08/02/2001
by Dorian Cara

According to an Interpol estimate, the trading of stolen works of art, as far as volume of business is concerned, is second only to the traffic of drugs and weapons. International police forces have difficulty keeping up with law-breakers involved in cultural assets related crimes, and considering percentages, the number of stolen goods recovered is around half that of the thefts committed. Furthermore, it is necessary to consider that many owners, for fear of having made purchases which were not completely legal, do not report the stolen goods, adding to the already thriving illicit market.

For several years various national law enforcement agencies and Interpol have been joined by a number of private firms whose objective is to assist the police authorities in their search for stolen works.

Certainly the most authoritative organisation of the sector is the Art Loss Register (link al sito www.artloss.com/intro.htm), with its registered headquarters in London and branches in New York, Dusseldorf and Dublin. Since 1991, it has brought around a thousand stolen works to the attention of various national law enforcement agencies, valued at around $ 75,000,000 (€ 80,050,820). The catalogue which lists around 100,000 missing pieces from the last 60 years, is accessible without charge to police forces all over the world. The main aim of the Art Loss Register is that of assisting prospective art object buyers, in verifying whether the piece's source is a legal one or otherwise. Statistically, the majority of the clients who access the databank, are neither policemen or private collectors, but gallery owners and auction house managers who have catalogues checked by the experts from the British organisation. In 1998 alone 400,000 new entries in the catalogues of museums, galleries, and auction houses were examined carefully.

Among the special initiatives announced on the site is that of the creation of a complete database of the objects stolen during the Holocaust. Other sites which provide similar services on the Net are Alert All (link a www.alert-all.se/) and Trace Magazine (link a www.trace.co.uk/). The first is aimed in particular at auction houses, police authorities, antique dealers and collectors, giving any information required in only a few seconds for example whether an art object is stolen or lost, or if importing or exporting a particular article/item is prohibited.

Trace Magazine, on the other hand, is the only magazine in the world which specialises in art thefts. It is possible to attach a photo of the missing piece to the telematic Most Wanted, in the hope that someone is able to provide information regarding its whereabouts. Suppliers of information that proves useful to investigations are paid a reward.

Then there is the Security Museum Network (link a http://www.museum-security.org/)), an extremely extensive Dutch site (in English) which aims to gather and spread information regarding incidents connected to stolen cultural property and its illicit trade, as well as the most important mailing list in the world concerning the subject, which brings together experts from all countries. The site receives 2,000 visitors per week and there are 950 regular subscribers made up of museum directors, university professors, investigators and art critics. The Security Museum Network has recently opened a section about the destruction and theft of works of art which occurred in museums and churches during the latest conflict in the Federation of Yugoslavia. (Dorian Cara)