Preventing Art and Antiquities Crimes Using Forensic Geology

Abstract

Geological materials, such as gems, precious stones, precious metals, rare fossils, and archeological objects, are extremely attractive to organized crime because of their high economic value, small size, and non-traceability. Because of the traceability of bank transactions at international levels, criminal organizations are using precious means of exchange for traffic in arms and drugs, for money laundering, and for illegal trade. In addition to these crimes, precious geological materials are often falsified, forged, and imitated by methods that have reached such advanced techniques as to produce specimens almost perfectly identical to their natural counterparts, to the point that it is not easy to distinguish the differences.

This paper focuses on the main characteristics of valuable geological materials (gems, precious metals, and rare fossils), which are also of archeological interest, their falsification, and the techniques of forensic geology used for their study.