ALR, ISO Upgrade Theft Reporting System

By Caroline McDonald

NU Online News Service, Nov. 19, 9:34 a.m. EST?Art Loss Register and Insurance Services Office Inc. said anenhanced property-loss reporting system they have created shouldimprove insurers' ability to recover stolen art objects and otherhigh value items.

Insurers lose millions of dollars each year to property theftand all but a handful of items are never recovered, said NewYork-based ALR.

Up to now, insurance subscribers reporting art losses to the ALRencountered a cumbersome process. "We have struggled to find a wayfor them to easily pass us that information," said DavidShillingford, marketing director for ALR. The company began itspartnership with ISO about two years ago,

Mr. Shillingford said the report can be "quite complex" becauseof the amount and variety of information required, including thename of the artist, the type of art, its dimensions, and "all thethings we need to identify that item when we're looking through anauction house catalogue."

ALR and ISO in partnership have been working with insurersthrough an "arts and antiques" box on their system that whenchecked would generate a report of the missing item which was sentto ALR, Mr. Shillingford said.

The system "was great, but all we got was the information ISOalways gets, which is who the loss victim was and who the insureris," he said. However, "we need to know if it was a painting or asculpture, who made it, and what it looks like."

Mr. Shillingford noted, "the ALR has always been an obviousservice for insurers specializing in fine art insurance but nowinsurers with broader property books can have items registeredthrough the seamless reporting. The new reporting system alsomitigates the need for extensive staff training."

An ALR member insurance company submitting a claim for stolenart and antiques via the ISO ClaimSearch platform will now be ableto provide additional details about any unique item to the ALRwithout having to exit the ISO all-claims platform, he said. An ALRspecialist will review the information and add it to thedatabase.

That database is subject to searches daily by auction houses andlaw enforcement. "We do 300,000 searches a year," he said.

Mr. Shillingford said one of ALR's recent successes includes therecovery of a painting valued at $60,000 by artist Keith Haring,which was reported by an insurance company. The painting wasdiscovered in an auction catalogue listing.

"We're just in the process of sending the insurance company acheck" for the full amount, which the company had previously paidon the claim, he said.

Although named the Art Loss Register, the database hasinformation on stolen items ranging from paintings and prints toporcelain and watches, he said. The ALR has registered more than120,000 unique items?most with images?for insurers andpolicyholders since 1991.

The database is searched by ALR specialists, either for objectsoffered for sale or items that are the subject of a policeinvestigation. Insurers and owners have recovered more than $100million of property through ALR database searches.

Richard P. Boehning, senior vice president of ISO, said thesystem development enhances the value of the ISO ClaimSearchplatform.