# How To Sell "Hot" Art/paintings?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-sell-hot-art-paintings/437173
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 11, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-sell-hot-art-paintings/437173 "2008-02-11T17:49:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-sell-hot-art-paintings/437173/1 "2008-02-11T17:49:05Z")
Majoor art theft in Switzerland:[Breitbart News Network](http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8UO512G0&show_article=1)
My question: how do you sell such well-known works? How do you find unsrupulous buyers? and, once you buy a painting (that you know has been stolen0, how do you show it off to your firnds?
Assuming all of you friends are crooks, no problem. But surely someone will report this to the local police?
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-sell-hot-art-paintings/437173/2 "2008-02-11T17:54:05Z")
I would guess the purchase was already made. That someone hired the theifs to go and take the works the collector wanted.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-sell-hot-art-paintings/437173/3 "2008-02-11T19:16:47Z")
Art theft for private collectors is an urban legend.
Usually they try to ransom it back to the rightful owners.
A few examples :
> [@](#):
>
> [£3.5m ransom for stolen sculpture | World news | The Guardian](http://arts.guardian.co.uk/arttheft/story/0,,1034222,00.html)
>
> According to reports, the Uniqa insurance company received a letter last week demanding €5m (£3.5m) for the return of the Saliera or Saltcellar.
> [@](#):
>
> [http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-08-23-scream-norway\_x.htm](http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-08-23-scream-norway_x.htm)
>
> Another of the four versions of The Scream was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo on the opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway. Its thieves demanded a ransom but were caught in a sting and the work was recovered after about three months.
> [@](#):
>
> [BBC News | EUROPE | More arrests over Swedish art theft](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/world/europe/1105660.stm)
>
> Police in Sweden have arrested two more people in connection with the theft last month of three masterpieces by Renoir and Rembrandt from the National Museum in Stockholm.
>
> The authorities did not identify the suspects, but the Swedish national news agency, TT, said one of them is a lawyer.
>
> Detail of Jeune Parisienne by Renoir
> Reports say he and another lawyer detained earlier are suspected of acting as go-betweens with the thieves in their efforts to obtain a ransom for the pictures.