Art And Antiques Unit
The Metropolitan Police Art and Antiques Unit is a branch of the Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The unit's purpose is to investigate art theft, illegal trafficking and fraud. The UK art market is the second largest in the world. Formation and history The Art and Antiques Unit was established in 1969. It was dissolved and reformed in the mid 1980s, a second time after the 2005 London Bombings and again following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017. The unit maintains the London Stolen Arts Database (LSAD), containing details of thousands of items of stolen cultural property. The unit has a strength of 6 officers – lead by a Detective Chief Inspector, with a Detective Inspector, Detective Sergeant and 3 Detective Constables. In contrast, the Italian Carabinieri Art Squad employs around 300 detectives. Notable investigations The unit's work led to the successful prosecution of Jonathan Tokeley-Parry in 1997 for smuggl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command
The Specialist, Organised & Economic Crime Command is a unit within the Gangs and Organised Crime group of Specialist Crime & Operations within London's Metropolitan Police Service. The unit's main responsibility is to both investigate and take steps to prevent fraud, along with a wide range of other fraudulent crimes which require specialist knowledge and training to investigate. The unit was previously known as the Fraud Squad, or by its previous Specialist Operations designation, SO6. History Formed in 1946, the unit was originally known as Metropolitan and City Police Fraud Department or "C6 Branch". It was the first integrated cross-border, co-operative unit set up jointly between London's two police services; the City of London Police due to their expertise in business and stock market fraud, and the Metropolitan Police with their investigative experience. The increasing complexity of business fraud as time progressed, and hence the lessened chances of securing a successfu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime in Greater London. In addition, the Metropolitan Police is also responsible for some specialised matters throughout the United Kingdom; these responsibilities include co-ordinating and leading national counter-terrorism measures and the personal safety of specific individuals, such as the Monarch and other members of the Royal Family, members of the Government, and other officials (such as the Leader of the Opposition). The main geographical area of responsibilities of the Metropolitan Police District consists of the 32 London boroughs, but does not include the City of London proper — that is, the central financial district also known as the "Square Mile" — which is policed by a separate force, the City of L ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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London Bombings 2005
The following is a timeline of the 7 July 2005 London bombings and 21 July 2005 London bombings. All times are in British Summer Time ( BST or UTC+01:00). First explosions 7 July 2005 * 08:50: Initial reports of an incident between Liverpool Street and Aldgate tube stations, either an explosion or a collision between trains. The reports from the two stations were initially thought to relate to two separate incidents * 08:50: Explosion on a train between King's Cross and Russell Square tube stations. Eyewitnesses report explosion appeared to come from outside the train ''(this explosion was initially reported to have happened at 08:56)''. * 08:50: Explosion on train at Edgware Road tube station ''(this explosion was initially reported to have happened at 09:17)''. * 09:28: Metronet, the private consortium responsible for maintaining Tube infrastructure says the incident was caused by some sort of power surge. * 09:33: Reports of an incident at Edgware Road tube station. R ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grenfell Tower Fire
On 14 June 2017, a high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of flats in North Kensington, West London, at 00:54 BST and burned for 60 hours. 72 people died, two later in hospital, with more than 70 injured and 223 escaping. It was the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the 1988 '' Piper Alpha'' oil-platform disaster and the worst UK residential fire since World War II. The fire was started by an electrical fault in a refrigerator on the fourth floor. This spread rapidly up the building's exterior, bringing flame and smoke to all residential floors, accelerated by dangerously combustible aluminium composite cladding and external insulation, with an air gap between them enabling the stack effect. The fire was declared a major incident with more than 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines from stations across London involved in efforts to control the fire and rescue residents. More than 100 London Ambulance Ser ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carabinieri Art Squad
The ''Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage'', better known as the Carabinieri T.P.C., is the branch of the Italian Carabinieri responsible for combatting art and antiquities crimes and is viewed as an experienced and efficient task force. History ''Il Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico'' was founded by General Arnaldo Ferrara on 3 May 1969. It was the first specialist police force in the world in this sector, predating the UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property of 1970. On 5 March 1992 the force was renamed ''Comando Carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale''. Organization The force has four sections: archaeology, antique dealing, fakes, and contemporary art. It is led by a colonel and headquartered in Rome, with twelve regional offices. It functions in coordination with the '' Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali''. Activities The force inv ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jonathan Tokeley-Parry
Johnathan Tokeley-Parry is a self-proclaimed former cavalryman and self-appointed antique restorer. He received a philosophy degree from Cambridge University as well as a doctorate in London from University College. He is notable for smuggling more than 3,000 pieces of Egyptian antiquities out of Egypt by disguising them as reproductions. It has been reported that Tokeley-Parry changed his name to Jonathan Foreman. However, on the television series The Lost Relics of the Knights Templar, he appears under his original name. Distinct reference to his military and smuggling past is highlighted and he speaks of it. As well as referring to himself as one of the world's foremost expert in antiquities restoration. Giving his thoughts after examining various claimed Templar items. Career In the early 1990s, he smuggled hundreds of antiques out of Egypt by using his knowledge of restoration to camouflage them into look-a-likes. He would then ship them overseas to a duty-free port in ord ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shaun Greenhalgh
Shaun Greenhalgh (born 1961) is a British artist and former art forger. Over a seventeen-year period, between 1989 and 2006, he produced a large number of forgeries. With the assistance of his brother and elderly parents, who fronted the sales side of the operation, he successfully sold his fakes internationally to museums, auction houses, and private buyers, accruing nearly £1 million. ''The Guardian'"How garden shed fakers fooled the art world" 16 November 2007. The family have been described by Scotland Yard as "possibly the most diverse forgery team in the world, ever". However, when they attempted to sell three Assyrian reliefs using the same provenance as they had previously, suspicions were finally raised. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London held an exhibition of Greenhalgh's works from 23 January to 7 February 2010. The Metropolitan Police's Art and Antiques Unit built a replica model of the shed where the works were created. Many of Greenhalgh's fakes, incl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Art Theft
Art theft, sometimes called artnapping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities. Some famous art theft cases include the robbery of the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre in 1911 by employee Vincenzo Peruggia. Another was theft of ''The Scream'', stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, but recovered in 2006. The largest-value art theft occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, when 13 works, worth a combined $500 million were stolen in 1990. The case remains unsolved. Individual theft Many thieves are motivated by the fact that valuable art pieces are worth millions of dollars and weigh only a few kilograms at mos ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metropolitan Police Units
Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a type of county-level administrative division of England Businesses * Metro-Cammell, previously the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company * Metropolitan-Vickers, a British heavy electrical engineering company * Metropolitan Stores, a Canadian former department store chain * Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company Colleges and universities * Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom * London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom * Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom * Metropolitan Community College (Omaha), United States * Metropolitan State University of Denver, United States ** Metro State Roadrunners * Metropolitan State University, in Saint Paul, Minnesota * Oslo Metropolitan University ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |