Neil Brodie has recently released a draft version of a paper on ‘The market in Iraqi antiquities 1980-2008’ which makes interesting reading as it discusses the fluctuations in the antiquities trade against the political background and in particular various UN resolutions. In the period August 1990 to April 2003, despite sanctions, "the quantities of unprovenanced artefacts being offered for sale did not diminish, in fact if anything they increased in the years running up to 2003" (page 2). He notes (p. 3) that:
Since April 2003, the sale of unprovenanced Iraqi artifacts at public auction in New York and London has stopped entirely, perhaps because of the widespread negative publicity that followed on from the break-in at the National Museum, orI was taken by Brodie's attempt to analyse the economic aspects of the sales. Despite their absence from the major auction houses however trade of Iraqi goods had not stopped (p. 4).
because of UNSCR 1483. The fact that unprovenanced Iraqi artifacts suddenly disappeared from the auction market after the adoption of this resolution is an important one as it suggests that before 2003 a large part of the unprovenanced material on the market really had been illegally exported. Otherwise, it could
have continued to be sold quite openly after that date without contravening UNSCR 1483
After 2003, outside the auction market, Iraqi artifacts continued to be openly traded on the Internet. On one day – 5 December 2006 – there were at least 55 websites offering antiquities for sale and that might have been expected to sell Iraqi objects. In fact 23 of those sites were offering for sale or had recently sold cylinder seals and/or cuneiform tablets. In total there were 78 cylinder seals and 137 cuneiform tablets listed (Table 1). […] Hardly any of the cuneiform tablets were advertised with a verifiable provenance.This tendency was also discussed here. Brodie noted (p. 4) that the Internet market had apparently increased in volume between 2006 and 2008.
It would be good if you'd rotate that photograph 90 degrees clockwise, Paul.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year!
-Chuck-
Thanks Chuck,
ReplyDeleteI should have said that my attention was drawn to this report by the excellent and informative Iraq Crisis List run by Chuck from the University of Chicago https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/arc/iraqcrisis/2009-01/msg00000.html
All the best to you and the list in 2009.
I'll pretend the mis-orientation of the image is intended as symbolic of the priority attached by collectors to the aesthetic aspects rather than the information content of the artefacts they accumulate no-questions-asked and the loss of context of the commodified archaeological evidence.