In 1976, the International Foundation for Art Research began compiling an art theft archive. The Art Loss Register builds upon IFAR’s work and is the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art, antiques and collectables.

The FBI has a special team of 13 agents dedicated to investigating art and cultural property crimes and recovering stolen art and antiquities. Through this website you can access the National Stolen Art File, a computerized index of reported stolen art and cultural property.

Contains a database with laws, policies, records, and other documentation from nearly 50 countries, and an object database containing details about more than 25,000 objects looted, missing and/or identified from over fifteen countries.

This site from the U.S. State Department provides information about the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act and links to a variety of domestic and international laws relating to the protection of art and cultural property.

Gathers and publishes information relating to works of art, archives, and other types of cultural property displaced as a consequence of war, primarily focusing on World War II. The project is administered by the non-profit foundation Cultural Property Research Foundation, Inc.

Also available on microfilm at Law Audiovisual Microfiche 2015.

The US National Archives and Records Administration has published a finding aid for records relating to the looting, locating, recovery and restitution of Holocaust-Era assets. They are also working with art provenance researchers to identify and microfilm key series of records.

This site from the London Metropolitan Police stores details and images of 54,000 items of stolen art and cultural property including paintings, books, coins, musical instruments and games.

Germany’s Koordinierungsstelle für Kulturgutverluste registers and documents search requests and found-object reports about cultural objects taken through Nazi persecution or relocated as a result of World War II. They produced this database to make it possible to search for these objects and the circumstances of their loss.

Object ID is an international standard for describing art, antiques and antiquities. The project seeks to combat art theft by encouraging use of the standard and working with organizations around the world that can encourage its implementation.

The Art Institute of Chicago compiled this bibliography of works that serve as a starting point in conducting provenance research.

Link goes to a PDF Guide to the Collection. Actual collection documents are available on microfilm at Law Audiovisual Microfilm 511.

The International Council of Museums’ Red List seeks to stop the illicit trade in cultural property by publicizing provenance details, photos, descriptions and situation assessments of threatened antiquities from various regions of the world.

This site provides access to the Society for American Archaeology’s policy on repatriation as well as digitized documents pertinent to the society’s involvement in repatriation matters in the United States at the state and federal levels.

This site circulates information concerning stolen works of art as reported to Interpol. It includes information on works of art that have been recovered as well as details about works of art for which owners have not yet been identified. The U. S. National Central Bureau of INTERPOL also has a Cultural Property Crimes Program website available.

This UNESCO sponsored project allows visitors to browse through a trove of artifacts spanning the history of civilization. It brings together historical manuscripts and the secondary literature describing them, translated into seven different languages.

The World Monuments Fund issues a watch list of the world’s 100 most endangered sites on a biennial bases. The list focuses attention on cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict or disaster.
Many art museums worldwide have provenance research projects in process for their collections. For more information, see the specific museum’s web site.