Innovation – a key factor in protecting our cultural heritage from crime and destruction

The fight against trafficking of cultural goods has gained relevance in the recent years, and many innovative solutions are being developed or are already available to tackle this problem. As stressed by the EU’s action plan against trafficking in cultural goods, technology is crucial for supporting law enforcement authorities in protecting cultural goods from being trafficked, and in detecting trafficked cultural goods. On 5 December 2024, the CERIS workshop on the Innovation against trafficking of cultural goods gathered more than 100 participants from 24 countries. The workshop brought together innovators, representatives of law enforcement (national and regional police, customs), museums, heritage protection, academia, industry, and policy makers (from European and national administrations).

Participants discussed challenges and needs for law enforcement and civil society for which innovative solutions could be of help. Accordingly, EU funded projects that have developed different innovative solutions were presented.

The workshop was opened by Marta Cygan, Innovation and Audit Director in DG HOME. Ms Cygan stressed that this workshop is the result of a team effort between different Commission services (DG HOME, DG TAXUD, DG EAC and DG RTD). The aim of the workshop was to offer the opportunity to present solutions to the end-users who need them, and to inform innovators about what today’s challenges and tomorrow’s needs for law enforcement are, so that they can create new and fit-for-purpose solutions. The workshop was divided into three thematic sessions, accompanied by two keynotes by the Commission (DG HOME, DG TAXUD) and the European Agency for law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol). 

In the first session, 14 projects presented their hardware, software, and data analysis solutions in three blocks: identification and detection of cultural goods items, market intelligence & web trackers, and expert networks. These projects were funded by the EU Horizon Europe Programme and the Internal Security Fund. In the second session, a roundtable panel. with experts from the Dutch and French customs, the Italian Carabinieri and the Bavarian police, discussed innovation when investigating crimes concerning cultural goods. In addition, a forensic specialist from the European Forensic Initiatives Centre in Poland explained how the lifecycle of a cultural good investigation looks like in the Member States. The five panellists agreed on the importance of officers working in the field having a mobile and user-friendly tool for detection and identification of cultural items. Collaboration between law enforcement agencies from EU Member States and non-EU countries was highlighted as a key element for the success in the investigation. The possibility for law enforcement officers to quickly consult cultural goods experts was stressed as a major challenge.

The third panel focused on the next steps in the fight against illicit trafficking in cultural goods. Experts from museums and cultural heritage protectors, from Europol and the Commission services discussed challenges, priorities, solutions and key areas for future research and innovation in this field. Museum representatives expressed the need for international solutions for inventorying. The NGO representatives claimed that capacity-building and training currently oriented towards law enforcement agencies could be adapted also to civil society organisations working in the field.

In the discussion, innovators and industry representatives emphasised the need for more reliable data to feed their tools. Law enforcement representatives underlined the lack of time and the need to react quickly when investigating. For that reason, instead of having multiple applications, law enforcement agencies prefer to work with one single user interface that the officer can use easily and quickly. While there is a lot of expertise in central law enforcement units working with cultural goods, such an interface would help the officers performing border and customs controls who do not have this niche knowledge.