Illegal Weapons Dealer Moves to Selling Stolen Fine Art for Bitcoin

Diabolo, a group that according to a screenshot posted on the landed page for the White Shadow Market, is "biggest Europe Weapon Dealer and the number one source for valuable and rare stuff" has posted a stolen painting with an asking price of 81 Bitcoin. The painting in question is an 1884 piece by artist Gottfried Lindauer. Of the two pieces that were stolen at the same time from a New Zealand art gallery, Chief Ngatai-Raure has appeared for sale on the dark web by itself.

Souce: wired.co.uk 

The theft

In the early pre-dawn hours of early April this year, a van crashed into a glass paneled wall of an art gallery in New Zealand. With the wall destroyed, thieves entered the gallery quickly and stole the two paintings.

Now, several months later, the paintings have appeared for sale on a Tor market. Tor, or The Onion Router, is an anonymizing tool that makes it difficult for authorities to identify web users. The service also allows users to access special .onion domains. Sometimes called the dark web or the hidden web, these sites are often havens for illegal activity.

The infamous silk road was operated on a Tor onion domain. It's founder Ross William Ulbrecht was arrested after he left several digital clues across the internet that led to his arrest. In total, the FBI seized over 26000 Bitcoin, which today would be worth around $234 million dollars or $3.6 million at the time of his arrest.

Buy it now for 81 Bitcoin

The sale which is held in an auction format has a buy it now price of 81 Bitcoin or about $729,00 at press time. The piece was apparently going to be sold at the art gallery, with an expected price of no more than $400,000. According to The New Zealand Herald, the highest bid was 35 Bitcoin, an amount that represents the estimated actual market price of the item.

The item is listed by an account called Diabolo. On the main landing page for White Shadow Market (though not the official Tor hidden domain), a screenshot can be seen of an item for sale by Diabolo. The item is a Glock 19 pistol for sale at 0.4885 Bitcoin.

In the screenshot, Diabolo has a trust rating of "unproven". Whereas in the current listing they have a rating of "high". The screenshot of the Glock sale shows a bitcoin price of about $4,400, so it's likely from earlier this year. The Glock sale also lists the weapon as shipping from the Czech Republic, and ends with the phrase, "Dont kill without reason and innocent!"

The auction for the painting ends on December 27th.

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