Art is our past, art is our present, and art is our future. Art is timeless, it has endured through past generations and will continue to endure through future generations. Art theft costs billions of dollars every year and the black market is the main reason. Prevention is key to protecting art, and the FBI's Art Crimes Team and Art Loss Registry play an important role in preventing art theft. Art deserves to be protected because it marks everyone's life. The black market sells fakes and fakes and deprives future generations of the opportunity to enjoy many wonderful masterpieces. Art is typically sold on the black market for only ten percent of its market value (Wittman 15). People sell stolen masterpieces on the black market for money and not for the beauty or inspiration the art is meant to be seen for. It is much more difficult to sell a very famous painting on the black market (Wittman 15), because people who buy on the black market do not want to pay a lot of money for an extremely famous work of art. Art is not sold for its full potential value on the black market and people should respect art for its beauty, not just its value. Many works of art are destroyed on the black market and some of them are our works that are destroyed. well known. Three Romanians stole seven works including Picasso, Monet and Matisse. They tried to resell them on the black market then left the works with one of the thief's mothers. The pieces were never found and were likely burned (“The Guardian”). This is just one example of how the black market is affecting the art world. People never have the opportunity to experience art that is destroyed on the black market....... middle of paper ......y to be able to see something timeless and priceless.Works CitedArt Loss Register. Register of Art and Antiquities Losses, 2014. Web. March 31, 2014. Network of cultural professionals. Guardian News, 2014. The web. April 7, 2014. .FBI art theft. Np, and Web. March 24, 2014. .McShane, Thomas and Dary Matera. Stolen masterpiece tracker. Fort Lee: Barricade Books, 2006. Print. Museum Security Network. WordPress, and Web entries. March 31, 2014. .Whitfield, Martin. Telephone interview. April 13, 2014. Wittman, Robert K. and John Shiffman. Invaluable. New York: Crown, 2010. Print.