An artificial intelligence system used by Italy's Carabinieri cultural heritage protection unit has helped identify and recover hundreds of thousands of stolen artworks and historical objects, with a reported total value exceeding $200 million.
Known as SWOADS, the Stolen Works of Art Detection System has been in use since 2023. It compares visual details in images against records of missing cultural objects, helping investigators spot similarities that may be difficult to notice at first glance.
In autumn 2024, officers photographed items at Mercanteinfiera, an antiques fair in Italy, and submitted the images to the system. SWOADS flagged a portrait of a young woman holding a scroll. Investigators matched it to a 17th-century painting of Saint Agnes, taken from the Virgo Potens church in Sulmona about two decades earlier.
The painting had been altered: an image of a lamb in the original had been painted over with a scroll. Despite the change, SWOADS detected similarities in the work's colors and shapes. The artwork has since been returned to the church.
According to the reported figures, the system has helped recover more than 300 large works, including paintings and statues, alongside over 165,000 smaller objects such as coins, letters, and medals. AI-assisted visual analysis could give cultural heritage teams new ways to reconnect objects with their histories and communities.
