Cultural Heritage Crime – the Nordic Dimension

Cultural Heritage Crime – the Nordic Dimension REPORT 2006:2 This report can be ordered through: Fritzes Kundservice, SE-106 47 Stockholm Phone +46 8-690 91 90. Fax +46 8 690 91 91 E-mail [email protected] Internet www.fritzes.se Production: The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, Information and Publication P.O.B. 1386, SE-111 93 Stockholm, Sweden Phone +46 8 401 87 00. Fax +46 8 411 90 75 E-mail [email protected] Internet www.bra.se ISSN 1100–6676, ISBN 91–38–32254–4 Authors: Lars Korsell, Göran Hedlund, Sofia Elwér, Daniel Vesterhav, Anita Heber Translation: Interverbum Cover: Britton & Britton Cover illustration: Map of the Nordic countries about 1570. Original in the Military Archives of Sweden Print: Edita Norstedts Tryckeri AB, Stockholm 2006 © Brottsförebyggande rådet 2006 Contents PREFACE 5 SUMMARY 7 INTRODUCTION 14 Purpose and questions 15 Implementation 15 METHOD 17 Nordic questionnaire 17 The interview study 19 The Internet Study 21 THEORIES AND RESEARCH ON CULTURAL HERITAGE CRIME 22 The model as a description of a cultural field 23 Analysis model 23 Cultural heritage legislation and its application 54 CULTURAL HERITAGE CRIME IN THE NORDIC REGION – RESULTS OF THE STUDY 62 Illicit removal 80 Opportunity 96 Motives 119 Service functions 124 Target based summaries of illicit removal and security section 125 Legal market for cultural objects 133 Grey zone 148 Illegal market 158 Summary of the results 160 MEASURES TO PREVENT CULTURAL HERITAGE CRIME 165 Measures to prevent the theft of cultural objects 165 Measures to prevent the illegal movement, export and import of cultural objects 170 Measures to prevent illegal trade in cultural objects 178 Measures to facilitate recovery of illicitly removed cultural objects 181 Crime preventive conclusions: knowledge, prioritisation and control 184 REFERENCES 187 APPENDIX 192 Appendix 1. Method 192 Sending out the questionnaire 192 Groups 192 Selection of respondents 193 Response rate 197 Appendix 2. Questionnaire 200 Preface Imagine a medieval, carved wooden Madonna that has hung in the same church, in the same place for hundreds of years. Generation after generation has admired her beauty as she mysteriously gazes down upon the most important occasions in life, from christenings to funerals. Or imagine a painting in one of our major museums, a picture that has formed the attitu- des of a whole nation, town or atmosphere of an era. All schoolchildren have passed some of these paintings, and they have helped to create our common identity. If the medieval sculpture or painting is stolen or disappears, it can never be replaced, no matter what insurances we have. That is what separates cultural heritage theft from other theft, which may cause major damage but can usually be replaced. We also have a lesser-known heritage under our feet, at the bottom of the sea. There are ancient monuments and shipwrecks waiting to be discovered and tell us about our history. But what happens if they are “discovered” by the wrong people? The knowledge that grave robbers and looters conceal from archaeologists leaves gaps in our historical puzzle. We, and all others responsible for criminal policies and criminological research, have not taken crime in the cultural area seriously enough. One reason could be that we have not quite understood how much damage is caused, how generations are affected when medieval sculptures disappear from our churches and paintings are stolen from museums. We have now launched a new concept, cultural heritage crime, to explain the significance of crime that targets our cultural heritage. The results are presented in this study, which is a Nordic collaboration between the Danish Commission on Export of Cultural Assets (Trine Østergaard, Camilla Mynster and Jakob Christian Bertram), the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority (Morten Skadsem), the Swedish National Heritage Board (Anna-Gretha Eriksson), the National Board of Antiquities/Finland (Leena Söyrinki-Harmo), the Swedish National Police (Jan-Åke Bylund), Swedish Customs (Karin Hansen and Sara Andersson), the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) and the European Police Office Europol (Dirk Deklerck, Serious Crime Department). The EU Commission’s AGIS Programme has financed the project. Researchers Göran Hedlund, Sofia Elwér and Daniel Vesterhav from Brå, and doctoral candidate Anita Heber from the Department of Crimino- logy at Stockholm University have written the report. The work has been led by Lars Korsell, Doctor of Laws, Brå. The following people have contributed to the project by conducting interviews or assisting with other tasks: Kamilla Fleicher Michaelsen, Jan Liljewalch, Olle Niklasson, Elise Nørrekjær, Sofie Fleischer Michaelsen, Sigfrid Arneberget Øien, Suvi Säätelä, Karolin Wallström and Johanna Sundholm. A reference group has taken part in the project’s two seminars, which besides the project’s partners, has included Mats Attin from the Swedish 5 National Criminal Intelligence Service, Anton Biktimorov from the Estoni- an Crime Department of Pöhja Prefecture, Lars Björk from the Swedish Royal Library, Anne Margit Borge from Norwegian Customs, Henning Hammel Bulow from Danish Customs, Kenneth Didriksen from the Nor- wegian Eco – Criminal Police, Jytte B. Ekdahl from the Danish Criminal Intelligence Service, Öyvind Endreson from Norwegian Customs, Trine Höjseth at the Norwegian Customs, Jarkko Keskinen from Finnish Cus- toms, Karl Heinz Kind from Interpol and Tora Synnöve Myre from the Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority. The project’s Nordic partners, members of the reference group, and the interviewers Jan Liljewalch and Olle Niklasson have reviewed the report. The report is intended for all players in the cultural heritage area, from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Cultural Affairs, government de- partments and agencies for cultural issues to individual museums, libraries, Archives and other cultural heritage institutions. It is intended for government agencies that exercise control and supervisory functions in the culture sector, customs and the police. It is also intended for dealers who run antique shops, second-hand bookshops and auctions, and the general public. The 16th century map on the report cover presents a rough picture of the Scandinavian geography. Future might pass the same judgement on this report, as the first rough work that outlines the extension and structure of Cultural Heritage Crime in the Nordic countries. With the same ambition as the mapdrawers we will continue to get a cleaver picture of the field as Brå aims to continue producing knowledge of Cultural Heritage Crime in the future. Stockholm in January 2006 Jan Andersson, Phd Director-General 6 Summary Cultural heritage crime This report contains the first Nordic study of cultural heritage crime. It includes theft of cultural objects from preservers, such as museums and churches, and from dealers, such as antique shops and auction houses. Cultural heritage crime also includes the illegal movement/export of protected cultural objects that even though they are legally acquired, may not be taken out of the country without a permit. The illegal import of these objects from other countries also constitutes cultural heritage crime. The looting of ancient monuments and protected shipwrecks is also included. The report is based on 2,111 questionnaire responses from preservers and dealers in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and 150 interviews with players and experts in these countries. A study has also been made of Danish Internet trade in cultural objects. As the studies cover such a broad cultural heritage area, the results cannot be summarised in a few simple words. Cultural heritage crime vari- es, depending on the types of objects, where the objects are kept and the countries where they are located. Let us take a walk through the fields of cultural heritage crime, from the actual theft of a cultural object until it arrives in the hands of a non-suspecting buyer. The results of the studies will be presented as we travel. Our story begins with a theft, but first of all we need an offender. What types of offenders steal cultural objects and what are their motives? Different thieves, one financial motive Several different types of thieves steal cultural objects: thieves who spon- taneously exploit an opportunity, addicts who steal whatever they can find, professional thieves who steal whatever they think might be valuable, thieves who work on commission and thieves with knowledge of cultural objects. In the questionnaire study, the victimized preservers and dealers say that the most common motive is financial gain. Of the dealers victimized during the last five years, 68 per cent say that financial motives underlie the thefts. The corresponding figure for preservers is 41 per cent. Of the victimized museums, 38 per cent say that visitors lie behind the disappearances. Even antique dealers say that visitors are responsible for most thefts (48 per cent of them have been victimized), but gangs of thieves are also considered a major problem (13 per cent). An underestimated category of offenders is employees (insiders). They are close to the objects and can also influence inventories and other measures to avoid being discovered. To the same degree that employees are underestimated as offenders, neither is the eccentric collector who steals objects for his private and secret collections considered a real problem. Our data 7 suggests that these people constitute a marginal group of offenders because of their obsessive interest in specific books or coins. Worst affected are museums, libraries, antique dealers and second-hand bookshops The next step is to find a theft target. In the preservers group, Nordic museums and libraries are most liable to theft. Every year during the past three years, an average of ten per cent of the museums that took part in the questionnaire study and 12 per cent of libraries have lost cultural objects. But even churches, Archives and open air museums have been victimized.

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