Paul “Turbocharger” Hendry was a self-labeled “knocker” for many years. Knocking on people’s doors, he tried to convince them to sell their fine art and antiques for a fraction of their value. He has since turned to a more honest life, acting as a police informant. He was invited by Independent Lens to talk about life as an art investigator and to share his thoughts on the Gardner case.

How do cases come to an art investigator?

When art is stolen, it is reported to police and insurance companies. Each case is different, but mostly an art loss adjuster (Harold Smith being the most famous and successful in history) like Mark Dalrymple, who is CEO of Tyler and Co., will take on the case and work backwards from the crime scene to the thieves via the underworld.

A reward is sometimes offered, but very rarely paid because of the hidden conditions attached.

Art loss adjusters like Mark Dalrymple then use ex-law enforcement, reformed art criminals, to establish who has the stolen art in question.

Arranging the return of the stolen art is the hard part. Knowing who has stolen art is easy. The usual suspects are more common than not.

What are some details of your work, like little-known facts, tricks of the trade?

I have established myself as an honest broker. I never partake in sting operations as this is shortsighted and can only be done once.

It is little known that because of the current laws surrounding stolen art recovery, rewards cannot be paid without breaching laws covering money laundering and proceeds of crime legislation.

Conventional law enforcement will not allow the private sector to recover stolen art without arrests any more, so the recovery rate has fallen by 90 percent in the last two years.

As to trying to recover any stolen art other than the Gardner paintings, it is virtually impossible in the current climate.

Why is art usually stolen? Is it used as currency? Is it stolen for love of the work?

High value art is stolen because, quite frankly, it is easy, compared to, say, drug dealing. The penalties for a $10 million art theft are a lot less than for the equivalent value crime, say, stolen cars, drugs, arms dealing, etc.

Stolen art is an underworld currency of choice, first because the penalties for getting caught smuggling or in possession of it are far less than if caught with the equivalent value in other contraband.

Some high value stolen art handlers may have some degree of appreciation for a work of art. But make no mistake—if the right price were to be offered, it would be sold in a heartbeat.

What do thieves usually do with the art once they have stolen it?

Historically, art thieves would sell the whole collection of stolen art to a trusted criminal antiques dealer, or exchange the stolen art for a quantity of drugs. When the art thieves cannot repay the drugs dealer for the stolen art, the drugs dealer then sells the stolen art to a friendly criminal antiques dealer.

The criminal antiques dealer would then sort out the minor items for sale within the legitimate art trade and sell the high value stolen art to a criminal venture capitalist.

This criminal venture capitalist will wrap up the stolen art and try in a few years to realize the reward money offered, as with the Turners stolen in Germany.

There have also been cases whereby senior art thieves stash stolen art for the day when they face criminal charges and then use the stolen art as a bargaining chip with law enforcement. This however has not been used so much recently as law enforcement cannot offer much in exchange for the stolen art.

The Gardner Art remains the only case whereby a deal can be reached that sees the Vermeer surface and the tax demand of General Thomas Slab Murphy disappear.

However, today art thieves do not need criminal antiques dealers as they sell their stolen art on eBay. They establish contacts with collectors, mainly in America, and then can send details of said stolen art to the collector before reaching a deal.

Perverse as it may seem, traditional criminal art dealers are complaining that thieves are bypassing them via eBay to the end collector in America.

The brass balls on these guys never fail to amaze me.

What are your feelings about the Gardner case?

Without having 24 hours to explain my involvement in the pursuit of the lost Vermeer, I will only say that it remains the Holy Grail of art thefts and would beg authorities to withdraw the normal conditions and allow this unique artwork to surface.

Personally, the pursuit of the lost Vermeer is like an adopted child looking for its mother—we know she/it is out there somewhere, but where?

Recovering the Vermeer has become a "Gumball Rally," and it is for that reason I engaged with General Thomas Slab Murphy who commands such respect within the underworld that it would prove difficult to say no to him when he requested the control of the Vermeer.

View a slideshow of famous art heists >>

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