"Technology, expertise, innovation. Thanks to software to detect websites for narcotics sales and a system for stolen artwork online search, the Carabinieri win Innovative Police Force Award. Well done."
Thus Defence Minister Guido Crosetto on the award conferred to the Carabinieri at the Police World Summit in Dubai, an event considered the world's leading congress for police forces and security agencies.
In fact, the international “Innovative Police Force Award” recognizes the innovation programs of police forces around the world.
In particular, the award acknowledges the merits of the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Command, which is developing the S.W.O.A.D.S. (Stolen Works Of Art Detection System) project for the online detection of stolen works of art.
The Carabinieri have been engaged in the protection of cultural heritage since 1969. Today, much of the legal trade illegal trafficking takes place online. In the art world, with a global market estimated at $36 billion, one-third of transactions take place online, and tools are needed to enable fast, efficient, and quality controls, with automatic search procedures and "smart" algorithms.
An important part of the work to recover Italy's cultural heritage is the possibility to index and consult with agility the entire catalogue of missing assets.
The project aims at enhancing these information assets, which today counts more than 1 million objects to be searched, by using artificial intelligence to seek useful elements.
