The Art Loss Register is the closest thing the art market has to a title search, and it costs less than dinner. A striking number of buyers spending five figures on a painting have never run one.
What follows is what it is, what it covers, what it does not, how to run a search, and the other databases that professionals use alongside it. It is one step in a wider verification process, but it is the step most often skipped and the easiest to complete.
What the ALR Is
A private company operating the largest commercial database of stolen, missing and looted art, antiques and collectables — on the order of 700,000 items. It runs roughly 400,000 searches a year on behalf of more than 130 subscribing auction houses, dealers and museums.
Its function is title rather than authenticity: it tells you whether a work is subject to a registered claim, not whether it is genuine. The two overlap, though, because a documented ownership chain is among the best evidence of authenticity available — which is why due diligence on the object, the transaction and the parties is properly treated as one exercise rather than three.
When a search returns a match, the sale stops until the claim resolves. When it returns nothing, the ALR issues a certificate recording that fact.
What You Need to Run a Search
Dimensions matter more than people expect. Artists repeat compositions, and two works of the same title by the same hand may be distinguishable only by size — which means a vague measurement can produce a false clean result.
What a Clean Certificate Does Not Mean
It means the work does not appear in the databases searched. It does not mean the work was never stolen.
A theft never reported to any register will not appear. Nor will a work recorded only on a national or specialist database outside the ALR’s reach. Nor will an object looted long before modern record-keeping. The certificate is a negative result, not a guarantee, and anyone presenting it as proof of clean title is overstating it.
Its real value is evidentiary. In most jurisdictions good-faith purchase confers some protection on an innocent buyer — but good faith has to be demonstrable. A dated certificate is the document proving you looked, and that is worth considerably more than the fee.
Who Runs the Search
Ask the seller whether a check has been run and request the certificate. Dealers frequently have one already, and providing it costs them nothing.
On a private sale from a non-dealer source, the responsibility falls to you. And in either case, keep your own copy. A certificate held only by the seller is of no use to you in five years’ time.
The Other Databases
For a high-value or historically significant work, professional practice is to search across several registers rather than relying on one.
Interpol Works of Art covers cross-border theft records held by law enforcement globally. Carabinieri TPC, Italy’s specialist cultural heritage command, maintains the essential database for Italian cultural property. The Commission for Looted Art in Europe holds Holocaust-era claims records, alongside resources such as the Getty Research Institute’s digitised archives and the Jeu de Paume records for works plundered under the Nazi regime. UNESCO resources cover conflict-zone looting.
Some provenance research firms offer multi-database searching as a single service, which for a significant acquisition is usually the efficient route.
Record What You Did
Log the date of the search, the databases queried and the result. File it with the invoice, the condition report and the correspondence.
That file is now part of the work’s provenance, and it passes to the next owner. A collection with organised documentation is worth measurably more than the same objects without it — and the most common failure in private collections is not fraud but attrition, records living in email attachments until context is lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Art Loss Register?
A private company running the world’s largest commercial database of stolen, missing and looted art — around 700,000 items — conducting roughly 400,000 searches a year for over 130 subscribing auction houses, dealers and museums.
How much does an ALR search cost?
Single-item searches are modest, and a certificate is issued when no match is found. Fees are revised periodically, so confirm current pricing with the ALR directly.
Does a clean ALR certificate guarantee good title?
No. It confirms the work does not appear in the databases searched. Unreported thefts and works registered elsewhere will not show. Its principal value is as evidence of due diligence.
Should the buyer or seller run the search?
Ask the seller first and request the certificate. On private sales from non-dealers the responsibility is the buyer’s. Either way, keep your own copy.
Which other databases should I check?
Interpol Works of Art, Carabinieri TPC for Italian material, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe for Holocaust-era claims, and UNESCO resources for conflict-zone objects.
Part of our series on provenance and authentication. See also: how to verify art provenance, nine provenance red flags, and how to read a condition report.
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