Cracking down on illicit art trade to improve security – The OSCE’s critical role
How can paintings and old coins be dangerous to international security? Find out how a team in the OSCE’s Transnational Threats Department is teaching border guards, customs officers and other law enforcement officials how the trafficking of art and ancient artefacts funds organized crime and terrorist activities across the globe, and what they can do to stop it.
“Sometimes we discover these cases by chance", says Cameron Walter, Customs Adviser and Programme Manager of the OSCE Heritage Crime Task Force, “but more often it comes down to the dedication of national art crime teams and training frontline officers to be aware of this increasing area of crime."
In a recent law enforcement workshop organized by the OSCE, an expert on Egyptology and trafficking presented his work and some of the other participants started talking to him about their ongoing cases on Egyptian and North African artefacts.
“Through these conversations, happening in that workshop room, they were able to identify that certain objects on sale at a certain auction house at the time, were stolen from a specific area of Egypt. Other participants from the same country's law enforcement agency were able to make the call home to get their officers on the ground to exercise a warrant and seize the property. Now, it's an ongoing criminal investigation," Cameron explains.
This is just one example of the many conversations and cross-border law enforcement exchanges that happen through this programme and by bringing together regional and global experts.
While this exchange happened “by chance", it was not the only case that progressed thanks to the impromptu discussions and information exchanged during the workshop, and they will not be the last - we know the ability to stop illicit art trade is the result of meticulous work and networks developed over many years.
The OSCE’s current programme builds on a 2016 project that focused on raising awareness of the illicit trade of cultural property and gaining a better understanding of the major trends, routes and challenges across the OSCE region.
Back then, most law enforcement agencies – police, customs, and border security – did not typically see the importance of preventing art or antiquities from leaving the country. They were more concerned about stopping guns and drugs moving across borders.
“Of course, this is easy to understand. A gun is an immediate threat, a painting is not. But cultural property is the third most trafficked commodity in the world, after weapons and narcotics in terms of value. While it is hard to put an exact number on it, most estimates are between 2-6 billion US dollars per year with direct linkages to organized crime and terrorist financing, money laundering and corruption networks. That fact should make people pay attention to it, let alone the threat to world history and cultures," Cameron says.
Low-risk income for terrorists and organized crime
In recent years, criminals and terrorists have made significant financial profits from the trafficking of art, antiquities and irreplaceable cultural property. These groups need a constant, substantial and diversified influx of funds. Trafficking in weapons, drugs, humans and other types of smuggling may bring large profits but comes with high risk and intense scrutiny; extracting payments by force is limited in scope and financial gain; and crowdfunding is neither easy to collect nor covert. As such, trafficking in cultural heritage has become a low-risk business for many who view museums and archaeological sites as centuries-old savings accounts – and they are trying to cash in.
In many countries, historical sites are looted and damaged while artefacts, relics and monuments are stolen and traded – sometimes semi-legally through galleries auctions, but often through underground, illicit markets, the darknet and increasingly via social media.
It has been documented that one of the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta, was selling Afghan antiquities in Hamburg in the six months prior to the attack. The group behind the 2015 Bataclan attack in Paris and the 2016 Brussels airport attack are also suspected of having sold art stolen from properties around Europe to finance their operations.
“The Paris attack is estimated to have only cost 8,000 euros to undertake, so if you sell one painting, you can potentially fund multiple attacks or criminal enterprises. We stress these points to police, border and customs officers and train them to be aware of this area of crime and take a second look when someone tries to move antiquities, coins, documents, paintings or other cultural heritage," he says.
Broad expertise is critical
The team has recently started a new programme to further strengthen the capacity of law enforcement, customs and border officers of OSCE participating States to combat, reduce and prosecute the trafficking of cultural property.
They not only look at whether there is legislation in place to protect incoming or outgoing cultural property and whether various countries have art crime units, but also train border guards, customs services, front line officers, financial investigators, crime scene investigators and museums to understand how these crimes work and how they can be tackled effectively.
However, the team is not doing this work on their own. Success is dependent on close co-operation among a wide variety of partners. Through the programme, the OSCE has set up the Heritage Crime Task Force, a unique-in-the-world group that brings together law enforcement, border officials, financial and forensic investigators and museum experts that are in constant contact to combat trafficking of cultural property.
“We bring in experts from INTERPOL, International Council of Museums, UN Office of Drugs and Crime, UN Office of Counter Terrorism, Blue Shield International, the British Museum, Cranfield University, US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, police and border guards from Spain, France, Italy, Finland and Bulgaria to name a few" Cameron says.
These partners contribute with their particular skill sets to the trainings of front line officers and OSCE participating States.
“They talk about how to conduct customs and police investigations, money laundering investigations, how to access the dark net to investigate the criminal networks and organized crime groups that move art pieces there. There are trainings on how to conduct crime scene forensics work at museums or archaeological sites, because there are different considerations from how investigators would look at bank robberies or murder scenes. We are also starting to bring in state prosecutors to teach investigators how to build cases that will lead to successful prosecution," he explains.
The key role of the OSCE
Getting all these partners together is no easy feat. Our success is largely due to the OSCE's mandate, experience and wide range of participating States and partners.
“The OSCE has the political advantage and leverage that a lot of other organizations don't have. Other organizations, or even single countries, would have a harder time making an international project of this size, scale and impact happen. I believe we have found success in this programme because we’ve been able to use this advantage to galvanize a large group of partners and bring together the collective, longstanding experience, and decades of expertise on a strategic, political and operational level," Cameron argues.
It is precisely the collective experience, close cooperation and conversations that are key to the project's results.
“Illicit art and antiquities trade is not an isolated activity. Often, groups moving guns and drugs are also engaged in human trafficking, counterfeiting and art trafficking, and it is all part of a broader criminal enterprise. Sadly, no country is left untouched, as the entire world can be a source, transit or destination country for the trafficking of cultural property," Cameron says.
The Heritage Crime Task Force is also working closely with OSCE participating States to highlight the ongoing risk of Ukraine's cultural heritage being looted and trafficked.
“The war has created a perfect opportunity for criminals and other actors to take advantage of the situation and profit from exposed and damaged cultural heritage sites. We are working with participating States to strengthen their law enforcement capacity and awareness to find and interdict these pieces from moving across borders, investigate, combat and prosecute criminals, and eventually return stolen items. The lessons we learn from this experience will be applied across the entire OSCE area."
For more information on the Programme to Combat Trafficking of Cultural Property or the Heritage Crime Task Force, please contact heritage@osce.org
To report a known or suspected crime or cases of trafficking related to art, antiquities and cultural property, please contact your local police and/or border security agency.