To address the theft and illicit trafficking of cultural property, CHARD registers objects that are stored at museums, warehouses, archaeological and religious sites, archives and depositories onto a due diligence database. These objects are registered on the database used by CHARD, the Art Loss Register, to ensure that if registered items have been or might be lost or stolen, they can be identified if offered for sale on the international art market. CHARD’s database is therefore used every day to be compared to 450,000 objects on the market and in collections each year.

CHARD works with regional, national and international initiatives to register unique objects on the database once they have been inventoried. These registrations are carried out free of charge to whomever provides the necessary data. The registration of stolen, missing or at risk objects on an art market due diligence database offers the best possible chance of identifying them being offered on the international art market, as well as a practical deterrent to thieves and looters which can further ensure the safety of these collections for future generations.

The foundation has been initiated to complement the hard work of museum professionals, archaeologists and many others who painstakingly record these objects in the first place, as well as those who risk their lives every day to protect them. CHARD hopes to assist in the protection of these objects in perpetuity by informing relevant governments, ministries, museums, archaeologists or experts – as well as any appropriate law enforcement agencies – should those objects appear on the market.

The goals of the CHARD foundation include:

• the protection, conservation and restoration of both moveable and immovable, tangible and intangible, heritage around the world

• the provision of aid to museums, archaeological sites, archives and many other heritage sites during conflict, unrest or other challenges

• the recovery, repatriation and/or restitution of stolen and looted cultural property

• the role of heritage in capacity building and providing future resources for the local community

• the role of arts, culture and heritage in education

• an understanding and appreciation of other cultures and multifaceted identities.

In the future, CHARD aims to be a vital tool to museums and sites in conflict zones to register their objects to ensure that they do not appear on the international art market. It will also be an essential part of the due diligence process for the art market, museums and collectors; it will initiate and assist in investigations for international law enforcement and customs officials; and finally create a reference point for archaeologists, art historians and heritage professionals for inventories from the ‘at risk’ sites registered.

Case Study: Kushan sculpture repatriated to Afghanistan

As part of its project to proactively register cultural property within national collections, CHARD identified the Francine Tissot’s Catalogue of the National Museum of Afghanistan, 1931-1985, which was published by UNESCO. The objects in this catalogue were proactively registered on the Art Loss Register database in case any of them appeared on the market. In November 2019, the ALR identified a sculpture that was on sale at TimeLine Auctions in the UK as one that appeared in Tissot’s catalogue. CHARD and the ALR informed the Metropolitan Police Art & Antiques Unit, and worked with the British Museum and the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul to recover and repatriate the sculpture.

Case Study: Antiquities looted during Lebanese Civil War returned

The global nature of the antiquities market raises significant challenges for the identification and recovery of stolen and looted cultural property, how can the victims of looting monitor a global market such as this? However, the use of a due diligence database monitoring the international art market makes it possible to locate missing archaeological objects that are offered for sale. In this particular case, the CHARD’s work was based firstly upon the hard work and record keeping of French archaeologists in Lebanon in the 1960s, but even more so upon the work of Professor Rolf Stucky, a Swiss archaeologist. In 1993, Professor Stucky sourced excavation and museum records to publish an inventory of hundreds of objects found at the site of the Temple of Eschmun in Sidon (a site in Lebanon), but which had subsequently been looted in 1981 during the civil war. These objects were subsequently registered on the ALR database, which led to the location and recovery of a sculpture in Switzerland in 2006, and of two further pieces in 2017 that were amongst the five sculptures repatriated to Lebanon in February 2018.