In 1993 the Getty Information Institute initiated a collaborative project to develop an international documentation standard for the information needed to identify cultural objects. The new standard has been developed in collaboration with police forces, customs agencies, museums, the art trade, valuers, and the insurance industry

The contents of the standard were identified by a combination of background research, interviews, and, most importantly, by major international questionnaire surveys. In total, over 1,000 responses were received from organisations in 84 countries. The findings of these surveys — published in Protecting Cultural Objects in the Global Information Society — demonstrated that there was close agreement on the information needed to describe objects for purposes of identification. The result is the Object ID checklist.