Is it true that trafficking in cultural property is the third most common form of trafficking, after drug trafficking and arms trafficking?
We do not possess any figures which would enable us to claim that trafficking in cultural property is the third or fourth most common form of trafficking, although this is frequently mentioned at international conferences and in the media. In fact, it is very difficult to gain an exact idea of how many items of cultural property are stolen throughout the world and it is unlikely that there will ever be any accurate statistics. National statistics are often based on the circumstances of the theft (petty theft, theft by breaking and entering or armed robbery), rather than the type of object stolen. To illustrate this, every year, the Interpol General Secretariat asks all member countries for statistics on theft of works of art, information on where the thefts took place, and the nature of the stolen objects. On average, we receive 60 replies a year (out of 188 member countries), some of which are incomplete or inform us that no statistics exist.
