Integrated Systems

Monitoring software for artworks

by Mark Rowe

Some 700,000 artworks, antiques and collectibles are listed on the Art Loss Register database as lost or stolen; clearly works of art are a lucrative area for criminal gangs. It is estimated that, each year, up to £200m worth of stolen objects are sold in the UK, the second largest art market in the world. Hence the need for museum and other owners of such works – often unique and irreplaceable – to keep them safe from thieves, while making them publicly accessible.

Bold Communications monitoring software is used to help protect sites where valuable objects are stored or on display. Bold Gemini integrates intruder, fire, CCTV and access control to ensure that malign activity is quickly detected, validated and an appropriate response taken. New technology is constantly being deployed as attacks become more determined and sophisticated. This includes adding new security solutions to the Bold platform and integrating them at the management software level.

A technology recently added to the Bold platform is from the UK company Fortecho Solutions. Specialising in active RFID for security and environmental monitoring of rare and valuable objects, Fortecho is deployed in museums and galleries, and private residences. Their form-specific multi-functional electronic tags are compact to avoid getting in the way of the viewer experience. Monitored parameters including motion, proximity, tamper, pressure, vibration, temperature, relative humidity and lux can be reported up to 2,880 times per day providing protection 24/7.

Security alerts from the Fortecho solution are presented and handled in the Bold Gemini software in the same format as other alarm and CCTV types, as a solution for integrated control rooms. Bold points out that in a gallery where rare and valuable objects are at risk, each layer of security should interact. Gemini provides a tool to aid that interaction and leave nothing to chance.

Visit www.boldcommunications.co.uk.

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