Lot 448: A documentary on the battle to recover Italy’s stolen artifacts

Lot 448, is a new documentary premiering at this year’s virtual Tribeca Film Festival sponsored by Bulgari.

Named by the festival sponsor as a Female Trailblazer, the film’s creator, Lynda Albertson, is a forensic scientist and CEO of the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). Her forensic work provides evidence on whether an artwork has been stolen and this allows law enforcement in different countries to pursue legal cases.

For Italy, which is bursting with ancient artifacts and artwork, her work is very crucial especially since there is a black market worth $6 billion working against her and her team.

In the documentary, she has 5 days to try and stop the auction of an Etruscan artifact at Christie’s auction. She does enlist the help of Illicit Trafficking Analyst Alessandrini at the Etruscan necropolis. the odds seem to always be stacked against them however, there is always optimism, “Well you must only change the mentality of the collectors and museums and so it’s very easy,” says Alessandrini.

Tatenda Chitima