What is this – 1984? Item Number: 100045 $0.00

DescriptionIf you are a dealer in antiquities and ancient art, 2011 is beginning to feel a lot like Orwell’s 1984. Big-brother seems to be watching all of us, from every angle, all the time. Since late last year and early into this year, we have seen Skinner’s in Boston eliminate all of the Pre-Columbian art from their Native American and Ethnographic sale, a smaller auction house in upstate New York cancel an entire auction due to issues relating to cultural patrimony (on a collection reputed to have been in the USA for more than 60 years), an antiquities dealer in CA pull several cuneiform biscuits from its site, and most recently, ourselves contacted by the Embassy of Costa Rica asking that we refrain from selling off items of their cultural patrimony from our last auction.

When will this nonsense end? Last night I had a long conversation with Walt Knox, friend and fellow dealer, about this issue. We are among a large list of dealers of ancient art who try to do everything by the book – even though ‘the book’ has yet to really be written, or at least disseminated to any dealer I know. We do not fly to seedy international locales buying from guys in dark alleys – in fact most of us no longer have to travel anywhere to buy our wares because they come to us all the time from broke Americans. We do not buy from folks in Peru, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iran, Iraq, etc. based off crappy photos that flood us daily from the internet. When a collection is presented to us – again something that happens daily – we ask the right questions, keep fine notes and get documentation every chance we can. Walt and I agree, that until legitimate dealers get a backbone and stand up to this insanity, these countries (often with the help of our own governmental agencies!) will continue to try to intimidate us into handing over items of cultural patrimony out of fear and not based on any legal basis.

Personally, I think it’s time to pull together the American Antiquities Dealers version of the million-man march on Washington - assemble all the antiquities dealers we can, paint signs that visually communicates our discontent and then march arm-in-arm down Pennsylvania Avenue until we are noticed and our plight is addressed. Of course, this would all be for naught because nobody in Washington really knows (or cares) about the plight of antiquities dealers and collectors, yet seemingly, like thieves in the night, foreign countries continue to escalate their attack on reputable sellers (and even collectors!), exerting their muscle via fear.

In the United States, wondering if a piece of ancient art is illegal is not grounds for search and seizure. An artifact item residing in the US without clear written provenance is assumed legal unless there is concrete evidence to the contrary (we have discussed this before, but before 1970 almost no one documented their collections. You could move virtually anything across borders with complete freedom). As such, the burden of proof is upon these foreign countries - they must prove, beyond doubt, that the items in which they have an interest were smuggled into the US illegally . In 99% of the cases, the foreign embassies have absolutely no basis for their claims. Remember this. Know your rights.

Happy (and legal) collecting!
Bob