Art Crimes, 1, 2, 3

1.) Wanted: Hot Artist w/ Sticky Fingers, Must Have Own Tools.

A strange innuendo-filled personal-ad from an arts fetishist? No, an even stranger request for an art thief. Artist Hans Winkler has placed a personals ad in the San Francisco weekly Bay Guardian as part of his "Crime Museum" installation for the New Langton Arts Gallery in San Francisco. As for how the criminal activity will be incorporated into the show, the artist remains mum.

2.) The war on terror has even imposed itself on agencies normally focused on the enforcement of art laws. The Art Newspaper reports, "The US Customs Art Fraud Investigation Center set up in 2000 to track and seize stolen art has been subsumed into the Department of Homeland Security... the agents who had concentrated exclusively on tracking and seizing smuggled art have now been redeployed to investigate cases related to the war on terrorism and financial fraud." Somewhere in a cave, Bin Laden is laughing while looking at a stolen painting hung on the wall.

3.) And speaking of Art Crime, Winston Smith is the man that wrote the book. Actually, he's the one who cut and pasted the book together. Winston is best known for his collaged album covers for the Dead Kennedys, Green Day, and Jello Biafra.