APAC Labs in ANCHISE: Protecting Europe's Cultural Treasures

Illicit trafficking of cultural heritage involves the unauthorized removal and trade of artifacts from their places of origin. These stolen artifacts then find their way into the hands of collectors, dealers, and even organized crime groups who profit from their sale on the black market. The illicit trade in cultural artifacts often fuels organized crime and contributes to social instability in affected regions.

The Cyprus Institute’s APAC Labs actively work through the participation in multidisciplinary projects and consortia to develop cutting-edge solutions for combating the illicit traffic of cultural goods. Among the European-funded programs, The APAC Labs team of the Cyprus Institute participates in the ANCHISE project. This groundbreaking initiative aims to address this challenge by offering sustainable solutions to protect Europe's cultural treasures.

ANCHISE focuses on four specific objectives. The project evaluates existing and emerging technologies using user-centric methods to bridge the gap between technological innovations and the market. The project will also implement pilot experimentation areas to understand local contexts, mobilize stakeholders, and demonstrate technology applications. ANCHISE develops advanced imaging and 3D recognition technologies to enhance cultural objects' documentation, recording, and provenance control. Throughout all this work, ANCHISE disseminates project outcomes and engages communities to bridge the gap between innovations and end-users, including law enforcement agencies, museums, archaeologists, art dealers, auction houses, and citizens.  

The APAC Labs team is in charge of several activities in this ambitious cross-European effort. The main objective of the team is to identify a broad range of technologies, tools and methods that can be implemented in the illicit trafficking combat. Moreover, the team will aim to develop a database structure that will be used for data organization and exploitation. The shared database will provide online access, segmented by user’s categories, and will allow for better data and information sharing among the stakeholders involved in the illicit trafficking combat. The shared database will be able to provide access to selected tools to combat illicit trafficking of selected archaeological categories.

The project’s innovative approach lies in its ambition to become the go-to platform for practitioners involved in cultural heritage protection. By integrating cutting-edge technologies with insights from humanities research, the work carried out by the APAC Labs in ANCHISE offers solutions that not only combat illicit trafficking but also deliver high-added value and positive cost-benefit analysis.