U.S. Customs Creates Art Recovery Unit and Returns Stolen Art to Germany

On December 5, 20000, Raymond W. Kelly, Customs Commissioner, announced the creation of the Customs Service seven-member Art Recovery Team on the occasion of the return to Germany of a rare 16th century painting that had been looted from a German castle by U.S. troops at the end of World War II. The newly created Art Recovery Team includes Special Agent Bonnie Goldblatt, who had been the only customs agent assigned full time to art cases and based in the New York office of Customs due to the large number of stolen cultural property that migrates to New York…[more]