Stolen Works of Art

Recommendations

The participants of the 4th international conference on the Illicit Traffic in Cultural Property Stolen in Central and Eastern Europe meeting in Sinaïa City, Romania, from 7 to 9 September 2004,

AWARE of the serious problem of cultural property crime all over the world,

ACKNOWLEDGING the international dimension of the illicit traffic in cultural property,

REMINDING the recommendation of the Interpol Experts Group on stolen cultural property that the Interpol General Secretariat and the member countries should attach a high priority to countering the traffic in cultural property and equip themselves with adequate resources,

MINDFUL of the existing lacks concerning the protection and documentation of cultural property,

RECOGNIZING the need for a concerted action of all the bodies and entities concerned,

RECOMMEND member countries:

1. To assess the evolution of the means used by traffickers and inform competent national authorities of related trends with a view to improving national legislation to be brought in line with existing international conventions and to respond to such trends as may be necessary
   
   
2. to strengthen the co-operation between law enforcement agencies and cultural institutions on a national level in creating an interdisciplinary team in order to improve:
   
   
   • the protection of the cultural heritage

   • and the efficiency of the recovery of cultural property through co-ordinated actions and an increased exchange of and access to relevant information,

3. to systematically communicate information on stolen cultural property and on the offenders and criminal networks involved to the Interpol General Secretariat for data entry and crime analysis purposes, using the existing international standards,
   
   
4. to include cases involving art fraud, fakes and forgeries in this information exchange,
   
   
5. to monitor the art market including the increasing sales on the Internet,
   
   
6. to enhance security measures for museums, public collections and places of worship in order to prevent thefts,
   
   
7. to encourage the completion of inventories including photographs of cultural property for public and private collections using international description standards such as Object ID,
   
   
8. to raise public awareness for the need of protecting cultural property through media campaigns and educational programmes,
   
   
9. to provide specific training in cultural property protection to staff from law enforcement agencies and museums;

RECOMMEND the General Secretariat and member countries:

To increase the efforts to fully comply with the recommendations of the Interpol Experts Group on stolen cultural property

RECOMMEND that the international organizations participating in this meeting assist in effecting as appropriate these Recommendations.