But the diary wasn't there. "That was what we were looking for, that's what was so frustrating," said Robert Wittman, a former FBI agent who specialized in art crimes and was enlisted to help in the search.
An expert on art thefts told The Associated Press the museum likely has a strong case to reclaim the painting. Robert Wittman, a former FBI investigator of national art thefts, said the artwork's dimensions and composition are key in matching it to a stolen piece.
was part of the Venus Over Manhattan art gallery's very first exhibition. Robert Wittman, an art-security consultant and former investigator for the FBI's national art crime team, says that the majority of high-end paintings like this one are eventually recovered when they turn up in the art market.
The vast majority of high-end paintings such as this one are eventually recovered because they are such rare works of art and easily tracked, said Robert Wittman, an art-security consultant and former investigator for the FBI's national art crime team.
In fact, those efforts are sometimes far less fearsome than they seem. As former FBI official Robert Wittman told the Los Angeles Times' Jason Felch last week: "There was an entire squad in the Boston FBI office called the Whitey Bulger squad. They spent 20 years looking for him all over the world,