Robert Volpe, 63; retired New York police detective was famed ‘art cop’

Robert Volpe, 63, a retired New York Police Department detective renowned for tracking down art fraud and theft -- and the father of the officer imprisoned for a notorious attack on a Haitian immigrant -- died Tuesday of a heart attack at his home on Staten Island, N.Y.

Volpe, who was the subject of “Art Cop,” a 1974 book about his experiences, attained fame in the 1970s as the only detective in the country assigned to investigate art fraud and theft.

A native of Brooklyn who graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Art and Design, Volpe had his first gallery showing in his late teens. After serving in the Army in the early 1960s, he briefly worked as a graphic designer before joining the NYPD.

He spent 10 years working undercover before becoming the department’s art theft expert. After his retirement in the early 1980s, he lectured at universities and government forums, including the FBI training facility in Quantico, Va.

Justin Volpe, the youngest of his three sons, pleaded guilty in 1997 to attacking the handcuffed Abner Louima with a broken broomstick. Two other officers were convicted of obstructing the investigation into the brutal assault at a Brooklyn stationhouse.