Females in the Frame

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. Females in the Frame 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.

Cover Credit: Portrait of Queen Victoria (1887) by Stephen Catterson Smith RHA (the younger) (1849 – 1912), oil on canvas, collection of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland. Destroyed in 1916.

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