Cross-cutting nuclear science and technology based forensic tools to improve effectiveness of crime prevention and control

The IAEA is leading international efforts towards the development and utilization of nuclear analytical techniques for the preservation of cultural and natural heritage. One of the global problems to tackle is illicit trafficking of cultural property. Such criminal activities cover theft of cultural property from museums, illicit excavation and looting of archaeological sites and illicit transfers in ownership. One of the main approaches to control the illegal market is authentication and provenance of heritage objects. 
Provenance refers to the origin of an object including how and when it was made, which raw materials were used and what is their origin, chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a heritage object. By tracing an object’s provenance, one can gain insights not only into its physical journey but also the socio-cultural contexts that shaped its existence.  
Accelerator-based and other nuclear analytical techniques that use, e.g., X-rays, ions and neutrons as probes are versatile tools to characterize and date heritage objects. This CRP fosters the authentication and provenance of cultural heritage objects using accelerator-based analytical techniques as core technology complemented with other nuclear and non-nuclear techniques.
This CRP aims to develop a synergistic approach for improved authentication and provenance of heritage objects from historical, artistic, societal, raw material, composition and structure, manufacturing technology and legal point of view for their protection and preservation.
The primary target of authentication and provenance of cultural heritage objects subject to:
- Forgery, faking and looting;
- Illicit trafficking;
- Return or repatriation of heritage objects.
The synergistic approach would require close collaboration of nuclear scientists with archaeologists, curators, art historians, humanities, heritage scientists, art dealers, as well as forensic and law enforcement experts for crime prevention and control. Strong emphasize will be given to interpret the analytical results with societal context what would require research and development of these techniques through novel collaboration approaches to be supported by the CRP.
- Authentication and provenance of heritage objects subject to forgery, faking and looting;
- Authentication and provenance of heritage objects subject to illicit trafficking;
- Authentication and provenance of heritage objects subject to return or repatriation;
- Development of cross-disciplinary methodologies, reference database and analytical protocols for interoperability and improved authentication and provenance of heritage objects across the project workpackages.