It is not clear what the value of the artefact which will be handed over to the owner in the presence of outgoing US Ambassador Robert Godec/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 18 – The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Art Crimes Team is on Wednesday set to hand over a recently recovered piece of rare art back to a Kenyan artist in Nairobi.
The commissioned sculpture was stolen from Kenya in 2013 but was recovered by the FBI following investigations in the US.
It is not clear what the value of the artefact which will be handed over to the owner in the presence of outgoing US Ambassador Robert Godec.
The FBI established the rapid deployment Art Crime Team in 2004 which investigates art related crime worldwide.
It is composed of 16 special agents, each responsible for addressing art and cultural property crime cases in an assigned geographic region.
The Art Crime Team is coordinated through the FBI’s Art Theft Program, located at FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Since its inception, the Art Crime Team has recovered more than 14,850 items valued at over $165 million.
Art and cultural property crime – which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines – is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses in the billions of dollars annually.
About The Author
