I was working on comparing some collection histories of a series of artefacts this morning and getting quite engrossed with it... an 'interesting' pattern was emerging. But then I received a request from a colleague not to put the blog post up just yet because they too were working on it (and from what I learnt had got even more than I had at the time - which they shared). The reason given was that if dealers and collections (note the use of that word) get wind that a particular string of words in a collection history is awkward, they will hide the relevant bits of their websites, which we have seen before. This then would get in the way of our research, and also preparing a potential (ahem) case. So I am keeping quiet for now. I'd like to draw attention to one thing they wrote:
"[...] Will keep you and [...] who is also working on this, as soon as I have all the files saved. Wayback is no longer a reliable "home" because more and more people are asking to remove records".
And I have seen that before myself. So now we will have to start archiving material currently stored in the Wayback archives if we want to understand how artefacts are moving through the market. What a disturbing situation.
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