Qatar National Library’s IFLA Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Regional Center for Arab countries and the Middle East hosted a webinar on how technology developed by Interpol can be leveraged by organisations and individuals across the world to identify stolen cultural heritage materials and prevent their sale.
Titled “Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property and Interpol’s Tools,” the webinar, which took place on March 12, discussed the process of gathering and processing information using Interpol’s online database to identify and report stolen heritage items. The event attracted a variety of regional cultural and law enforcement agencies.
Tiziano Coiro, a co-ordinator from Interpol’s Works of Art Unit, explained how the organisation’s Stolen Works of Art database and its ID-Art application can be used to identify stolen cultural property and increase the chances of recovering stolen items.
Executive Director of Qatar National Library (QNL) Tan Huism addressed the webinar attendees and highlighted the QNL’s efforts in working with international and regional entities to support the fight against the trafficking of documentary heritage in the region.
“As custodians of the region’s most historic artifacts, the items that we preserve and exhibit are much more than objects. They represent what we are as a society. They encapsulate our history, values, beliefs, and identity, and they connect us to our past and serve as a guide for our future,” she said. She added that QNL will pursue its efforts in this regard. Noting that as the regional IFLA PAC Center, it will be hosting annual workshops later this year to combat illicit trafficking.
The workshops will bring together government officials, along with regional and international experts representing Unesco, UNIDROIT, Interpol, the World Customs Organisation (WCO), various ministries, Alecso, Qatar’s General Customs Authority, the FBI, French customs, and the Carabinieri Unit of Rome for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, among others.
Publicly available for download, Interpol’s ID-Art application provides access to the Stolen Works of Art database, which contains more than 52,000 objects from 134 member countries.
The application can be used by police officers, customs officials, private collectors, journalists, and the general public to check if an object is registered as stolen and to report stolen items or highlight cultural sites potentially at risk of illicit excavations.
The event was held within the framework of the Himaya Project, QNL’s initiative to support and collaborate with organisations to prevent the trafficking of cultural heritage.
QNL acts as a steward of Qatar’s national heritage by collecting, preserving, and making available the country’s recorded history. The library provides equal access to all types of information and services and aims to enable the people of Qatar to positively influence society by creating an exceptional learning and discovery environment.
