Christopher Marinello of Art Recovery International

Christopher Marinello is to launch a new database devoted to art recovery and research on the 19th January 2015.  This new business, Art Recovery International,  is to specialise in art recovery, resolving complex title disputes, due diligence and provenance research.  If a dealer. auction room or collector wants to check out an artwork then the database service claims to offer the widest research available into potential obstructions to clear title.  Increasingly, it is no longer enough to claim ignorance when buying artworks with suspect title or provenance and obligations are increasing on buyers to conduct more due diligence than in days gone past.  Switzerland, for example, a former leading country for finalising art transactions of artworks with unclear provenance, now imposes stringent obligations on buyers to conduct rigorous due diligence such as…..obtaining a clean bill of health from Art Recovery International prior to completion.

The database is growing by 5,000 items a week at present incorporating as many sources as possible including Interpol, police databases and WWII thefts.  Four services are offered for a variety of fees including:- collection management, instant alerts, registration of items and a search facility.

Christopher Marinello said: “We are extremely proud of the ArtClaim Database and the progress that it represents for this area of the art market. As the issues attached to objects grow in complexity there has to be a solution that is able to adapt in identifying them. Our ArtClaim database has been developed to meet both the needs of the current market and those of the future – a future in which we aspire to be assisting every significant art transaction in the world.”

The current market leader for this type of service is the Art Loss Register where Marinello has worked for the last 7 years as General Council.  The Art Loss Register, based in Hatton Garden, London, was formed in 1991.  Marinello clearly thinks he can do better and would seem to be in direct competition with his former employer.

According to the Art Loss Register the top ten artists for stolen artworks with amounts stolen are:-

1. Pablo Picasso                    1,147

2. Nick Lawrence                  557

3.  Marc Chagall                   516

4.  Karel Appel                      505

5. Salvador Dali                   505

6. Joan Miro                        478

7. David Levine                   343

8. Andy Warhol                  343

9. Rembrandt                       337

10. Peter Reinicke              336