6 billion annually. But that astronomical figure is tempered in the wake of the Mexico City dealer’s generosity. Lore has it that he reimbursed the museum for the cost of the painting. Unlike certain art thieves, he’s not a likely candidate for expulsion anytime soon.