Big Brother is watching - you better watch out… Item Number: 100040 $0.00

DescriptionI am not a conspiracy theory nut, but I have friends and family who watch Jessie Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory religiously (an American TV show of dubious cultural value to see what various members of the US government are up to). Ventura subscribes to the theory that the US was behind the 9/11 attacks and that the government is closely watching all of us to see what nefarious deeds we may be up to. In some cases the attention is probably justified, but if they happen to be watching me, I think they will get bored rather quickly – in my teens and twenties I had many exciting moments, but today? Not so much… not really.

Suffice it to say there are many elements about the world of antiquities the feds seem to be watching pretty carefully, not only by the dealers selling the items, but by default, the clients who purchase them, as well. Artemis Gallery is/always has been fanatical in making sure that items we buy and sell are 100% legal to sell, and as the laws become more muddled, it’s always best to err on the side of caution and do the right thing. We know several online ancient art dealers who’ve been on the radar screen of the US Customs Department for years, and yet they continue to do business. But now we are now hearing a few stories of a new arm of the FBI. Called the FBI’s Art Crime Team, these 13 law enforcement officers are tasked with watching over all illicit trafficking in illegal art – whether it be a modern sculpture or a looted Iraqi artifact.

Over the last month we have heard of two instances where this Art Crime team has already affected the sale of ancient artifacts. In one case, a grouping of cuneiform tablets was removed from a Los Angeles dealer’s inventory. We do not know if the seizure was justified, or if this was an effort to confirm the provenance of these objects; either way, the Art Crime team seized the goods.

Yesterday we heard of another instance of an action by this same group. A Peruvian artifact was seized after the conclusion of the Bonham’s auction in San Francisco because it was thought to be from Sipan. By definition, if a site was excavated after the signing of the UNESCO Treaty, any artifact coming from this site into the US would be illegal (Sipan was first excavated in 1990). As it turns out, the piece in question actually came from Sican, a site known decades before UNESCO. The piece actually had good provenance in the US back into the late 1940s, but was improperly seized because of erroneous information.

We have also been made aware that a recent auction in Europe was virtually closed down when the Ecuadoran government requested AND WAS GIVEN approval to confiscate a large collection of ancient Ecuadoran pottery items. There is no proof these items were obtained illegally, but that fact does not seem to matter all that much these days.

Perhaps this FBI group and various world governments are not perfect; but it does show the continued need for all dealers and collectors to be ever vigilant in the acquisition of their ancient art holdings. Do not mess around with this stuff, but only from known and trusted sources! If you are an eBay buyer, do not buy anything from outside the US, unless it comes with stellar, written provenance – and do not buy anything from South America under any circumstances! If you are buying from a dealer, get specific provenance. And get it in writing. There are still too many dealers who mess around with illegal goods, and for the life of me I do not know why. There is an abundance in this country of good, old collection material. My mantra is – If you don’t look good in (prison) stripes, don’t mess around!

Happy collecting!

Bob Dodge