Crimes against the cultural heritage are often routine and raise little attention. Sometimes they are deliberately carried out, but they occur mostly through ignorance or lack of caution.

Either way, the consequences are manifest since the physical heritage and also our understanding and interpretation of history are successively weakened. There are many motives for crimes against the cultural heritage, each requiring different measures of prevention.

The Swedish National Heritage Board works on a wide front to address this problem. Some examples of our work are presented below:

Pilot project - cultural heritage crime prevention

In Spring 2009 Gotland's county adminstrative board received a grant towards heritage management from the Swedish National Heritage Board, for a pilot project to deal with the plundering of ancient sites. The project is in collaboration with the National Heritage Board and other concerned authorities and organizations. It should be seen as a preliminary study before effort on a national level to prevent, discover and prosecute cultural heritage crime.

Cultural heritage below the surface

As a means of preventing crime against the maritime cultural heritage we have collaborated with the Swedish National Maritime Museums to create an educational program for coast guards. The first course was held in November 2009. The aim is to improve management of shipwrecks, increase the coast-guards knowledge of how objects taken from wrecks might look, and also improve collaboration with cultural heritage management sectors. At Dalarö Diving Park there is a project run by the Haninge district authorities and the Stockholm county administrative board. The aim is that maritime heritage information may lead to minimal damage to wrecks in diving operations.

Damage by forestry

For several years now, we have taken preventive action with the Swedish Forest Agency in the form of information and instruction, to increase awareness of the damage that may be caused to ancient sites and other valuable cultural remains, when there is ignorance of their location; and to improve the methods of dealing with them in various forestry activities. Together with the Swedish Forest Agency and the county administrative boards in three districts, we are testing a simplified way of informing landowners and foresters on the most suitable action to take, when working close to ancient sites in forests.

Culture Heritage Crime - the book

This book surveys cultural heritage crime in Sweden - from thefts and forgeries to crime involving ancient sites and the plundering of wrecks. With increased knowledge of these crimes perhaps we might be better able to develop preventive action to preserve the cultural heritage. The book is a collaboration between the National Heritage Board, the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) and the Arts Council of Sweden.

Handbook for disaster management and salvage

In Autumn 2008 we issued a "Handbook for disaster management and salvage". The handbook is aimed at management and security officers in museums, archives, libraries, churches and other religious venues, and to trustees of valuable collections and historical buildings. The book focuses on risk-management and responsibility sharing, and provides many practical tips, illustrations and examples from real life.