>>> Stolen museum object listings are not available "on line:"
Three organizations currently keep stolen museum object listings,
each with its own mandate, restrictions, and different set of files
from the other. Two are restricted police files, hard to separate the
changing line of priviledged from public information. The last is
commercial, for sale on paper:
   FBI Stolen Art File, Diane Adkins, 202-324-6040
   Interpol US, Angela Meadows, 202-616-9000
   Internat Found for Art Research, IFAR Art Loss Register,
            Anna Kisluk, 212-879-1740
 
Canadian Heritage Information Network, CHIN, computerizes and
combines Interpol loss files and Canadian files as Register of Stolen
Art and Artifacts, ROSA, which can be queried but is not on line with
CHIN. Contact is Lisa Schur, Interpol, RCMP, 613-993-8309.
 
>>> Important advice, please, for using these contacts: Don't make
initial police reports to these people. Contact your local police,
constabulary, etc., first. FBI, RCMP, and Interpol prefer or insist
that initial reports come first from local law enforcement.
 
>>> We have worked with these agencies for over ten years to make
them user friendly, provide better service, and motivate them to join
Internet, providing sanitized information.
 
I joined MUSEUM-L a month ago and have experimented posting the 3
July stolen cultural property events to security directors on
Internet, without extensive lists of objects. I deduce that MUSEUM-L
would like regular alerts of museum loss events, with phone numbers
for follow up information just as EX LIBRIS does for libraries now.
EX LIBRIS has resulted in recoveries, and, from suspect notices (very
limited and ethically appropriate), arrests. I'll post major national
and international cultural property losses on MUSEUM-L for everyone's
notice and protection until any other direct list holders decide to
do so. As a new user, I wanted to see what you appreciated and how.
 
So... no news will be good news, most times. We are now for the first
time able to post alerts as fast, if not faster, as the culprits can
get from institution to institution or re sell our goods, whether
they subscribe to MUSEUM-L or not!
 
David Liston, Protection Awareness, Smithsonian Institution
doing the same thing with AAM and ICOM security committees