ILLICID project investigates illegal trade in cultural property in Germany
Press release from 04/10/2015
The kick-off meeting for the ILLICID research project took place today at the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin with international participation. Over the next three years, ILLICID will use dark field research to gather information on the illegal trade in cultural artefacts in Germany. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as part of the "Research for Civil Security" programme in the "Civil Security - Protection against Organised Crime" thematic area with a total of 1.2 million euros.
France Desmarais, ICOM Director (Programmes and Partnerships Department) responsible for the International Observatory on Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods (obs-traffic.museum), emphasised the importance of the project at the meeting: "Germany is setting an excellent example here, and we very much hope that other countries will take similar action. ICOM is very pleased to be involved in the project through its International Observatory on Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods, which will help us to take appropriate action against illicit trade."
Prof Dr Sabine von Schorlemer, representative of the German Commission for UNESCO / UNESCO Chair for International Relations, TU Dresden, adds: "According to reports, Germany has become an important transhipment area for the illegal trade in looted art. We need a broad social condemnation of this trade. The transdisciplinary joint project is an important contribution to strengthening Germany as a centre for the art trade and can accentuate Germany's leading role in the international protection of cultural property."
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, emphasises: "It is not only the wilful destruction in Iraq and Syria by IS that is destroying our cultural heritage, it is also the systematic illegal trade. If we don't manage to curb the illegal trade in artefacts from all over the world, looting and looting will continue to take place, because what can be sold will also be taken from the ground. This is how illegal trade threatens our cultural heritage."
At present, there are neither reliable figures on the extent of the illegal trade in cultural artefacts in Germany nor efficient procedures for collecting the relevant facts. Against this backdrop, ILLICID will be analysing this dark field over the next three years in order to develop effective strategies to combat crime.
In addition to researching the dark field of "illegal trade", ILLICID also aims to develop a practical guide with recommendations for action for those involved in the trade in cultural goods. In addition, a database will be set up for the systematic documentation of legally and illegally traded cultural property, in which, among other things, suspicious auctions will be stored. In future, investigators will also be able to access this source via a mobile app.
The project requires a multidisciplinary research design that combines scientific expertise from the fields of empirical social science, information science and technology as well as antiquity studies. For this reason, numerous other associated partners are involved in the project initiated by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK) together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT), Darmstadt, and GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, Mannheim: The Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the German Archaeological Institute, the German Museums Association, the German UNESCO Commission / UNESCO Chair for International Relations (TU Dresden), the Heidelberg Centre for Cultural Heritage at Heidelberg University, the Hessian State Criminal Police Office, the Harz University of Applied Sciences, The International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Association of Independent Art Experts (Verband Unabhängiger Kunstsachverständiger e. V.), the Centre for European and International Criminal Law Studies at the University of Osnabrück, the Customs Criminal Police Office in Cologne and the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Austria with the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office and the Security Academy. The network coordinator of ILLICID is Prof Dr Markus Hilgert, Director of the Museum of the Ancient Near East at the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage.