MONTREAL - For years, investigating art-related crimes in Montreal was essentially a one-man show.
With no budget and a skeptical Montreal police brass, Alain Lacoursiere was told in 1994 he could dabble in art-crime investigations in addition to his other duties as a fraud detective.
It would turn into a full-time affair for the affable Lacoursiere, an art lover who would often help other Canadian police forces with their investigations by phone or email as there was no money for travel.
Some 15 years later, the now-retired Lacoursiere says he can claim victory with the birth of a Quebec police squad dedicated to art theft and counterfeiting that he helped create.
They are Canada's first group of specialized police officers dedicated to fighting this country's share of what the FBI calls a $6-billion global industry that is believed to fuel everything from organized crime and terrorism to drug trafficking.
"When I began in 1994, they didn't believe in that type of crime -- they considered that a crime of the rich -- nobody really cared about it," said Lacoursiere, who retired last fall after 28 years in policing.
"So for sure, this is a victory for me."
Art-theft experts agree the new Quebec team is a signal to crooks the crime is no longer only regarded as a minor crime reserved for the rich and that police are taking the sophisticated world of art theft more seriously.
The quartet -- two RCMP officers and two Quebec provincial police detectives -- have been operating since September 2008 in collaboration with Interpol and the Canadian Border Services Agency.
The members come from a wide variety of backgrounds -- investigators who have degrees in art history or are working toward one, as well as others with a wealth of language skills and counterfeit expertise.
Lacoursiere said the key to each member is a true love of art.
"The guys I had to coach -- the main thing I wanted to see was they go and get their degree in art history," Lacoursiere said.
"I didn't want to coach just a cop or just an art historian."
Lacoursiere insisted the officers go back to school to get university degrees in art history -- he himself has a master's. It's the only real training that allows someone to pinpoint subtle differences in fakes, he said.
Insp. Michel Forget, head of the economic crime unit of the provincial police, announced two major recent arrests by the group, including nearly 80 reproductions of works by Jean-Paul Riopelle, Paul-Emile Borduas and Marcelle Ferron and the retrieval of bronze sculptures snatched from parks and buildings in the Montreal area.
Christopher Marinello, executive director of the Art Loss Registers' New York-based office, said other police forces will be able to learn a lot from the new Canadian contingent.
"It's a team that even the Americans can learn from -- but nobody beats the Italians," Marinello said in reference to the Carabinieri paramilitary police art squad which consists of a 300-member team that works full time on recovering stolen works.
Marinello calls Canada's art market "incredibly sophisticated," with auction houses bringing in millions of dollars a year. With sophistication comes an increase of stolen, fraudulent works.
"Americans are used to thinking of our northern neighbour as dealing only in moose sculptures and antique kayaks," Marinello quipped.
"But art money is not just moving across the border -- it's there in Canada."
Bonnie Czegledi, an international art and cultural property lawyer, said the world of art fraud and counterfeiting is dark and complicated.
"It's not a pretty picture, especially when you get into antiquities crimes, you're dealing with the same people who deal with arms, drugs and women and children," said the Toronto-based Czegledi.
"On one hand it has to be dealt with by the police, but it has to also be dealt with as organized crime in the Criminal Code -- we have the laws, we have to enforce them."
The RCMP said illegal activity involving works of art has been a major form of international crime and since 2004.
Quebec provincial police have investigated 450 cases and made more than 20 arrests. They have also seized almost 150 works of art, phoney and stolen alike, with a total value of more than $2 million.
Organized criminal groups like the Mafia and Hells Angels, with their international contacts, are often involved, using stolen art to launder money or in exchange for drugs.
"To combat art theft it needs to be a complete effort -- not just on the part of law enforcement -- but you have to have auction houses, museums, collectors and dealers on board -- the whole art community has to get involved," Marinello said.
"It's the co-operation of the art community we need and that's what's lacking in Canada."
Lacoursiere, who now works privately as an expert, is happy to no longer investigate crimes any longer, but he certainly is keeping a watch on the team.
"I have no doubt they'll be busy," he said.
