Indonesia: Why the art market needs art history (1997)
Astri Wright offers her thoughts about how the art market can combat against thefts of artwork and forgeries in Indonesia.
artdesigncafé | Creative Business & Entrepreneurship | Published 1 February 2012
This article was previously posted on the Southeast Asian Art File online in 1997 with the title "Why the art market needs art history; Why it does not pay to steal art".
"Crime does not pay," the old saying goes.
That is a truth, however, that must be qualified. When intelligence, careful planning and control of large networks of loyalty and silence are wedded to wide-ranging resources, such as technology, funds, and information, crime can indeed be successful. At least in the short run and when measured in purely material terms. This is true for crime in general. However, it would appear to be less true in the case of art thefts.
The following discussion has been triggered both by the shocking revelations about the lack of security in Indonesia’s national art collections over the last year, illustrated by the theft of some of the nation’s most valuable art treasures, and the theft, at the beginning of the week (2nd February, 1997), of a large number of important paintings from the home studio-gallery of the late Sudjana Kerton of Bandung. This essay will consider the sociology of crime, the state of the art world in Indonesia, and the profitability of stealing art.
Who commits crime?
In general, in any society, both historically and today, crimes committed by members of the elite “succeed” more often than those committed by less educated, less well connected, less resource-full people. However, due to the way legal institutions operate— police, lawyers, courts of law— more often than not it is the less advantaged criminals that are caught, tried and punished. From such a scenario one can deduce that the saying "crime does not pay" may only be true if you are NOT an upper-class criminal.
Thus, even if crime pays in the short run, to some criminals, in the long run it is questionable if it does. Criminal action twists the soul, handicaps the mind, invites maggots to eat through the heart. If the criminal is Christian or Moslem, he or she knows, at the back of their minds, that they will go to Hell. If the criminal has any respect for their ancestors, they know that they, by their acts, have forfeited any future benefits from their forebears.
If the criminals are Hindu, Buddhist or Kejawen / Kebatinan, they know they are destroying their chances for a good rebirth, dirtying and ruining their karma, which will cause them to suffer for lifetimes to come. Acts which in the short run perhaps filled their pockets, fed them, or satisfied their addictions, will in the long run, from a spiritual perspective, hurt the criminal. Even if the criminal is an atheist, with no belief in any power or truth higher than him or herself, dishonesty leads to a twisting of the soul which usually ends up making him or her unhappy in this lifetime. Indeed, from the long perspective, and from the moral and ethical, psychological and spiritual points of view, it appears to be true that "Crime does not pay."
Why commit crime?
Crime happens for many reasons: for those who are in poverty, struggling, materially, crime tends to happens out of economic desperation and its consequences. A good part of the annual criminal statistics could be prevented if social problems relating to unemployment, poverty, lack of education, proper housing, and so forth, are addressed by the government.
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