THE ITALIAN ANTIQUE POLICE

It seems in Italy they have an Antique Police Force. I don’t mean a police force consisting of older members, but an entire police force dedicated to preventing the theft and tracking of stolen ancient artifacts. Highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article written by Stephanie Gruner, the Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Patrimony is perhaps the largest armed force of its kind anywhere, and most surely the world’s most effective. There are over 300 of the country’s 120,000 carabinieri, in 11 offices from Venice to Palermo, leading the anti-looting and recovery efforts for this country’s antiquities.“Each morning a report arrives on the desk of Col. Giovanni Pastore, second in command of a military police unit charged with protecting Italy’s cultural patrimony. The few pages list everything from antique watches to Renaissance paintings that were either ripped off or recovered the day before. ”A recent report listed that “robbers entered a church in Ascoli Piceno and left with two ancient wood pews, the better for making fake antique furniture. A burglar at a church farther north in Novara had just enough time to break the wooden arm off of a baby Jesus, as it lay cradled in the arms of the Virgin Mary, before making an escape. Thieves stole a cache of marble statues from a family villa elsewhere. On a bright note, more than two dozen sculptures, antiques and paintings were recovered just one month after their theft from a villa outside Milan. ”These antiques gumshoes have become internationally well-regarded, and have served as experts and trainers in Iraq, Kosovo, Cuba and Peru. Representatives from countries such as Greece and Hungary have traveled to Italy to learn how these officers work. In an average week, carabinieri fly helicopters over archaeological sites taking aerial photographs to reveal illegal diggings. They go on offshore dives to prevent unauthorized underwater excavations. They also lecture at schools, universities and conferences “to convince Italians that looting and trafficking in their own cultural heritage isn’t just against the law, but against their own interests. Still other officers in their stylish black-and-red uniforms show up unannounced at antiques shops, auction houses and outdoor markets to videotape items for sale to match against the more than 2.5 million missing objects cataloged in the art squad’s vast database.”They don’t stop there. There are others searching through other databases that list sales at auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and also surfing the internet to find hot antiquities for sale. They also utilize wire-tapping, satellites, and other modern technological devices in their battle to track down stolen goods.What detective force would exist without its “sources of information” – paid and unpaid. Archaeologists, museum curators, and the anonymous source all contribute to their success. “Sometimes it’s a tombaroli with a grudge against a competitor who tips them off. Other times word arrives out of the blue – like the email received recently with a link to an auction on eBay, listing for sale an Etruscan urn missing since the summer of 2004. ”Between 1970 and 2005, according to the organization’s own figures, 845,838 objects were reported stolen, while less than a third of that number were recovered and only 4,159 arrests were made. In addition, according to Col. Pastore, the number of robberies at private properties has decreased from 673 in 2003 to 619 in 2005. This unit has also confiscated over 228,000 counterfeit works since 1970.Despite the odds, this unit is credited with doing an outstanding job.The quantity of potential targets is quite astounding. Italy has some 6,000 registered archaeological sites, 100,000 or so churches, more than 45,000 castles and gardens, and roughly 35,000 historic residences – not to mention thousands of miles of coastline, beneath which lie yet more buried treasure. All are potential targets.Some of the obstacles that arise include the issue that many of these valuabvles aren’t cordoned off behind ropes or protected by glass walls, much less watched around the clock by guards or cameras. “Italy is not a country of museums”, says a cultural ministry employee. “It’s a museum in itself, a large open-air museum.”Not surprisingly, funding is another issue that often stands in the way.Financing for cultural affairs have been drastically reduced by the government – by over 20% in just the past two years alone. While these cuts have hit protection efforts, it was also noted by the ministry official that “no matter how much money Italy has for art protection, preservation and anti-looting, it’s never enough.” Not only protecting the theft of these antique items from their Italian home, the unit spends a considerable amount of time fighting the demand for these objects overseas. In the United States alone, hundreds of museum pieces remain under dispute as to their rightful ownership.The squad’s operational headquarters, in Rome, houses the loot collected in their crime fighting efforts. A recent visit their showed art work from Picasso, Dali, Miros and a delicate Degas ballerina line up along the floor – all fakes. The seller applied for and got an export license for his “masterpieces” but they were stopped at the border – all counterfeit.