The Value of Unprovenanced Antiquities

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antiquities, archaeology, art market, artefact, artifact, collecting, cultural preservation, excavation, looting, provenance, research, value

“Regarding the issue of unprovenanced antiquities: surely even without substantiated provenance, there is still some factual knowledge to be derived– the approximate age of the item, for instance, and its general geographic origin? As a layperson in this area, I understand the additional value of confirmed provenance, but should that also mean that an item lacking provenance has no value at all?”

This was a great question in response to my last post, discussing a magazine editorial on scholarship, ethics, and artefacts lacking in proper archaeological provenance. (An unprovenanced artefact is one with an incomplete or unscientific record of its origin). The one-sentence answer is yes, there is always something to be gained from any existing piece. The more complete, complex answer has to do with the importance of knowledge and the nature of scientific inquiry. In archaeology, consider provenance another word for context. The moment something is pulled out of the ground, 90 percent of its meaning is lost.

Unprovenanced Artifacts—Publish or Perish?

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antiquities, archaeology, art crime, art market, artefact, artifact, authenticity, Biblical Archaeology Review, Biblical Archaeology Society, collecting, cultural preservation, excavation, provenance

Click to read the editorial

This editorial from the most recent issue of Biblical Archaeology Review does an excellent job of summarizing the concerns raised by studying artefacts that were inadequately, improperly, or even illegally excavated. Within this example, comparing two scholarly books, author Hershel Shenks outlines every major problem currently being debated; I highly recommend it as a brief introduction to a typically abstruse discussion.

What to Do with Unprovenanced Artifacts—Publish or Perish?

New Year, New Questions

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art crime, Einstein, interdisciplinary, Markham Caerus, provenance, quote, research

Click to visit the Gallery of Stolen Art on Pinterest

My first few months on A Year in Provenance have been mostly devoted to sharing information, plus a few personal ideas. This year, perhaps the goal should be to make things more personal. The starched collar of academic training will always wrap ’round its disciples’ work, demanding loyalty to the objective fact, free from private feelings and bias; in an academic setting, that is its strength. But a blog is a different animal— its strength is in its flexibility, its presence in everyday life, and its possibility of rapid and diverse dialogue. I want to explore more of these features this year.

What Provenance Doesn’t Do

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archaeology, art, art crime, artefact, artifact, conservation, cultural heritage, cultural preservation, museum, provenance, research, restoration

After the complexity of explaining the scale of art crime, the impact on art and archaeology, and the difficulty of solving the resultant problems, the next challenge is explaining the limits of art crime research. Provenance is only one of the fields critical to preserving the material culture of the past—conservation, restoration, and scholarship are also essential. All are specialties within other specialised fields, and they can overlap, be compartmentalised, be blurred together, and be at odds as only facets of the academic world can. Even for people in that world, it can be confusing.

The Impact of Art Crime II: Cultural Loss Is Forever

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antiquities, archaeology, art, art crime, art market, art theft, art trafficking, artefact, artifact, cultural heritage, cultural preservation, in situ, looting, provenance

In economics, there is a model called the broken window fallacy. The example is a thug that breaks a store window: a new window, supplies, and labour all have to be expended to repair the damage, none of which would have happened without that crime. Money is spent, things are happening; doesn’t that stimulate the economy? Two seconds’ thought shows the absurdity; destruction is not productive, and crime does not create prosperity. (If that still seems abstract, imagine being the owner of that store). Now imagine that there were no windows on earth that could replace the broken one. People could offer different kinds of walls, a door installed in the hole left by the window, or a security grill, but there could never again be a window for people to look into.

What Provenance Research Can Do: Looting

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antiquities, archaeology, art crime, art market, art theft, art trafficking, artefact, artifact, cultural heritage, cultural preservation, looting, provenance

Of all forms of art crime, looting of archaeological and historical sites is the most destructive. When an artwork is stolen from a gallery or museum, there is always a risk that the work will be unwittingly ruined, but at least the damage will be limited to a single piece. This is cold comfort when confronted with losing a masterpiece, but by comparison, the loss of a single site is immense. Looters are interested only in what they think will fetch a good price, and will throw away, cut through, or literally bulldoze anything that doesn’t appeal to them.

Problems Peculiar to Art Crime

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art, art crime, art theft, art trafficking, cultural heritage, cultural preservation, excavation, FBI, international law, looting, provenance, repatriation, smuggling

Art is a small world, and art crime a bizarre one. Problems arise in trying to combat it that are negligible or even non-existent in other realms of law enforcement or crime prevention. One uniquely frustrating aspect is scale; perhaps in the era of universal globalisation, trafficking networks crossing continents isn’t surprising, but what is, is the scope of time. Art crimes can drag on over a span of years, from the time a piece is stolen, through the hands of fences and dealers, until it is finally sold; art criminals seem to possess extraordinary patience. The more hapless, small-time criminals often find themselves stuck with a work for years, trying to find a buyer without risking getting caught, while more sophisticated types will deliberately slow negotiations or delivery of an illicit piece to help them fly under the radar. There is evidence that the most experienced traffickers even exploit statutes of limitations, planning ahead for deals to be made only after they can no longer be tried, even if caught.

The Impact of Art Crime I: Thriving Criminal Networks

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antiquities, archaeology, arms deal, art, art crime, art theft, art trafficking, artefact, artifact, international law, looting, museum, narcotics, organized crime, smuggling

An important question commonly asked when people first learn of the theft and looting of art worldwide, is—why does it matter? Art is part of a privileged, elite world, and archaeology is literally ancient history—aren’t there more important problems to address? There are, and reducing art crime can help. Billions of dollars of illicit art and antiquities are trafficked worldwide every year, ranking art crime the third largest criminal endeavour, behind only narcotics and arms dealing. Even conservative estimates place it at fourth, if one edges in money laundering.

What Provenance Research Can Do: Forgery

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antiquities, archaeology, art, art crime, art forgery, art history, artefact, artifact, authenticity, excavation, museum, provenance, research

A surprising and surprisingly clear-cut benefit of a rigourous provenance policy is defence against forgery. Expertise and technical analysis will always be necessary to prove forgery, but provenance can actually help prevent it. In art and especially archaeology, context is critical for determination of authenticity.

What Is Provenance?

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antiquities, archaeology, art crime, art history, art theft, art trafficking, artefact, artifact, cultural heritage, cultural preservation, looting, provenance, repatriation, smuggling

Provenance n. 1. Place of origin; derivation. 2.a) The history of the ownership of an object, especially when documented or authenticated. Used of artworks, antiques, and books.  b) The records or documents authenticating such an object or the history of  its ownership.

Dictionaries are wonderful; they raise as many questions as they answer. Provenance is, in definition, indeed the history or record of a piece, but in practise, provenance is the process of verifying that something hasn’t been stolen. For more than a century, as art and antiquities have become more important, so has the question of their ownership, and it has yet to get any simpler.