Why Christie's Thinks It Can Find Buyers for Antiquities Lacking Pre-1970s Provenance

Larry Rothfield, "Why Christie's Thinks It Can Find Buyers for Antiquities Lacking Pre-1970s Provenance", the Punching Bag, Friday, March 14, 2014.

First, not all buyers care whether museums are some day going to be willing to accept donations of their artifacts. They are happy enough to acquire for themselves such beautiful objects, and perhaps eventually even display them in private museums; or they anticipate that eventually some solution to the problem of so-called "orphan" antiquities will be found [...]. Second, the risk of having a repatriation claim brought is a calculated one for any buyer, and depends on several factors that may reduce it substantially [...].