Companies are Turning to RFID to save Art from Theft

Art theft is not just the subject matter of crime novels and movies, it’s an everyday reality. In fact, American officials say it’s a business worth 6 billion dollars annually.

This is why everyone involved in the transport of precious works of art, including museums, galleries and logistics companies, can never be too careful when it comes to protecting their wares.

Many companies have turned to RFID as an answer. For example, when an exhibit of paintings, jewels, silver, bronze and ivory was shipped from Dresden to Versailles, the company responsible for the logistics placed an RFID tag on each item and then put the items in air-tight containers.

Since RFID tags can be read without a line of sight, managers could frequently check that the load had not been tampered with. They simply used an RFID reader to automatically identify the contents of the shipment, and the task was finished in minutes.

They were able to make sure the precious objects weren’t missing – and they did it without breaking the seal of the air-tight containers.