Pooling Resources to Fight Child Abduction

By MELANIE GRAYCE WEST

It is estimated that some 8 million children go missing around the world each year and, in the U.S., a quarter of the roughly 800,000 children reported missing are taken by a family member.

That is what happened to artist Jeff Koons in 1994 when his ex-wife broke a court order and fled with his toddler son, Ludwig, to Italy. "I was awarded custody here and it was not enforced in Italy," says Mr. Koons, 57 years old, who spent years fighting in Italian courts. He ultimately won in court, but "so much time had gone past that it wasn't enforced. I was never able to succeed in getting my son back."

Mr. Koons recalls that there were few resources to turn to for help in navigating the web of laws regarding child abduction and exploitation. He says that throughout the process of regaining custody of his son that he learned that "everything right was made wrong" and that "the rights of children are really overlooked."

In an effort "to maintain a belief in humanity" he set out to create a clearinghouse for other parents with his same situation and to help protect children who are the victims of sexual exploitation, a growing problem around the world.

In 2007, he founded the Koons Family Institute on International Law and Policy at the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, the sister organization to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Over the years, Mr. Koons has funneled some $2.3 million to the institute and this year has pledged artwork that will generate another $2 million for the organization.

Friday marks the International and National Missing Children's Day, a day of awareness of child kidnappings, and the 33rd anniversary of the abduction of Etan Patz, a New York boy who went missing on his way to a school bus stop. (An article on a new development in the case is on A15.)

The ICMEC functions as a nongovernmental organization that advocates for changes in laws, serves as a resource for judges, law enforcement and other government agencies world-wide, and works to create a global network to disseminate images and information about lost children. Mr. Koons's institute is, among other things, a "think tank," he says, that collects data on missing children and works to create replicable legal tools and model laws that protect children from abuse, neglect and exploitation.

Mr. Koons says that part of the problem, at least internationally, is that there isn't good data on the scope of missing children or the number that are exploited. Mr. Koons and his wife, Justine, have many charitable interests ranging from environmental causes to arts education. But the Koons Family Institute is a primary focus for the couple because "children are vulnerable."

"There's a beautiful openness that children have and acceptance of everything in the world around them," says Mr. Koons, who is the father of eight. There was a "freedom" years ago that doesn't exist today. "In any way that we can create a situation of safety for our children, let them have as vast a childhood as possible and have their rights maintained, it's the best for everybody."

Write to Melanie Grayce West at melanie.west@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared May 25, 2012, on page A20 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Pooling Resources to Fight Child Abuse and Abduction.