Protection

Heritage protection rests on a chain in which every link counts. The owner or museum reports the theft; the BIOP unit checks and publishes the alert; operators consult the database before buying; customs and police recognise the item at the border; States organise the restitution.

If a single link is missing, the work disappears into the circuit. That is why OIMAP works at once on tools (the database), people (training) and rules (the directives, cooperation).

A theft committed in one State is often resold in another, sometimes several years later. If each country keeps its own file, the same work can be lawfully sold to a buyer who could not have known. A common database removes this grey area.

The BIOP is fed by reports from owners, museums, national police forces and INTERPOL, and consulted by auction houses, galleries and platforms. It has already made it possible to block several hundred sales.

Prevention first: raising awareness among collectors, museums and communities living near sites. Detection next: quickly spotting a stolen work on the market. Cooperation: sharing information between services in different countries. Restitution finally: returning the work to its lawful owner through a fair procedure.

These four priorities structure the fifteen pages of the section and the actions of the Protection Fund, which finances field projects in the States that most need them.

The Heritage Protection Department brings together a BIOP unit of twelve analysts, a restitutions unit, a training unit and a partnerships unit. It works with the national focal points designated by each Member State.

An emergency line is open twenty-four hours a day for law enforcement. Operators and owners go through the Desk, which guarantees the follow-up and archiving of reports.