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Exhibition “Art Crime Cases” responds to the wishes of the general public

Publication date 25.9.2025 10.00
Type:News item

An exhibition opening in the new gallery facility of the Police Museum describes art crime through 14 criminal cases. Forged artwork of works by Reidar Särestöniemi, Helene Schjerfbeck, Pablo Picasso and others will be on display in the exhibition from October 1.

In 2021 to 2023, the Police Museum hosted the exhibition titled “The Coloured Truth”, which concentrated on art crimes. At that time, this special exhibition enjoyed more than 90,000 museum visitors, but based on inquiries received by the Police Museum, many people interested in the topic did not have the chance to see the exhibition back then.

“We are now responding to the wishes of museum visitors by offering a new opportunity to get to know this interesting topic. The exhibition titled “Art Crime Cases” presents the pre-trial investigation of art crimes through criminal cases that have taken place in Finland. We also show what art fraudsters have done and how ordinary people have fallen victim to criminals,” says Curator Juha Vitikainen.

“We are displaying counterfeit copies of works of art, included in the collections of the Police Museum. The forgeries have been made of works of art by renowned artists such as Reidar Särestöniemi, Helene Schjerfbeck and Pablo Picasso. Moreover, museum visitors will be able to see examples of how criminals have attempted to convince buyers of the authenticity of the works by falsifying evidence of the origin of the works and their previous owners. In other words, the new exhibition discusses the same themes as the earlier exhibition titled “The Coloured Truth”, but in a smaller exhibition room.”

Welcome to the exhibition on October 1

The exhibition “Art Crime Cases” will open to the public on Wednesday 1, 2025. From 12 noon to 2 p.m. Curator Juha Vitikainen will be present to talk about the exhibition and its construction. The presentation will be in Finnish, but questions can also be asked in English.

The themes of the exhibition will also be discussed on Wednesday October 15 in the lecture series Police Officer of the Year. Kimmo Nokkonen, who was chosen as the Police Officer of the Year in 2004, talks then about art crime cases, among other things. The lecture series is in Finnish.

“Furthermore, next year we will try something completely new when the Police Museum goes on a roadshow: there will be a touring exhibition related to art forgeries. We will provide further information on this later,” Juha Vitikainen says.

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