This innovative publication is based on contributions prepared by 14 writers for a workshop on Contemporary Perspectives on the Detention, Investigation and Prosecution of Art Crime that took place in Brisbane, Australia, in May 2012, funded by a Griffith University International Workshop Award and the Australian Research Council’s Center of Excellence in Policing and Security, based at Griffith University in Queensland.

Duncan Chappell is an Australian lawyer and criminologist. He is an honorary professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney and a conjoint professor in the School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales. He has researched and published widely on crime and criminal justice as well as on art crime and trafficking in cultural property. Saskia Hufnagel is a German legal professional and accredited specialist in criminal law. She is a lecturer in criminal law at Queen Mary College at the University of London. She has researched and published, among other areas, on law enforcement cooperation and art crime, with a geographical emphasis on Europe, North America, Asia, and Australasia.

Given the editors’ background and the circumstances of the publication, the geographical emphasis is on Australasia, Europe, and North America. Although the majority of the 12 other contributors are based in Australia and are mostly lawyers and art professionals, some are based in Europe and Japan or have intensively travelled, lectured, or worked in Asia. The group also includes criminologists, archaeologists, cultural heritage professionals, and an art dealer. This combination of professional expertise and geographical background obviously contributes to make the publication a significant contribution to the understanding of contemporary issues surrounding art crimes (art theft, fraud, and illicit trafficking) in Australasia where it has received less attention than in other places, especially in the fields of criminal law and policing research. However, the variety of the case studies and the depth of the legal and criminological analysis by some of the world’s most renowned researchers in the area serve to give an overview of the current discussion on art crime that goes much beyond Australasia and is truly global.

The expected audience of the book is quite large, but the editors make it clear that their hope is that it facilitates an understanding of art crime, in particular, by those engaged in law enforcement, who are felt to be “ill prepared and ill equipped” even today in a context where very little reliable data, including statistical data, is available. The book, which follows the comparative perspective of the workshop, is divided into three parts: the first part provides several case studies; the second part discusses criminal law and procedure in art crime; and the third part provides international and regional overviews.

The case studies in the first part of the book have been selected to give readers who may not be so familiar with three forms of art crime—antiquity thefts, art theft, and art fraud—the evidence-based approach needed to understand the evolution of the legal and criminological dimensions covered in the second and third parts of the book. The second part of the book contains contributions, mainly from the world’s most renowned lawyers in this area, who demonstrate that the issues have obvious transnational roots and dimensions, whether they refer to national or international law. It also contains analysis and opinions on the respective responses of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1995 Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects bring to the issue of art crime. ^{Footnote 1}

The third part of the book takes account of the most recent developments in the area of law enforcement—at the national level in a few key countries and at an international level through the action of international organizations or initiatives such as INTERPOL. Several of the authors also cover some of their findings in terms of illegal movement and trafficking in cultural property in Asia, namely from Cambodia and China. The authors repeatedly call for further national and international collaboration in law enforcement on art crimes. It is believed that this publication will make a significant contribution by providing very useful resources for the law enforcement professionals involved.

Review of Louise Grove and Suzie Thomas, eds., Heritage Crime, Progress, Prospects and Prevention. 235 pp. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

In the context of the recent destruction of world heritage sites in Syria—in particular, Palmyra and the selling on the international art market of important moveable cultural objects by various parties to the conflict—it is expected that the recent publications will attract an audience beyond the usual professionals concerned. In this regard, with Heritage Crime, Progress, Prospects, and Prevention, Louise Grove and Suzie Thomas have done an excellent job in addressing the issue of heritage crime in an in-depth and holistic manner, which can help a wider audience to better understand all of the implications of this matter. Furthermore, it opens a path for further research and action on the issue.

Louis Grove is a senior lecturer in criminology and social policy at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom where she leads the Interdisciplinary Crime Science Research Group. Her research interests include crime prevention, trends, and patterns in crime and green criminology. Suzie Thomas is a university lecturer in museology at the University of Helsinki in Finland, although she had previously worked on the Trafficking Culture Project at the University of Glasgow. The book is divided into two parts: (1) heritage crime around the world, which contains five chapters covering six countries and (2) tackling heritage crime, which contains seven chapters covering global and country specific issues, including a concluding chapter by the editors.

Like similar publications, the book includes contributions from a number of writers and researchers from various countries who cover the issue from different perspectives: law, criminology, law enforcement, heritage management, archaeology, education, and so on. But this book may differ from others in several aspects. It is written in a language that is accessible to an audience from outside the specialized circles or with little prior information on heritage crime. To this end, the chapters are organized in a didactic manner, beginning with a definition of several key notions (such as heritage and crime), moving then to several case studies, and, finally, to the presentations of several theories covering, in particular, the criminological aspects of the topic. For instance, in a chapter dedicated to heritage crime prevention, two writers (Louise Grove and Ken Pease) present an elaborated typology of the various techniques that can contribute to preventing these crimes.

The case studies cover the United Kingdom, South Africa, Peru, Norway, Finland, Romania, Moldova, and Cyprus, and some chapters are particularly well documented and contain information that cannot be otherwise easily found. Although one can regret that none of the chapters cover countries in Asia and the Pacific, the sample of case studies is actually sufficient to illustrate the global dimension of the issue.

Since it is a recent publication, it has the advantage of including considerations and suggestions based on the latest developments in heritage crime in the Middle East. Indeed, the authors suggest new approaches in order to tackle the heritage crimes that have taken a different form in the Middle East recently. To this end, they call for an increased collaboration between the professionals concerned, including the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the International Council of Museums, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, INTERPOL, and other stakeholders. This is not a new idea; such collaboration has existed for decades and proven to be efficient in a number of situations in the past. However, several of the writers—in particular, Kenneth Polk in “The Global Trade in Illicit Antiquities: Some New Directions”—give a few suggestions on how this collaboration could further develop in the current context.

In a concluding chapter, the two editors have taken the time to summarize the whole book under the three headings of “progress, prospects and prevention.” They suggest new areas for research, confirming therefore the pedagogical approach of the whole publication. They conclude by calling again for increased networking and interdisciplinary collaborative action between professionals concerned to ensure the protection of our cultural heritage for future generations.

Review of Joris D. Kila and Marc Balcells, eds., Cultural Property Crime: An Overview and Analysis of Contemporary Perspectives and Trends. 380 pp. Brill, 2014.

This publication is the third volume of a series entitled Heritage and Identity: Issues in Cultural Heritage Protection at Brill Academic Publishers. It is a compilation of 17 contributions put together on the initiative of two of the contributors: Joris Kila and Marc Balcells. J.D. Kila is a researcher at the University of Vienna Kompetenzzentrum Kulturgutershutz and the editor-in-chief of the series Heritage and Identity. He has authored many publications on cultural property protection, including a book entitled Heritage under Siege. Marc Balcells is a senior researcher at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. He holds a Masters in Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. At the time of the publication, he was completing his doctoral dissertation.

The contributors have a diversity of professional backgrounds and are based in Europe, North America, and Australasia. A majority of them are experts in either criminology, law, or heritage studies or a combination of these fields. But some are law enforcement practitioners, and the list also includes an expert in forensic psychiatry and a journalist. Such a combination of backgrounds and experiences offers a comprehensive understanding of a variety of aspects of the multidisciplinary topic of cultural property crime.

The contributions are mainly (although not exclusively) related to movable cultural property and are grouped into seven parts, corresponding to several categories of cultural property crimes:

• • art theft (one contribution);

• • the relationship between cultural heritage crimes and organized crime (one contribution);

• • fakes and forgeries (two contributions);

• • art and white-collar crime (five contributions);

• • armed conflicts and cultural property (three contributions);

• • archaeological looting (four contributions); and

• • art vandalism (one contribution).

This systematic presentation under the categories of crimes allows the reader to progress in his or her understanding of each of them, through a combination of case studies, empirical data (quantitative and qualitative), and scientific perspectives. Several case studies are related to specific countries such as Guatemala, China, Germany, Canada, Vietnam, and Cambodia, providing the reader with the necessary evidence-based approach. It is interesting to note that the chapters on Vietnam and Guatemala do actually bring in-depth information that is not often found in such publications. Far from being only descriptive, the chapters are built in a way that the reader, while progressing through the topic, will gradually discover a comprehensive picture of the whole issue, covering criminology, law, law enforcement, and even psychiatry.

The publication differentiates from other books recently published on the topic by its emphasis on criminology and by its very well documented analysis of a variety of specific crimes. For instance, the richest chapter of the publication is dedicated to “White-Collar Crime.” This area has traditionally received less attention from researchers in criminology studies compared to organized crime or terrorism, mainly because of the lack of reliable data and the natural opacity of white-collar crimes. In this way, the book contributes significantly to bring some light on the issue, through no less than five contributions that narrate a number of well known and less known cases. Some of them are presented like detective stories, which makes the reading quite captivating. These cases, for the most part, are extremely well documented, especially those on corruption. The authors clearly had access to information that is normally not easy to find, thanks to their in-depth research and interviews. This is why this chapter constitutes one of the pillars of the book and what makes it different from other publications on the same topic. Beyond these specific cases, this chapter also contains general considerations on white-collar crime, including typologies of such crimes that can be of particular interest for criminologists and for those willing to do further research on it.

One chapter is dedicated to armed conflicts and cultural property. It confirms, through several case studies, that armed conflicts and post-war situations have always presented favorable circumstances for looting cultural property. The chapter on Cambodia also mentions a linkage between military and organized crime. Through its various chapters, the publication also covers the laws and criminal policies enacted in various countries. It contains indications on how existing international conventions and other instruments and initiatives might be useful, and it expresses some frustrations with their current lack of implementation. It also suggests areas for further research. In this way, the book can be a useful tool to open the way for further international legal frameworks and norms, possibly through the United Nations. In conclusion, the book edited by Joris D. Kila and Marc Balcells is one of the best in the area of cultural property crime, thanks to its interdisciplinary approach, to the wealth of its case studies, and to the seniority and expertise of the contributors.