Activities and tools of INTERPOL in the fight against illicit traffic in

Activities and tools of INTERPOL in the fight
against illicit traffic in cultural property
Works of Art Unit
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Oslo, 2 December 2015
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
INTERPOL Organization
● Created in 1923, INTERPOL is the orld’s largest i ter atio al
police organization, with 190 member countries.
● General Secretariat in Lyon (France)
● Seven Regional Bureaus
● Three Liaison Offices: at EUROPOL in The Hague, at the United
Nations in NY, at the EU in Brussels.
● INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore
● Three CCC in Lyon, Buenos Aires, Singapore
● Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore
● Four official languages : Arabic, English, French and Spanish.
● A National Central Bureau (NCB) in each member country.
Iceland
Norway Finland
Sweden
Estonia
Lithuania
Ireland U. K.
Russia
Denmark Poland Latvia
Canada
Hungary
Netherlands Germany
Luxembourg Czech Republic
Belgium
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Georgia
France Switzerland
Italy Liechtenstein
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Bulgaria Slovakia
Andorra Slovenia Fyrom
Uzbekistan
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Romania
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Tajikistan
United States
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China
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Malta Cyprus Jordan
Iran Pakistan
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Nepal
Libya EgyptIsraelIrakKuwaitBahrain
Bermudas
(SB)
United Arab Emirates
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Saudi Arabia Oman Qatar
Bangladesh
Hong Kong - China (SB)
Mauritania Algeria
Cuba
Puerto Rico - USA (SB)
India
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Senegal
Sudan Yemen
Dominican Republic
Niger Chad
El Salvador
Thailand Vietnam
Philippines
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Guinea
El Salvador (SRB)
Barbados
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Marshall Islands
Ethiopia
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Côte d'Ivoire (SRB)
Cameroon
American
Samoa
- USA (SB)
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Singapore
Panama
Brunei
Venezuela
Malaysia
Gabon
Guyana
Colombia
Zaire Kenya
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East Timor
Tonga
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Tanzania
Peru
Fiji
Mozambique
Brazil
Botswana Zimbabwe
Bolivia
Namibia
Swaziland
Australia
Lesotho
Paraguay
South Africa
Chile
Uruguay
Argentina
Argentina (RS)
Argentina (SRB
New Zealand
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
18 priorities crime areas
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Main activities of WOA Unit:
• Dealing with the requests received from the NBCs and
other partners involved in countering the illicit trade of
cultural property (mainly UNESCO, ICOM, but also
UNIDROIT, ONUDC, WCO).
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Agreements
• Memorandum of Understanding INTERPOL - WCO
(World Customs Organization) : November 1998
• Memorandum of Understanding INTERPOL – UNESCO :
Octobre 1999
• Memorandum of Understanding INTERPOL - ICOM
(International Council of Museums) : April 2000
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Main activities of WOA Unit (continuation and end) :
• Assisting national authorities in ongoing inquiries;
• Responding to requests from the public;
• Organizing at the General Secretariat:
- a triennial international symposium on the illicit traffic and theft
of works of art, antiques and cultural objects,
- the annual INTERPOL EXPERT GROUP (IEG) on stolen cultural
property.
• Organizing a triennial regional thematic meeting on countering
the traffic in cultural property in Central and Eastern Europe;
• Organizing training courses for staff specialized in the fight against
illicit traffic of cultural property;
• Participating in various international conferences and workshops.
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
WORKS OF ART
DATABASE:
contains 46.442
identifiable objects
from 131 countries
- Available since January 1999 to all NCBs and other authorized national
law enforcement agencies,
- Freely accessible online to the public since August 2009 through
INTERPOL’s se ure we site (http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Works-ofart/Works-of-art),
- Based on visual and technical description of the works (combines text
information and images),
- Contains no nominal information.
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Number of stolen cultural objects registered
in INTERPOL database
at 30.11.15
Total: 46.442, including:
● EUROPE: 34.315 (i.e. ≈ 74%, of which 80% were provided by
EU countries)
● AMERICAS: 6.575 (i.e. ≈ 14,2%)
● MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: 3.760 (i.e. ≈ 8%)
● ASIA PACIFIC: 1.528 (i.e. ≈ 3,35%)
● AFRICA: 264 (i.e. 0,6%)
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Protection SYstem for Cultural HEritage
Projet led by Italy - through the Carabinieri Command for
the Protection of Cultural Heritage (CC TPC), in
collaboration with the BCN Rome;
up to 90% financed by the European Commission under
the ISEC-programme Pre e tio a d Fight agai st Cri e ;
global cost: ≈ 1 million euros.
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Protection SYstem for Cultural HEritage
• 15 official EU partners: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Malta, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden.
• Associate partner: INTERPOL
• Partner organizations: UNESCO, ICOM, WCO, CEPOL
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Protection SYstem for Cultural HEritage
3 important evolutions:
● implementing a system of web formatted messages,
● integrating an engine software for automated image
comparison,
● integrating a multi-lingual engine for advanced search.
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
First you must connect to the following webpage : http://www.interpol.int
Click on
CRIME AREAS
and select
WORKS OF ART
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Go to the link « Application form »
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Complete and validate the form to receive a USER ID and a PASSWORD
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
To view this database, you enter user ID and password
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
Go to the link « Access to the stolen works of art database »
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
War and crisis situations: INTERPOL support
for example
Nordic conference on illicit trafficking in cultural property
European and international legal framework concerning Iraq
and Syria:
● UN Security Council Resolution 2199 of 12 February 2015: reiterates, in
paragraphe 17, the decisions of paragraph 7 of Resolution 1483 (of 22
May 2003) and decides that all Member States shall take appropriate
steps to prevent the trade in Iraqi and Syrian cultural property and other
items of archaeological, historical, cultural, rare scientific and religious
importance illegally removed from Iraq since 6 August 1990 and from
Syria since 15 March 2011, including by prohibiting cross-border trade in
such items, thereby allowing for their eventual safe return to the Iraqi and
Syrian people and calls upon the United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization, Interpol, and other international organizations,
as appropriate, to assist in the implementation of this paragraph .
● Resolution 2015/2649 of the European Parliament of 30 April 2015 on
the destruction of cultural sites perpetrated by ISIS/Da’esh.
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♦ Stolen from private residences in Vienna (Austria)
in September 2008
♦ Recovered in Brasov (Romania) on 13/14 November 2008
Matteo di Siena
« Madonna with Child »
Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
« The stubborn schoolboy »
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Theft of paintings on 26 May 1968
from museum in Sibiu, Romania
Master of Saint Augustin’s Legend
(XV Century)
Memento mori
Franz Mieris the Older
(1635 – 1681)
A Man with his pipe at the
window
Returned on 18 July 1998
by the USA Customs
Tiziano Vecellio (1489 – 1576)
Ecce Homo
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SUGGESTIONS to enhance the international cooperation and
optimize the fight against illicit traffic of cultural heritage
● Having specialized interlocutors, in particular in the NCBs;
● Mapping trafficking routes;
● Adopting appropriate national legislation on culture heritage and, if
possible, developing national databases for stolen cultural goods;
● Identifying the entry and exit points (transit points) most frequently
used for illicit traffic;
● Better understanding the methods and strategies used by traffickers;
● Establishing connections with other criminal activities;
● Systematically checking seized cultural property and suspicious offers for
sale;
● Enhancing import controls at EU level;
● Generalizing police registers for art dealers;
● Systematically transmitting theft information to INTERPOL in order to
facilitate international searches.
Thank you for your
attention
Françoise Bortolotti
Criminal intelligence officer
IPSG – Works of Art Unit