Around the world there is growing, broad-based support for the new standard. The Object ID checklist has already been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Persian, Russian, and Spanish.

The tenth meeting of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (Paris 25-28 January 1999) endorsed Object ID “as the international standard for recording minimal data on movable cultural property” and invited the Director General “to bring this recommendation on Object-ID to the attention of the General Conference and to recommend that all UNESCO Member States adopt Object-ID and use it, to the fullest extent possible, for identification of stolen or illegally exported cultural property and international exchange of information on such property” (Resolution 5). Object ID was duly endorsed by the UNESCO General Conference in November 1999.

The Council of Europe has collaborated with the Getty Information Institute on a publication: Documenting the Cultural Heritage. This book, which is available in English and French, brings together the Council of Europe’s core data standard for historic buildings, the Council of Europe/ICOM core data standard for archaeological sites, and Object ID.

Law-enforcement agencies around the world assisted in the development of Object ID and a number of agencies are already using the standard. At the international level, Interpol has included the Object ID checklist — together with an explanatory text — on its CD-ROM of stolen art. In the USA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has adopted Object ID for its art theft database — the National Stolen Art File. In the UK, the Metropolitan Police Service is now using the Object ID checklist to compile descriptions of stolen art and, along with a number of regional forces, is using it in crime prevention initiatives.

It has been established that the Object ID checklist is compatible with the majority of art theft databases, including those of Interpol, the Italian Carabinieri, the Czech Republic, Trace, and the International Art Loss Register. Customs agencies also assisted in the development of the standard, and special thanks are due to the World Customs Organization for undertaking the questionnaire survey of agencies in member countries. The United States Information Agency (USIA) — one of the original partners in the project — has adopted Object ID for its web site database of types of illicitly traded objects.

The involvement of the museum community, and the International Council of Museums (ICOM), in particular, has been very important for the project. In August 1997, the Executive Council of ICOM adopted a resolution put forward by the Council’s Documentation Committee (CIDOC) stating that:

“A museum should be able to generate from its collection information system such data (preferably according to the Object ID standard) that can identify an object in case of theft or looting.”

In The Netherlands, the Inspectorate of Museums is promoting Object ID, and the standard is also being used in a Dutch project that has developed a museum documentation system for use in museums in Mali and Vietnam. In the UK, the Museum Documentation Association — a participant in the project — has made small changes to the SPECTRUM standard in order to make it compatible with Object ID.

A number of insurance companies in Europe and North America are now promoting the standard, including AXA Nordstern Art Insurance, Chubb & Son, General Reinsurance Corporation, Hiscox Insurance, Mannheim Insurance, and Swiss Re.

In 1998 AXA Nordstern Art Insurance, in collaboration with General & Cologne RE and the Getty Information Institute, organized a one-day conference on Object ID in Cologne. The Object ID checklist has been circulated by a number of organisations representing the art trade, including CINOA, the London and Provincial Art Dealers Association, Private Art Dealers Association of Canada, the Association of Dealers in American Art, and the British Antique Dealers Association. Object ID has also attracted support from organisations representing appraisers, and it has already been endorsed by the Appraisers Association of America, the American Society of Appraisers, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in the UK, and the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers (UK).