Cate Curtis, Anti-social behaviour: A multi-national perspective of the everyday to the extreme
| Author | James Oleson |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0004865816661810 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
difficulty of proving or disproving the authenticity of an artwork said to be by an artist
who may have been dead for centuries. Without the artist to say that she did, or did not,
paint a particular work, the issue almost inevitably falls to be determined by circum-
stantial evidence – in the recent case of the Brett Whiteley forgeries, mentioned above, it
was the late Whiteley’s ex-wife who gave evidence that the paintings did not appear to
have come from his hand. Another site at which art crime cases are often contested is on
the issue of the rightful ownership of works of art. Craig Forrest’s chapter provides an
insight into how cases of disputed ownership are conducted and resolved.
Finally, the book turns to survey international attempts to improve law enforcement
in this particularly complex domain. Contributors reveal how the European Union, the
USA, Canada and China take different approaches to the prevention and detection of
art crime. One theme emerging from the chapters in this section is that in recent times,
governments and international bodies are slowly moving towards a more systematic and
organised approach to policing art crime, evidenced by the creation of the FBI’s Art
Squad and similar specialised units in other countries. Yet, it is also clear that much
more needs to be done, and more international cooperation needs to occur, to stamp out
a species of crime that is truly international in its scope.
Art crime is so interesting because it is a site at which two very different worlds
intersect – the creative and the legal. All of this is explained, explored and critiqued
from an impressive array of perspectives in these two recent publications in the bur-
geoning field of academia that shadows this fraught area of competing human
endeavours.
References
Amore, A. (2015). The art of the con: The most notorious fakes, frauds, and forgeries in the art
world. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Caulderwood, K. (2014, June 18). How ISIS pillages, traffics and sells ancient global artifacts on
global black market. International Business Times. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/
how-isis-pillages-traffics-sells-ancient-artifacts-global-black-market-1605044.
Charney, N. (2007). The art thief: A novel. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Edwell, P. (2015, March 4). ISIS is destroying ancient artefacts to send a message of intent. The
Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/isis-is-destroying-ancient-artefacts-
to-send-a-message-of-intent-38235.
Nairne, S. (2011). Art theft and the case of the stolen Turners. London, England: Reaktion Books.
Cate Curtis, Anti-social behaviour: A multi-national perspective of the everyday to the extreme. Melbourne:
SAGE, 2016; 120 pp. ISBN 9781473915770, £45.00 (hbk)
Reviewed by: James Oleson, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Nearly 20 years ago, the United Kingdom enacted the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
Among other things, the Act established anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) in
England, Scotland, and Wales, prohibiting offenders from engaging in specific acts
(e.g., any conduct that causes harassment, alarm or distress to any person) or from
entering specified spaces. Prohibited conduct encompassed criminal offences such as
arson, vandalism, dealing drugs, and shoplifting as well as non-criminal behaviour such
Book Reviews 311
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