Females in the Frame: Women, Art, and Crime

Description

This book explores the untold history of women, art, and crime. It has long been widely accepted that women have not played an active role in the art crime world, or if they have, it has been the part of the victim or peacemaker. Women, Art, and Crime overturns this understanding, as it investigates the female criminals who have destroyed, vandalised, stolen, and forged art, as well as those who have conned clients and committed white-collar crimes in their professional occupations in museums, libraries, and galleries. Whether prompted by a desire for revenge, for money, the instinct to protect a loved one, or simply as an act of quality control, this book delves into the various motivations and circumstances of women art criminals from a wide range of countries, including the UK, the USA, New Zealand, Romania, Germany, and France. Through a consideration of how we have come to perceive art crime and the gendered language associated with its documentation, this pioneering study questions why women have been left out of the discourse to date and how, by looking specifically at women, we can gain a more complete picture of art crime history. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction: Writing Alternative Art Histories (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 1-9 Lady Destroyers (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 11-37 The Mothers of All Art Crimes (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 39-55 She Vandals (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 57-99 The Art of The Con[wo]man (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 101-125 The Light Fingered (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 127-159 Naming Rights (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 161-181 The Professionals (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 183-198 Afterword: Making a Noise About the Silence (Penelope Jackson)....Pages 199-214 Back Matter ....Pages 215-223