How the register works

A worldwide register, free and with no user accounts, of pieces that have been stolen, lost in transit or gone missing. It serves two purposes: so that anyone who sees a piece for sale can check whether it is registered, and so that its owner finds out if someone has seen it.

It is run by Kantei.eu, a site devoted to the Japanese sword, but any related object can be registered. Listings are published openly, with the photos and the details that make it possible to recognise the piece, and never with the owner’s details.

Each published listing is announced in neutral wording: “Reported as stolen”, “Declared lost in transit” or “Declared missing”. It is what the owner has declared and reported; it is not a verdict.

The owner of the piece, or anyone acting on the owner’s behalf (a relative, an heir, a lawyer, a museum). On registering, a statement of responsibility is signed: that what is said is true and that one has the right to do it.

To publish a listing we need a police report number or, if the piece was lost in transit, the number of the formal claim made to the transport company, together with the police force or the company and the country. Only the number: we never ask for or keep the report document.

There are no accounts or passwords. Each registration receives its own reference (stln-…) and a secret key, which reach you by email; with them and your email address you can open your registration whenever you like.

Any related object: nihontō (Japanese swords), fittings (tsuba, fuchi-kashira, menuki, kozuka…), non-Japanese swords and other related objects.

Photos are required according to the type. For a nihontō, the tang (nakago) on both sides and the whole blade: the tang is what identifies a blade best, because the signature, the file marks and the holes cannot be changed without leaving a trace. For a fitting, the front and the back. For any other sword, the whole blade.

Only nihontō and fittings are compared every day with what is put on sale (we explain this further down); all other pieces stay in the public register so that anyone can search for them.

About the piece: the type; the signature (mei) or, if it has none, the attribution and the smith or school; the measurements (for a blade, nagasa, sori, motohaba, sakihaba, kasane and nakago; for a fitting, height, width and thickness); the papers from an organisation (which one, the level, the date and its number) and the Japanese registration certificate (prefecture, number and date); the mounting; the photos; and a free description in whatever language you like. All of this is what makes it possible to recognise the piece, and it is published.

About what happened: whether it was stolen, lost in transit or went missing; the month and year, and the country. That is the only thing published about when and where. We ask for the exact place and date in order to review the registration, and they are not published.

About you: your full name, your email address and, if you wish, a telephone number; the number of the police report or claim, who handled it (the police or the transport company) and in which country; and, if you have it, the invoice or a proof of ownership (as a PDF or a photo) and the declared value. None of this is ever published: it serves to review the registration and to be able to notify you.

The papers and certificates are published with their numbers because they are the best fingerprint of a piece: an honest seller who sees that number in a listing will know where they stand.

Published: the reference stln-…, the category in its neutral wording, the type, the signature or attribution, the smith or school, the measurements, the papers and the certificate with their numbers, the mounting, the photos, the month and year, the country and your description, once reviewed.

Never published, in any form: your name, your email address (neither masked nor under an alias), your telephone number, the exact place and date, the police report number or who handled it, the invoice or proof of ownership, or the declared value.

Before saving the photos we remove from them the date, the place (GPS) and any other data they carry inside. Nothing is published either about possible matches with pieces for sale: only the owner is informed of that.

First you confirm the registration with the link you receive by email (it is valid for 24 hours). Once it is confirmed, we review it before publishing it.

The review checks that the details and the photos are consistent with the type of piece, that there is a police report or claim number, that what is going to be published contains no personal data or names of businesses, and that it is not a joke or an advertisement. We also check whether the piece was on sale shortly before the date on which it is said to have disappeared: that need not be a problem, but it deserves a careful look.

An automated assistant carries out a first review. Whatever it is not sure about, anything odd or doubtful, always passes to a person at Kantei.eu, who decides. If a listing is not published, we tell you.

If you later change anything that is published, the listing goes back to review and stops being visible until it is approved again.

Nobody sees anybody else’s email address. Whoever writes from a listing leaves their message and, if they want a reply, their email address; the owner receives the message in their email, but not the email address of the sender.

Before forwarding anything we review it: spam, harassment and messages from anyone offering to “recover” the piece in return for money do not get through. A person looks at anything doubtful.

The owner replies from a link to a Kantei.eu form, not by replying to the email, and their reply goes through the same review before reaching whoever wrote.

Every message that reaches the owner carries this notice: “Kantei.eu has not verified this information. Do not pay, and do not send your details, to anyone who offers to recover it.”

Each listing has three buttons:

• “I have seen it for sale”: the address where it is for sale, what you have seen and, if you want a reply, your email address.
• “I have information”: anything else you know about the piece.
• “Report this listing”: if you think a listing is wrong or unlawful (for example, that the piece is yours and was never stolen). We ask for the reason, your name and your email address, and a declaration of good faith. This notice does not go to the owner: a person at Kantei.eu studies it, decides and records the decision, and you receive an acknowledgement of receipt.

And in the section, “Report a suspicious piece”, for when you see for sale something that could be stolen but cannot find its listing: we check it against the register.

Kantei.eu follows every day what is put on sale at specialist businesses. Every day, we compare the nihontō and fittings in the register against it, and also against everything we have seen before, sold items included, when a new registration is confirmed.

We compare paper and certificate numbers, photos, signature, smith and measurements. When the match is almost certain and we confirm it, the owner receives a notice with all the information, including where it is on sale. When it is only probable, a person looks at it before deciding whether to notify.

We never contact the business or the seller, and we publish nothing about a match: what to do about it is for the owner to decide, together with the police.

In “Access my registration” you enter your email address, the reference and the key: all three. If any of them does not match, you do not get in, and we do not tell you which one is wrong. After several failed attempts in a row, that reference is closed for an hour.

Inside you can see everything you registered, correct it, see the messages that have reached you, mark the piece as recovered or withdraw the registration.

If you lose the key, in “Recover access” you enter your email address and we send, only to that address, your references with new keys; the previous ones stop being valid. The website answers the same whether or not that email address is in the register.

We store the key in such a way that not even we can read it: we can only check whether the one you enter is the right one.

• The confirmation link is valid for 24 hours; a registration that is not confirmed is deleted entirely after 48 hours, together with its photos.
• Every year we ask you by email to confirm that the piece is still missing; if you do not reply within 30 days, the listing is withdrawn.
• When you withdraw the registration, mark it as recovered or it is not published, your data are kept for 6 months and then everything is deleted.
• Messages from the public are deleted after 90 days.

We use your data only for the register: to review the registration, to notify you and to let you manage it. We do not pass them on to anyone or use them for anything else.

We do not store anybody’s IP address. Against automated programs, each form asks your browser for a small calculation that is solved on our own server, with no third-party services and no cookies.

You can view, correct or withdraw your registration whenever you like from “Access my registration”. For anything else about your data, the legal notice explains your rights and how to exercise them.

• Report the theft to the police as soon as possible and ask for the piece to be included in Interpol’s database of stolen works of art, which is where the police of other countries look for it.
• Interpol has a free app, ID-Art, for consulting that database from your phone.
• The Art Loss Register, a private register of stolen works consulted by auction houses and dealers, charges €17.50 per registered object and 5% only if the piece turns up.
• Keep the photos, the invoice and the papers or a copy of them: they are what proves that the piece is yours.
• If anyone offers to recover it in return for money, do not pay and do not send any details: tell the police.

• We do not contact businesses or sellers.
• We do not publish personal data or matches.
• We do not verify ownership of the pieces in law.
• We are not the police and we do not act as intermediaries in recoveries.
• We charge nothing: the register is free.
• We do not guarantee that a piece will turn up.
• We do not recommend paying anyone to recover it.