Heritage Board Publishes Database of Hijacked Valuables

Religious heritage stolen

Published on 30 June 2011

Author(s): Estonian Public Broadcasting/Erkki Sivonen

Type:  News

Encouraged by dealers and collectors, art museums were long willing to overlook the looting of antiquities

The agency's registry of valuables, which had until now been restricted to official use only, lists approximately 14,000 items. According to the latest inventory, 598 of the listed objects, mostly devotional items, were reported stolen.

The first recorded cases of theft date from the 1970s, with major surges in looting of church fittings occurring in the early 1990s, in 1999 and in the 2006 to 2007 period.

Predominant among the stolen items are candleholders, Orthodox icons and Lutheran ceremonial silverware. However, the list contains even such hefty treasures as church bells.

The idea of publishing the database, which includes photos, was to give police, border guards, and customs officials, as well as private traders and collectors, a convenient tool for establishing the legitimacy of the antiques they are dealing with. The Heritage Board says its inspectors have so far reclaimed about a dozen stolen items with the help of the photo database.

A silver communion chalice gone missing from the Nissi parish churh in Lääne County.jpg
A silver communion chalice gone missing from the Nissi parish churh in Lääne County (Photo: Courtesy Muinsuskaitseamet)

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