3 - Carabinieri Public Outreach and Education

Summary

The Carabinieri TPC has long recognised that it is much easier to prevent the theft of valuable works of art and antiquities than it is to recover those same objects. As a result, the force has developed a robust educational, outreach and security programme that applies across Italy and internationally. The goals of the Carabinieri outreach programme include educating the public about the importance of heritage in situand why archaeological sites should be protected from looting. The idea is that a better informed public will be less likely to purchase looted antiquities and archaeological objects, especially ancient coins which will in turn decrease the incentive and market for looting. Specialised outreach is also available for owners of works of art or collections of objects in order to help the owner(s) improve the security of those items.

Carabinieri outreach initiatives begin with educating children and extend to include security inspections for museums, ecclesiastical collections and churches; visits to private collections with recommendations for improved security; visits to proposed sites of exhibitions; and direct public interaction with the database – not just to familiarise the public with lost art but also to ensure that the database structure can be used to document private collections. Along with representatives of the higher headquarters, nuclei of the Carabinieri TPC routinely offer outreach through public presentations, participating in cultural events and celebrations, visiting school groups, delivering conference papers and even hosting gatherings of academicians and officials to discuss achievements, improvements and potential collaborations for law enforcement in the arts. The Carabinieri also issues bulletins of missing objects and contributes to Italian society by organising exhibitions of objects recovered over the course of time. In the summer of 2012, UNESCO hosted an exhibition in Paris of recovered objects which featured the Carabinieri TPC and shared its accomplishments with the world. The Carabinieri TPC also proactively offers training courses to law enforcement counterparts all over the world. International agencies such as UNESCO often call upon the Carabinieri TPC to share its expertise and representatives of policing agencies have a standing invitation to travel to Rome to learn from the TPC at its headquarters. Carabinieri TPC officers also find it very productive to travel to foreign countries to coach, train and encourage their counterparts.