B: "Yes, but the dealer is reputable, so it must be OK, no?
A: "But you don't know where it comes from and how it got on the market. How do you know it's legally obtained?"
B: "I guess I can't, but does it matter? Really? Does it make a difference?".
A: "Well, I am not sure that....
B: "Besides, it's got the effing TOWER OF BABEL mentioned in it!"
B: "Besides, it's got the effing TOWER OF BABEL mentioned in it!"
A: "But every copy of the Old Testament ever printed has too."
B: "Yes, but unlike them, this is a unique object, made by kings for everyone to see.... and will be MINE, nobody else will have one. Don't you see?"
A: "It belongs in a museum".
B" "It will belong to me. It'll be in my museum. My own one. I can show it to people, tell them about it at cocktail parties. I'll be fascinating, admired and envied. I'll get some scholars to write it up for me, and publish it with a big posh, expensive academic publisher, then everybody will know what a treasure I have".
A: "But are the papers the dealer showed you real?"
B: "Who cares? I'll take it, have it wrapped and deliver it with your invoice on Tuesday".
but:
As someone once said a long time ago, 95% of the objects on the antiquities market are stolen/smuggled or fake. Every collector under the sun believes every dealer under the sun that the very object that they have is one of the rare 5%. We might visualise the arrogance and/or self-delusion of that one-in twenty "Canny Collector Model" when it comes to antiquities buying:
B" "It will belong to me. It'll be in my museum. My own one. I can show it to people, tell them about it at cocktail parties. I'll be fascinating, admired and envied. I'll get some scholars to write it up for me, and publish it with a big posh, expensive academic publisher, then everybody will know what a treasure I have".
A: "But are the papers the dealer showed you real?"
B: "Who cares? I'll take it, have it wrapped and deliver it with your invoice on Tuesday".
but:
As someone once said a long time ago, 95% of the objects on the antiquities market are stolen/smuggled or fake. Every collector under the sun believes every dealer under the sun that the very object that they have is one of the rare 5%. We might visualise the arrogance and/or self-delusion of that one-in twenty "Canny Collector Model" when it comes to antiquities buying:
I do not know if Schøyen's stela with its fanciful narrativisation is real or fake, I can't read Norwegian. But the very fact that it is ungrounded immediately raises my suspicions that it very well might be. I also would draw attention to the fact that the potlid fractures that disfigure it are nowhere described or accounted for in his description, yet are pretty effective 'distressing' that add to the impression of an antiquity snatched from the destructive jaws of time. Just what collectors love. A question he'd have done well to address before buying. Also from the photo in his online show-and-tell, the edges of one of them seems to be abraded. So when and how was it created?
1 comment:
Dear PAS,
A: "It's unprovenanced."
B: "Yes, but the detectorist says he's responsible, so it must be OK, no?
A: "But you don't know where it comes from. How do you know it's legally obtained?
B. "Because the detectorist says he's responsible, so it must be OK, no?
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