{"id":13775,"date":"2025-04-30T11:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=13775"},"modified":"2025-06-06T11:24:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T18:24:38","slug":"art-dick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2025\/04\/30\/art-dick\/","title":{"rendered":"Art Dick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from CNN<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgers and fraudsters trusted him for decades \u2014 but he was an undercover FBI art detective<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Oscar Holland<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A founding member of the FBI\u2019s Art Crime Team, Ronnie Walker\u2019s elaborate sting operations often saw him posing as a dealer, authenticator or buyer of stolen paintings.\u00a0Illustration by Leah Abucayan\/CNN\/Adobe Stock<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Winning the trust of convicted burglar Jerry Christy was the kind of challenge undercover FBI investigator Ronnie Walker<\/a> had spent years preparing for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A founding member of the bureau\u2019s specialist Art Crime Team, the Oregon-based agent was well-versed in art history \u2014 and trained to pose as a would-be buyer, authenticator or dealer of stolen works. Christy, meanwhile, was being covertly investigated in 2007 over the theft of several artworks, including a 17th-century etching by Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat etching that was my entr\u00e9e into his ring,\u201d recalled Walker, who recently retired from the FBI after almost 29 years, allowing him to speak more openly about his career exposing fraudsters, forgers and traffickers in elaborate sting operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the time, I was really hyper-focused on learning about fine art prints,\u201d added the former agent, who met Christy through a confidential source in 2007. \u201cAnd I made him believe I was the kind of person who could sell a Rembrandt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things got trickier for Walker, he said, when Christy\u2019s expert accomplice got in touch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at CNN<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from CNN Forgers and fraudsters trusted him for decades \u2014 but he was an undercover FBI art detective By\u00a0Oscar Holland Winning the trust of convicted burglar Jerry Christy was the kind of challenge undercover FBI investigator Ronnie Walker had spent years preparing for. A founding member of the bureau\u2019s specialist Art Crime Team, the Oregon-based agent was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13775\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}