16 March 2023
NWO grant for UM research project

Subversive crime through high-value unique goods

Crimes involving high-value unique goods, such as luxury items and works of art, have evolved in one surprising way: where the lure for criminals once lay in stealing or forging such objects, it now lies in transforming them into financialized assets, for instance to obscure transactions, to launder money, or to hide wealth and evade sanctions. To understand exactly how this works and can be prevented, a major new research project called PRICELESS is starting. The project is led by Dr. Christoph Rausch, Associate Professor at Maastricht University and affiliated with the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH), among others. PRICELESS has a budget of 1.3 million euros and is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and partly by public and private partners.