RFID and the Arts

Exhibiting Doubts
Virtually all arts institutions appreciate RFID's ability to track and safeguard collections, but many organizations simply can't afford to switch to a technology still viewed by many directors and boards as new and untested. "The promise of the technology is exactly what we need," says Stephen Topfer, collections manager at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, located in Victoria, B.C., Canada. "But we're not a big enough organization that we can afford to devote $50,000 or $100,000 to an experiment."

Many institution officials considering an RFID implementation wonder if the technology is ready to make the jarring transition from pallets, containers and crates to a world of paintings, sculptures and various objets d'art. "I understand how RFID would work in a warehouse or factory environment, but what I need is something that can work with fragile and delicate objects that are often stacked quite close together," Topfer says. "For example, our works on paper are generally stored matted and interwoven with acid-fee tissue in shelves, so there might be 20 or 30 works in a drawer."



Vendors are responding with smaller tags, some as tiny as a grain of rice. ISIS's Green notes, "Passive tags can be extremely small. Active devices, however, may still be too large for many objects."

Environmental factors can also be a problem. Unlike modern, open-floor warehouses and factory floors, many museums and galleries are a maze of rooms, often built with thick, RF-absorbing masonry walls. As a result, providing premises-wide RFID coverage often necessitates the use of large numbers of interrogators, which drives up costs.

Despite the drawbacks, most experts believe RFID is still far more flexible and easier to manage and maintain than most competing technologies, including room-wide motion detectors and manual bar-code scanners. Wireless also offers an advantage over hard-wired sensors. "As I see it, with ever-changing exhibitions and re-hangings in public institutions, the wireless solution is far better than a fixed wire security system," says Charley Hill, former detective chief inspector of Scotland Yard's art theft squad, and currently a private investigator in London.

RFID in Performance
RFID is also beginning to gain traction in music and the performing arts. In an effort to combat theft and fraud, instrument makers, concert organizers, performers and collectors are all now using the technology to track both instruments and people.
San Diego-based custom guitar manufacturer Carvin places an RFID chip into each of its guitars at the start of the manufacturing process. This enables customers to track their instruments throughout their construction. "We've set up stations at key areas of the factory, where all guitars are scanned and [their] location gets recorded in our database," says Mark Kiesel, Carvin's vice president of guitar design and production. Customers can follow their guitar's progress via Carvin's Web-based GuitarTraq service, which provides details on the instrument's progress, from initial assembly through finishing, testing and shipping.

Once the guitar is in its owner's hands, the RFID chip begins working as a security device, allowing the system to scan and indentify the instrument in case it is ever lost or stolen. Like most high-end guitars, Carvin models feature an external serial number plate. "Many times, when someone steals a guitar, that plate will be replaced with a counterfeit copy," Kiesel says. But the RFID chip cannot be easily duplicated. "Police can scan the chip and view the guitar's real ID number, even though the serial number plate has been replaced or defaced," Kiesel says.