Dialogues in Heritage Science: Art Criminals and the art of fraud

June 15, 2015

Monday, June 22, 2015 at 4:00 PM, Sterling Memorial Library, Memorabilia Lecture Hall, 128 Wall St entrance, Yale University, New Haven, CT

Vernon Rapley is the Security Director at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), one of the world’s leading museums of art and design. Before joining the V&A in 2010, Vernon served as a police officer for 24 years, the last 10 as the head of the Art & Antiques Unit at New Scotland Yard. During that time he overtly and covertly investigated all manner of art and cultural property crime.

Vernon will provide a detective’s perspective on art and cultural heritage crime. He will draw on his personal experience of investigating art criminals around the world to provide a snapshot of the “real” world of art crimes, often distinct from public perception. He will then focus in on the methods and motives of art forgers and fakers, exploring the diversity of their trade and the complexity of the task of detecting and imprisoning them.

Hosted by Prof. Dr. Stefan Simon