Abstract
The Carabinieri Headquarters for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale – TPC) was instituted in 1969, 1 year prior to the UNESCO Paris Convention in 1970, whereby all UNESCO member States were invited to institute specific services with a view to protecting the cultural heritage of the individual nations.
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Notes
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Statistical data referred at June 2009.
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In particular:
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Counterfeiting, which is defined as meticulously imitating a work of art in order to sell it as if it were the original.
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Alteration, which means changing the essence of an original work by tampering with it (which can include sectioned paintings, those in which details have been added or removed or those which, by making certain modifications, are dated back to a certain author, while they were really executed by someone else).
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Reproduction, which entails the mechanical multiplication of copies of an original work which is then sold as the original: this is used in lithographs, etchings, xylographs, silk screens, and multiples of sculptures in excess of the number originally authorized by the artist.
Other activities which can be considered criminal and concerned more specifically the commercial world include: circulation or possession of counterfeited works with the intention of selling them despite not actually being involved in or contributing to the actual act of counterfeiting; authentication of a work known to be false; accreditation as authentic of a work known to be false.
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Works of art are often the objects of both real and fictitious operations finalized to hide their (having a) criminal provenance as well as their illicit exportation, such facts may be considered, exactly, a laundering crime.
As a matter of fact, most of triangulations by means of which a work of art is physically transferred abroad just in order to hide its real provenance should be punished as a laundering crime. Such triangulations are acted to place cultural objects in foreign countries whose legislation is more permissive in order to render their sale easier and more convenient in other foreign markets. For instance, during an investigation we noticed illegal exports of cultural goods from Italy to foreign countries which have not signed UNESCO Conventions, so that, in such a way, the same works of art are also sent, in a second time, to other country signatory of UNESCO Conventions, without checks and limitations prescribed by such Conventions for the specific import–export operation among signatory countries. We have to underline another insidious conduct, unfortunately very common: it consists in breaking voluntarily an archeological item illicitly excavated, even if ungrounded integral, in order to make its “laundering” in the black market easier. In fact, in such a way, fragments can be hidden more easily during customs checks. In addition, fragments are used to be shared out among the individuals belonging to the same criminal group in order to split the booty, to strengthen the ties among companions, and, last but not least, to obtain more economical profits, creating a sort of long lasting blackmail with the buyers.
Moreover, the same criminal behavior is often acted, where the illicit market regards a painting, especially a big size one, for instance a triptych or an altar-piece, which sometimes can be cut to obtain different and split works of art. Each of these split parts can be sold autonomously, increasing gains as well as obstructing the identification and recovery of the whole painting.
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In looking at the various cases under examination, we find that black market export takes place through the use of:
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International shipping companies (many times unaware of the illicit merchandise they are carrying) with the use of lorries and refrigerated trucks for road traffic or in containers for shipping by sea, with merchandise hidden among other completely unrelated goods.
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Leisure craft, taking advantage of the characteristic geography of Italy’s coastline, which is a destination for tourists from around the world.
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Hollow spaces in campers and mobile homes.
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International trains, with goods held in luggage or bags located in compartments far away from the person transporting them.
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Hand luggage, in air traffic.
Furthermore, in the illicit export of particularly valuable paintings, one technique involves painting a contemporary design over the original painting in order to more easily obtain the necessary permits for export, as well as other fraudulent methods.
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Nistri, G. (2011). The Experience of the Italian Cultural Heritage Protection Unit. In: Manacorda, S., Chappell, D. (eds) Crime in the Art and Antiquities World. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7946-9_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7946-9_11
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