The (BKA) Federal Criminal Office is the central office of the German criminal police and the National Central Bureau for Interpol. In Germany as a Federal Republic, most investigative and field work is done by police offices in the 16 Federal States. The BKA mainly gathers and analyses information on crime and disseminates the results, advises lawmaking officials, measures new trends in crime, maintains various national databases, does research and has highly sophisticated scientific equipment for many research purposes in support of investigating forces.
In the wake of a series of thefts by breaking and entering into churches in the South of Germany in the 1970ies, the BKA started working (collecting, analysing and diseminating data) in the field of art and antiquities crime, later also the illegal trade of cultural goods. From handwritten object cards in the beginning, the development went on towards a digital imaging database.
Nowadays the BKA fulfills its role as central office in the following ways:
1. Maintaining the national German database for stolen or fake works of art, cultural goods and objects of dubious origin. This database is only accessible by police offices on a federal level (Landeskriminalämter)
2. Checking objects in the ASF-WOA (Interpol's database) and the lostart database for works of art having disappeared in connection with WW II as well as Jewish losses (www.lostart.de).
3. Cooperating with national and international experts for all kinds of artwork and cultural goods, e.g. to get a quick evaluation of the objects in question.
4. Advising investigating police officers and other agencies on objects and cases they deal with including international information exchange via Interpol or BKA liasion officers, plus gathering relevant data and laws for German judicial procedures.
5. Gathering and analysing information on national and international level in this field of crime, giving lectures, participating in working groups e.g. for the new German law for the Protection of Cultural Goods, Cultnet of Europol.
5. Checking art fairs, auction houses catalogues and the Internet for objects which might have been stolen, faked or illicitly trafficked.
