Retired FBI Agent Robert K. Wittman.

For decades, European countries such as England, France and Spain had large teams of investigators devoted to investigating crimes in the art world.

The FBI had two agents.

“One guy was doing Sotheby’s and Christie’s (in New York) and I was doing everything else,” said retired FBI Agent Robert K. Wittman. “We needed to put together a team to put ourselves in the same situation as other countries.”

Wittman, who recovered more than $300 million in art / cultural property during his 20 years with the bureau before retiring in 2008, will share stories about starting the FBI Arts Crime Team and some of the high-profile cases he solved in “Art Crime and the FBI: How Masterpieces are Stolen and Recovered,” the first of a three-lecture series starting Wednesday at Medici Museum of Art in Howland.

In many ways, art crime is no different than other felonies — “Theft is theft,” Wittman said — but the job did require specialized knowledge.

“It’s knowing where to look,” he said. “If you have a car theft, you’re going to go to chop shops in the city. With art theft, you have to know where to look to find a particular type of art or collectible.”

The Arts Crime Team investigates cases involving fine art as well as cultural heritage items, which spans everything from paintings by Rembrandt to Superman comic books and from baseball cards to historical artifacts.

A Rembrandt painting valued at $35 million was the single-most valuable piece he recovered during his career. But just as important to Wittman was the recovery of a battle flag carried by the 12th Regiment Corps d’Afrique at the Battle of Fort Hudson during the Civil War. The 12th Regiment was made up of African-American soldiers.

“Being the flag bearer is a huge honor,” Wittman said. “These troops were fighting for their freedom and the freedom of all generations to come. That flag was valued at $35,000, but I think they’re both of the same cultural importance. The money doesn’t matter. It’s what they represent.”

One of the cases Wittman investigated during his career has ties to a current exhibition at the Medici. In 1978, seven Norman Rockwell paintings were stolen from a gallery in Minneapolis. The paintings belonged to Brown & Bigelow, the printing company that made the Boy Scout calendars that regularly featured Rockwell’s work. More than 20 years later, the FBI recovered two of the paintings in Philadelphia, and that arrest led to the discovery of three additional paintings in Brazil.

A study for one of those recovered Boy Scout paintings is included in the Rockwell collection owned by the Boy Scouts of America that is hanging at Medici.

Additional programs in the series are “Art Crime: Frauds, Forgeries and Fakes” on May 4 and “Art Crime: History in Peril — Stealing & Recovering a Lost Nazi Diary” on June 1.

Forgeries are a bigger problem than most people realize, and in many cases the deception isn’t intentional.

“It’s been estimated by people in the know that 50 percent of the artwork in museum may be misattributed, meaning it’s not by the person they think,” Wittman said. “With some French artists from the 19th century, there are more paintings out there than they ever did … Throughout history, it was acceptable that art students would copy paintings. There are paintings of students in the Louvre copying paintings. After hundreds of years (it’s hard to trace authenticity). You have to be careful what you buy.”

Robert K. Wittman lecture series

• Wednesday — “Art Crime and the FBI: How Masterpieces are Stolen and Recovered”

• May 4 — “Art Crime: Frauds, Forgeries and Fakes”

• June 1 — “Art Crime: History in Peril — Stealing & Recovering a Lost Nazi Diary”

Each program starts at 7 p.m. at Medici Museum of Art, 9350 E. Market St., Howland. Tickets are $35 for each lecture or $100 for all three programs, and the first 150 people who buy tickets for the full series will receive an autographed copy of Wittman’s book “Priceless.” Tickets can be purchased to attend the lectures in person or virtually and are available online at medicimuseum.eventbrite.com.