Databases for stolen art - progress, prospects and limitations

• Author: Bernadine Benson,Christa Roodt
• Published date: 01 June 2015
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC172356
• Pages: 5-14
• Date: 01 June 2015

5

SA Crime QuArterly No. 52 • JuNe 2015

Databases for

stolen art

Progress, prospects

and limitations

* Christa Roodt is a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, Scotland,

and Professor Extraordinaria and Research Fellow, University

of South Africa (UNISA). Bernadine Benson is a senior lecturer

at UNISA. The authors acknowledge the assistance of the two

anonymous referees and the journal editor, and wish to thank

them for their constructive comments. All remaining errors remain

our responsibility.

There are many factors that sustain the illicit

traff‌icking of cultural objects and art.1 Primary among

them is the demand for rare and fragile pieces on

the part of collectors, and the risky activities that

suppliers are willing to engage in to make a sale.

Stoneware, porcelain, jewellery, war medals, paintings

and prints are frequently stolen and sold privately

or at public auction, either locally or abroad.2 In the

case of paintings, works that are readily identif‌iable

may be disguised by cutting them up, and in so

doing improving the marketability of the fragments.3

Repositories of South African art and heritage

objects must contend with additional challenges

such as continual cost increases, politically motivated

operational decision-making, and decreased numbers

of visitors.4 These repositories also pose soft targets

for thieves. Poverty, unemployment and rising living

costs mean that items of historical and cultural

signif‌icance, as well as metal objects, are desirable

purely for their perceived monetary value.5 In the

process, priceless works are frequently destroyed.6

But it is not just about the monetary losses resulting

from thefts from museums and public collections.

Crucially, these thefts also pose a threat to the

collective memory of a society, its knowledge of

history, historical records, and ultimately to social

cohesion. They diminish the potential for mutual

enrichment and for dialogue about art and culture.7

They also sustain illicit traff‌icking in cultural objects.8

Christa Roodt and Bernadine Benson*

Christa.Roodt@glasgow.ac.uk

Bensobc@unisa.ac.za

http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/sacq.v52i1.1

Addressing the illicit trade in stolen works of art and other heritage items is notoriously diff‌icult. Before thefts

of heritage items can be recorded, the object in question must be identif‌ied as having special signif‌icance.

The investigation of the circumstances in which such an object was acquired and the enforcement of legal

and ethical standards of acquisition become unduly complicated in the absence of a comprehensive national

inventory of museum holdings and of a database of stolen art and cultural objects. This article considers the

development of inventories and databases in South Africa and elsewhere. We argue that cross-sectoral co-

operation in sharing databases needs to improve signif‌icantly in order to boost compliance with due diligence

standards. To help restore the credibility of the trade in art and cultural objects, the South African Heritage

Resources Information System site must be endorsed as the centralised database for heritage crime. This

would provide ready access to databases, helping art market participants, law enforcement off‌icers and

customs off‌icials in the investigation of stolen art works.