Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T18:32:56.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Through a Glass, Darkly: Long-Term Antiquities Auction Data in Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2019

Neil Brodie*
Affiliation:
Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Email: [email protected].

Abstract:

The antiquities catalogues of major auction houses comprise an accessible long-term source of information about the auction market in antiquities and the market in antiquities more generally. The information contained in these catalogues has been used to investigate the nature and scale of the market and to assess the impact of legal and normative measures of market control. But, by way of two case studies, referencing Iraqi and Cambodian material sold at the New York branch of Sotheby’s, this article argues that, while auction catalogues do provide an invaluable source of information for investigating the antiquities market, it can be misleading. Changing material or monetary statistics might reflect commercial factors unrelated to market control. For more reliable research, long-term auction data should be contextualized with information available from other sources.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Cultural Property Society 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beltrametti, Silvia, and Marrone, James. 2016. “Market Responses to Court Rulings: Evidence from Antiquities Auctions.” Journal of Law and Economics 59, no. 4: 913–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodie, Neil. 2006. “Iraq 1990–2004 and the London Antiquities Market.” In Archaeology, Cultural Heritage, and the Antiquities Trade, edited by Brodie, Neil, Kersel, Morag M., Luke, Christina, and Tubb, Kathryn W., 206–26. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodie, Neil. 2008. “The Western Market in Iraqi Antiquities.” In Antiquities under Seige. Cultural Heritage Protection after the Iraq War, edited by Rothfield, Lawrence, 6374. Lanham, MD: AltaMira.Google Scholar
Brodie, Neil. 2011. “Academic Involvement in the Market in Iraqi Antiquities.” In Crime in the Art and Antiquities World: Illegal Trafficking in Cultural Property, edited by Manacorda, Stefano and Chappell, Duncan, 117–33. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brodie, Neil, and Doole, Jenny. 2004. “The Asian Art Affair: US Art Museum Collections of Asian Art and Archaeology.” In Material Engagements: Studies in Honour of Colin Renfrew, edited by Brodie, Neil and Hills, Catherine, 83108. Cambridge, MA: McDonald Institute.Google Scholar
Brodie, Neil, Doole, Jenny, and Renfrew, Colin, eds. 2001. Trade in Illicit Antiquities: The Destruction of the World’s Archaeological Heritage. Cambridge, MA: McDonald Institute.Google Scholar
Brodie, Neil, and Manivet, Palmyre. 2017. “Cylinder Seal Sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s (1985–2013).” Journal of Art Crime 17: 316.Google Scholar
Chippindale, Christopher, Gill, David W. J., Salter, Emily, and Hamilton, Christian. 2001. “Collecting the Classical World: First Steps in a Quantitative History.” International Journal of Cultural Property 10: 131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Tess. 2011. “Supply and Demand: Exposing the Illicit Trade in Cambodian Antiquities through a Study of Sotheby’s Auction House.” Crime, Law and Social Change 56: 155–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Tess. 2015. “The Lasting Impact of United States vs Cambodian Sculpture.” In Countering Illicit Traffic in Cultural Goods, edited by Desmarais, France, 95106. Paris: International Council of Museums.Google Scholar
Davis, Tess, and Mackenzie, Simon. 2015. “Crime and Conflict: Temple Looting in Cambodia.” In Cultural Property Crime: An Overview and Analysis of Contemporary Perspectives and Trends, edited by Kila, Joris D. and Balcells, Marc, 292306. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, Jerome. 2004. “The Autumn 2003 Antiquities Sales.” Minerva 15, no. 2: 2532.Google Scholar
Elia, Ricardo J. 2001. “Analysis of the Looting, Selling, and Collecting of Apulian Red-Figure Vases: A Quantitative Approach.” In Brodie, Doole, and Renfrew, , Trade in Illicit Antiquities, 145–54.Google Scholar
Gilgan, Elizabeth. 2001. “Looting and the Market for Maya Objects: A Belizean Perspective.” In Doole, Brodie, and Renfrew, , Trade in Illicit Antiquities, 7388.Google Scholar
Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta. 2016. “Looted, Trafficked, Donated and Returned: The Twisted Tracks of Cambodian Antiquities.” In Cultural Property and Contested Ownership, edited by Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta and Prott, Lyndel V., 6481. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiel, Katherine, and Tedesco, Katherine. 2011. “Stealing History: How Does Provenance Affect the Price of Antiquities.” College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics Faculty Research Series Paper no. 11–05.Google Scholar
Lafont, Masha. 2004. Pillaging Cambodia. Jefferson City, MI: McFarland.Google Scholar
Levine, Jane. 2009. “The Importance of Provenance Documentation in the Market for Ancient Art and Artifacts: The Future of the Market May Depend upon Documenting the Past.” DePaul Journal of Art, Technology and Intellectual Property Law 19, no. 2: 219–34.Google Scholar
Levine, Marc, and Martínez de Luna, Lucha. 2013. “Museum Salvage: A Case Study of Mesoamerican Artifacts in Museum Collections and on the Antiquities Market.” Journal of Field Archaeology 38, no. 3: 264–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lobay, Gordon. 2009. “Border Controls in Market Countries as Disincentives to Antiquities Looting at Source? The US-Italy Bilateral Agreement 2001.” In Criminology and Archaeology, edited by Mackenzie, Simon and Green, Penny, 5982. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
Nørskov, Vinnie. 2002. Greek Vases in New Contexts. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, Don. 2008. The $12 Million Stuffed Shark. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Watson, Peter. 1997. Sotheby’s: Inside Story. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Watson, Peter, and Todeschini, Cecilia. 2007. The Medici Conspiracy. New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar