The COVID-19-induced commercial shutdown has had an outsized impact on the art world, including significant layoffs at museums throughout the world, the cancellation or postponement of art fairs and auctions, financial losses to nonprofit arts organizations estimated at nearly $5 billion to date, and an unprecedented impact on artists and creatives; 95% of whom report income loss.

Likewise, the pandemic has impacted the underbelly of the art world, crime, including thefts and trafficking. Crime as a whole is down double-digits throughout the United States and in other parts of the world. While art crime is expected to decrease as well, there have been at least two significant thefts that stoked early concerns about the vulnerability of priceless artwork in vacant museums and galleries. The first theft occurred on March 14 at Oxford University’s Christ Church college gallery. The thief made off with three 17th century paintings, including “A Soldier on Horseback,” a significant work by Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck dating from 1616. Together with the two other paintings, a Salvator Rosa and an Annibale Caracci, the three works are worth an estimated $12.2 million. Authorities were perplexed by how the thieves even managed to break into the gallery.