Art Theft and Interpol’s Database

The Guardian carried a story this weekend on Interpol’s online database of stolen art objects. The idea is that by making information — photos, dimensions, etc. — available to art dealers and interested members of the public, it might become harder for thieves to sell on stolen art, at least to unwitting buyers.

What intrigued me was that despite talking about the database website and the fact that 400 people had applied for passwords to view the art the Guardian piece failed to give its readers a URL for the site. I’ve banged on about this before, I know; but it seems foolish to me for online “print” media to discuss other online material without supplying the link to that material.

It wasn’t massively difficult, in this case, to track the database down. What you’ll find on the Interpol site, if you’re interested, is a modest number of items selected from the database and catalogued according to whether they are “recent thefts” [166], “recovered items” [253], and “unclaimed items” [181]. Here St. Lucy rubs shoulders with a Standing Buddha and both with a Standing Tiger and Standing Horse. The picture to your right, Self Portrait by Maud Sumner, is one of the relatively few paintings shown in the accessible selected items.

Sadly there’s a much larger number of Afghan and Iraqi items that have been stolen, for the most part truly ancient objects looted during the wars.

All of this is attained via a menu in the main sidebar of the site. The database proper — and access to it — is almost hidden away in a small link on the right side of the page in the “see also” box. To gain access you have to fill out a form that, among other things, asks for your passport number. There is as well a CD-ROM available that contains, presumably, most of the items in the database.