Many 'Priceless' Art Collections Go Underinsured

Meyer de Haan’s "Self-Portrait," 1889-1891.

Two men approached Rotterdam’s Kunsthal museum in the dark of night on October 16, 2012, bypassed the deactivated security system and silently opened the emergency door. Within two minutes, seven works by the world’s best-respected artists were lost forever.

“A small percentage of what is stolen in the art world is ever recovered,” says Richard Nicholson, executive director of Willis’s Fine Art Jewelry and Specie (FAJS) practice. “The art loss register (ALR) reports that 5 to 15 percent of stolen objects are recovered, but this is a very generic statement, as it probably includes anything with an ‘art flavor’: not only pure fine art objects but antiques, antiquities, ceramics, furniture; perhaps jewelry and other objects that have a relatively low value.”