Stolen Works of Art

Statistics 2006: Place of theft      Types of object stolen

General information If you wish to order the DVD, please print and complete the order form and send it to the General Secretariat. There is a special price for law enforcement agencies (police, gendarmerie, customs). For further details, please contact the General Secretariat

Links   Romanian Police

 News - Thieves steal Masters paintings from a castle in Denmark     

	5th Meeting of the INTERPOL Expert Group (IEG) on Stolen Cultural Property Lyon, 4 and 5 March 2008
	- Recommendations

 News - Swiss police recover two masterpieces stolen from Zurich museum     
 News - Armed robbery at Tournai Cathedral, Belgium     
 News - Four masterpieces stolen from Zurich museum     
 News - INTERPOL issues alert following theft of Picasso paintings in Switzerland     
 News - INTERPOL alerts member countries to theft in Brazil of Picasso painting     
 News - Master painting by Leonardo da Vinci recovered in Glasgow     
 News - Greater European co-operation urged to prevent art theft
 News - Armed robbery in the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice
 News - Theft of three works by Picasso in Paris
 News - Icon stolen in Greece recovered     
News - Stolen painting by Picasso returned    
News - Painting by Picasso stolen in Monaco    
News - Norwegian police recover two highly-sought paintings by Edvard Munch    
News - Theft of valuable icon from a monastery in Greece
News - INTERPOL assists recovery of ancient Iraqi statue looted in 2003     
News - Seizure of two statues by police in India     
News - Armed robbery of museum in Rio de Janeiro    
News - Austrian police recover €50m salt cellar by Cellini    
News - Four master works stolen from museum in Serbia and Montenegro    
News - Sculpture by Henry Moore Stolen in the United Kingdom    

  6th international Symposium on the Theft of and the Illicit Traffic in Works of Art, Cultural Property and Antiques
  Download the Arabic version as an Acrobat file

  The most wanted works of art Items looted from the Iraq museum, Baghdad - April 2003

  ICOM's emergency red list of Iraqi antiquities at risk

  Endangered Iraqi objects
  Download the Arabic version as an Acrobat file

  Photos: Iraq Museum Antiquities

The theft of cultural objects affects developed and developing countries alike. The two countries most affected by this phenomenon are France and Italy. The illicit trade in cultural objects is sustained by the demand from the arts market, the opening of borders, the improvement in transport systems and the political instability of certain countries.

It is difficult to gauge the extent of the trade for two reasons

• the theft is very often not discovered until the stolen objects are found on the official arts market.
• countries send very little information to INTERPOL and many do not keep statistics on this type of criminality.

In order to combat the theft of cultural property, the relevant organizations and the public need to be made more aware of the problem. This is the primary objective of these web pages.

International organizations must lead the way in this fight, and since 1947, INTERPOL has been specifically involved. The first international notice on stolen works of art was published in that same year. Since then, the techniques have evolved greatly and INTERPOL has developed a highly efficient system for circulating information in the form of a database accessible to INTERPOL member countries, as well as the more widely available INTERPOL Stolen Works of Art CD-ROM.

These web pages have been created to further extend the circulation of information concerning stolen works of art, and include:

• the most recent stolen works of art reported to INTERPOL
• works of art recovered by the police during their enquiries and for which owners have not been identified
• works of art recorded in the INTERPOL database and CD-ROM which have been recovered
• the latest INTERPOL posters showing the most sought after stolen works of art

INTERPOL would like to encourage you to make extensive use of its services, and play an active role in the pooling and exchange of information. This is one of the most important contributions you can make to help curb the erosion of our cultural heritage.

 

Stolen Works of Art