Seascape painting by Jacob Jacobs;
Credit: Image provided by US Embassy Luxembourg
US Embassy Luxembourg has reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Chicago Field Office is seeking to identify the home of a long-lost painting by the nineteenth century Belgian painter Jacob Jacobs (1812-1879).
This seascape painting was recently rediscovered in the United States and is believed to have disappeared from Echternach in Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
The Embassy added that public assistance efforts to return art and cultural property items reflect the US government's commitment to preserving and protecting cultural heritage. Anyone with information on the rightful owners of this paining is asked to contact the FBI via email: SeascapeTips@fbi.gov.
The FBI's Art Crime Team has been bringing home stolen art for almost 20 years and its work has led to the recovery of more than 20,000 artifacts valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. The team, made up of special agents from across the United States, was established in 2004 after the 2003 looting of the Iraqi National Museum. Conflict zones have a large impact on cultural property; they breed environments that make it easy to lose cultural property. The FBI's mission is to recover those works. The team assists in art and cultural property-related investigations around the world in cooperation with foreign law enforcement officials and FBI legal attaché offices.
As relayed by US Embassy Luxembourg, art and cultural property crime (which includes theft, fraud, looting and trafficking across state and international lines) leads to billions of dollars in losses every year. The FBI relies on the goodwill of citizens to assist it by reporting missing art.
