ISO and Art Loss Register to Improve Recovery Chances of High-Value Stolen Property Through Enhanced Reporting

January 1, 2011 / 2 min read

New York, November 15, 2002 — The Art Loss Register (ALR) and Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO) announced today an enhanced property-loss reporting system that will increase the efficiency of reporting by insurers the theft of high-value stolen property.

Insurers lose millions of dollars each year to property theft and all but a handful of items are ever recovered. The chances of recovering any unique valuable item are increased dramatically if registered on the Art Loss Register (ALR).

ALR member insurance companies submitting a claim for stolen art and antiques via the ISO ClaimSearch® platform will be able to provide additional details about any unique item to the ALR without having to exit the ISO all-claims platform. An ALR specialist will review and include information about the loss in the database.

Although called the Art Loss Register, the database has information on stolen items ranging from paintings and prints to porcelain and watches. The ALR has registered over 120,000 unique items — most with images — for insurers and policyholders since 1991. The database is searched by ALR specialists against 300,000 items each year, either for objects offered for sale or because the items are the subject of a police investigation. Insurers and owners have recovered over $100 million of property through ALR database searches.

David Shillingford, marketing director for the Art Loss Register, noted, "The ALR has always been an obvious service for insurers specializing in fine art insurance, but now insurers with broader property books can have items registered through the seamless reporting. The new reporting system also mitigates the need for extensive staff training.

"The ALR has detected numerous fraudulent art claims and will increase this capability as more losses are registered," he added.

Richard P. Boehning, senior vice president of ISO, said, "This development is further evidence of ISO's commitment to enhancing the value of the ISO ClaimSearch platform for the industry's fight against insurance fraud."

About ISO
Insurance Services Office, Inc., is the premier source of information, products and services related to property and liability risk. For a broad spectrum of commercial and personal lines of insurance, ISO provides statistical, actuarial, underwriting and claims information and analyses; consulting and technical services; policy language; information about specific locations; fraud-identification tools; and data processing. Around the world, ISO serves insurers, reinsurers, agents, brokers, self-insureds, risk managers, insurance regulators and other government agencies. For more information on ISO products, contact ISO at info@iso.com or visit www.verisk.com.

Release: Immediate

Contacts:
Giuseppe Barone / Erica Helton
MWW Group (for ISO)
201-507-9500
gbarone@mww.com / ehelton@mww.com

David Shillingford (Art Loss Register)
212-297-0941
dshillingford@iso.com