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ART LOSS REGISTER ANNOUNCES ART LOSS HELPLINE (877 ART LOSS) FOR LOSS ADJUSTERS OF MEMBER INSURANCE COMPANIES
The Art Loss Register (ALR) today announced the launch of the Art Loss Helpline (SM) (877 ART LOSS) for adjusters from Member insurance companies to access the ALRs expertise in losses relating to art, antiques or collectibles. The call is toll free and the service is included as part of the annual membership of any Member company.
PRESS RELEASE
Release: Immediate
Contact: David Shillingford
(212) 297-0941
dshillingford@ALRny.com
http://www.artloss.com
ART LOSS REGISTER ANNOUNCES ART LOSS HELPLINE(SM) (877 ART LOSS) FOR LOSS ADJUSTERS OF MEMBER INSURANCE COMPANIES
New York -- Monday 17th March, 2003 -- The Art Loss Register (ALR) today announced the launch of the Art Loss Helpline (SM) (877 ART LOSS) for adjusters from Member insurance companies to access the ALRs expertise in losses relating to art, antiques or collectibles. The call is toll free and the service is included as part of the annual membership of any Member company.
Through registering and recovering millions of dollars of stolen property such as paintings, sculpture, clocks & watches, furniture, silver, jewelry, musical instruments and collectors items since 1991 the ALR has developed a valuable and unique source of expertise and information. The ALRs staff are trained art specialists and linguists with art trade experience and close contact with specialist independent adjusters, appraisers and auction houses. This expertise can now be easily accessed through the Art Loss Helpline (SM) to help adjusters register a theft with the ALR or to seek advice or referral on any kind of art loss.
About Art Theft and the Art Loss Register
Art is most frequently stolen during residential burglaries where the art is not the primary target but is removed during the theft of other items such as money, non-unique jewelry or electronic goods. According to statistics from the Bureau of Justice there were 13.7 million thefts of property in the US in 2001. Thefts where art is the target are rarer and usually from galleries or museums but account for most high value thefts. The ability of law enforcement to recover such property is limited through the relatively low priority of such crime, a lack of expertise in art and little or no data on police computers that would allow an item to be identified. The largely private and unregulated nature of the art market has also made the recovery of art more difficult than, for example, autos where title documents are mandatory and vehicle ownership history searches commonplace.
In 1991 the Art Loss Register (ALR) was established to provide an international solution to this problem. Since 1991, the ALR has registered over 120,000 unique stolen items -- most with images. ALR specialists search over 300,000 items against the database each year. The searches may be of auction house catalogues or as a result of an inquiry by a museum, art dealer or by law enforcement. Through the development of this database and the necessary expertise, the ALR has helped insurers and owners have recovered over $100 million of property.
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