How Britain’s proposed police overhaul could reshape art crime investigations

Britain’s proposed overhaul of its policing system could reshape how art theft, antiquities trafficking and other cultural property crimes are investigated, as the government moves to centralize serious crime enforcement under a new national police force and reduce the number of local police agencies.

But Christopher Marinello, the founder of Art Recovery International, criticized the reforms outlined by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday in an email to Urgent Matter, saying the changes may only make matters worse for victims of art and jewelry theft.

Marinello said that police in the United Kingdom are already “underfunded and overwhelmed” in investigating art crimes. While London’s Metropolitan Police maintains an Art and Antiquities Unit, Marinello said the team is small, with “just a few officers.” It was not immediately clear if the AAU would be expanded under the proposed reforms.

In a freedom of information request filed with the Metropolitan Police about the activities of its Art and Antiquities Unit in 2023, authorities said the unit received 119 referrals, with more than half coming from overseas law enforcement agencies.

“At least one person was arrested in 2023 by the AAU, and at least six persons were interviewed under caution,” authorities said. “In 2023, stolen paintings represented 32% of AAU enquiries. Antiquities is the next largest area of referrals, constituting 27% of the work undertaken by the AAU.”

Marinello said this “contrasts poorly with the U.K.'s position as a major international art hub.”

“I have countless pending cases of stolen art and jewelry where the officers close the case prematurely or refuse to do the necessary paperwork if the stolen items are located outside the U.K., which happens often with stolen property,” he said.

Marinello said the “reforms” are a reaction to several scandals that have plagued British police in the last few years. He also called Sadiq Khan “completely ineffective,” criticizing the London mayor for only supporting police initiatives “when crime has an impact on tourism.”

Historic England said in a 2024 report on cultural property crime that the Alliance to Reduce Crime Against Heritage called for enhanced crime recording standards and the development of a heritage crime marker on police call handling and crime management systems.

“Currently, no standardised methodology exists across all police forces, and heritage crime is not considered a priority,” Historic England said at the time. “This limits our understanding of the true scale and extent of heritage crime in the historic environment and how to deal with it.”

Mahmood on Monday published a white paper her office described as a “radical blueprint for reform.” If the proposals are implemented, they would mark the largest reforms to policing since the police service was founded nearly 200 years ago.

“Crime itself is evolving,” Mahmood said in a foreword to the report. “Criminals are operating with more sophistication than ever before, within this country, across our borders and in the online world.”

The Home Office white paper does not explicitly reference art or antiquities crime, and did not appear to include such reforms sought by art experts. Urgent Matter has reached out to the Home Office for more information and additional comments.

Stolen paintings, trafficked antiquities and forged works often move quickly across borders and through online marketplaces. Art-related crime also often intersects with fraud, money laundering and organized theft ring investigations.

Yet enforcement has long been fragmented, split between local police forces with uneven resources and national agencies stretched thin.

“The 43-force model, nearly unchanged in 60 years, is no longer fit for purpose,” the white paper said. “Some forces are too small to handle complex investigations or major incidents.”

The proposals include the formation of a new National Police Service that would absorb the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Policing, and regional organized crime units into a single national force.

“The National Police Service will bring together existing national bodies… into a single organization with a clear mandate and the powers to get things done,” the white paper said.

That matters for art crime because serious art crime, like the trafficking of looted antiquities, often involves complex networks moving the illicit goods through ports, auction houses and online platforms, requiring specialist expertise and long-term intelligence work.

While local police forces would be consolidated, the white paper outlines creating new “Local Police Areas” within each force and adding 13,000 more officers into neighborhood roles. Increased neighborhood policing could help deter theft of art and cultural artifacts from galleries, museums and even churches.

Data from the Historic England report shows that 43 places of worship were listed on its Heritage at Risk Register in 2023, with 53 such churches having listed threats linked to heritage crime.

And offences relating to the theft of cultural objects from art galleries, museums and other sites are on the rise, with artwork and antiques being the most frequently stolen items, the Historic England report found. More than £3.2 million worth of cultural property was stolen in the 2021 to 2022 period analyzed for the report.

The Historic England report found that the theft of valuable heritage materials and cultural objects “is likely to increase” as post-pandemic inflation continues to affect commodity prices, a concern faced by museums globally. Just last Wednesday, two men stole the entire collection of antique silver from the Doesburg Silver Museum in The Netherlands.

“Sadly, the best advice I have for my clients is: don't rely on the police to come to the rescue, and get yourself a good insurance policy,” Marinello said. “I often find the need to remind the U.K. police that their mission is ‘to serve and to protect’ victims and the public, not themselves and their institution.”

Under the current system, complex cases can stall when local forces lack specialist investigators or forensic capacity. The government says the new national force would fix that by centralizing skills, intelligence and technology.

“Criminals are agile and unrestricted by geographic boundaries,” the white paper said. “We need an organizational platform that gives the police the same degree of agility.”

One proposed reform that could affect art crime investigations is the consolidation of police forensics.

The British government estimated that there are 4,000 police forensic practitioners in the country with budgets totaling about £550 million annually. Still, about 20,000 devices are currently awaiting forensic analysis nationwide, slowing investigations across the board.

“The current, fragmented system where each of the 43 forces decide how to deliver and fund forensics individually means efficiencies of scale are lost, administrative costs are higher than they need be and it is slower than it should be to identify and drive adoption of promising new techniques,” the report said.

In art crime cases, digital forensics of phones, emails, digital invoices, online listings, and encrypted chats often uncover key evidence linking stolen objects to organized networks.

“It will enable local officers to spend more time supporting victims of crime… rather than navigating the forensics system,” the Home Office said.

The white paper also promises a major expansion of surveillance and data tools, including artificial intelligence and live facial recognition, with the establishment of a new National Centre for A.I. in Policing. The government also plans to roll out dozens of live facial recognition vans nationwide and link data sources more quickly across forces.

For art crime, that could mean faster identification of suspects caught on museum cameras, better tracking of repeat theft crews, and improved analysis of online marketplaces where stolen objects are sold.

But it has raised concerns of government overreach and police surveillance. Critics warn that high-profile surveillance deployments can divert resources from slower, labor-intensive investigations such as cultural property trafficking and provenance research.

The effects of the proposed reforms for art crime could be profound: fewer jurisdictional gaps, faster forensic work, and stronger national oversight — or a system that continues to overlook a growing, high-value niche of crime.

“Criminals! Rejoice! This is your day,” Art Recovery International said in a post to social media. “Come to the U.K., where your businesses can thrive.”

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