Legambiente unveils the true volume of illicit trade in works

Thirty years after the first Ecomafia Report, the Legambiente report for 2024 was presented on 11 July. This is a reconnaissance of the "numbers of environmental crime in Italy" for 2023; theNational Observatory for Environment and Legality of Legambiente processed these data. Among the items considered by the report, in line with the overall increase in environmental illegality, there is the growth of attacks on the cultural, artistic and archaeological heritage of our country.

According to the Legambiente Observatory, in 2023, there were 642 thefts of works of art, an increase of 58.9% compared to 2022. This result comes from the sum of the data provided not only by the Commando Tutela patrimonio culturale dell'Arma dei carabinieri (Tpc), but also by the Guardia di Finanza, the Polizia di Stato, the Capitanerie di Porto, as well as the regional Forestry Corps of Sicily and Valle d'Aosta and the provincial Forestry Corps of Trento and Bolzano. This is in contrast to the only thefts reported by the Carabinieri Tpc in their report for 2023, which showed a decrease in thefts compared to 2022 (from 333 to 267).

The overview offered by the Observatory provides a better appreciation of the phenomenon of illicit trafficking of works of art and other illegal conduct to the detriment of the country's artistic heritage. An alarming fact comes from the list of regions with the highest number of thefts. First is Sardinia with 19.6% of the national total, followed by Sicily, Lazio, Campania and Apulia. According to Tpc's partial estimates, the Lazio region topped the list, followed by Lombardy and Emilia Romagna. The data from the Legambiente Observatory confirm how the increase in art thefts, which rose from 13.4% in 2022 to 36% in 2023, occurs in three of the four regions with a traditional mafia presence (see table). This figure is particularly significant and suggests that the link between mafia-type associations and the trafficking of antiquities is not as outdated a phenomenon as it often appears.

There was also an increase in complaints to 1,428 (+12.4%, compared to 981 recorded by the Tpc), in seizures in 2023 amounting to 359 (+184.9% compared to 2022) and in arrests, which reached 24, compared to 13 in 2022 and just 4 in 2021. According to the annual report of the Carabinieri Tpc, in 2023, there were 2 arrests in flagrante delicto and 20 on the orders of the judicial authorities.

Analysing the type of offences committed, as compiled by the Cultural Heritage Protection Command, receiving stolen goods ranks first (492), followed by criminal offences against the landscape (240) and illegal excavations (130).