Since 1990, the Art Loss Register (ALR) has maintained the world’s largest private international database of stolen, missing and looted art, antiquities, and antiques, now consisting of over 700,000 items.

As part of its services, the ALR has always registered cultural property on its database which has been reported stolen or missing, and liaised with law enforcement, ministries, museums, archaeologists and concerned members of the public across the world to identify, recover and repatriate these important objects. Due to its increasing recognition of the need to take proactive steps to address the illicit trafficking of cultural property the ALR has been running CHARD to proactively register objects in situ at museums, warehouses and archaeological sites since 2014, to ensure that such items are stolen they can be identified if offered for sale.

Through CHARD, the ALR works with regional, national and international initiatives to register unique objects on the database once they have been inventoried and is always keen to work with new partners. These registrations are free-of-charge. In addition, they will be kept confidential and secure on the ALR’s database so that only the ALR can access them. No dealer or auction house has direct access to the database. This service is offered to complement the hard work of the museum professionals and archaeologists who painstakingly record these objects in the first place, as well as those who risk their lives every day to protect them.