The Precolumbian Antiquities Market

Pre-Columbian antiquities are being sold in a large number of venues on the WWW, ranging from Sotheby’s auction house, through Amazon.com and eBay to lower end dealers like the Relic Shack or Riley’s Rocks. Save for their enormous scope, I would classify eBay and Amazon.com as lower end dealers, given the very mixed and generally knickknack nature of what they sell. Both, however, are used by higher end dealers to rid themselves of dubious pieces of little potential monetary value and, also, to lure in people who might well be interested in buying higher priced antiquities. I first encountered Howard Nowes on eBay and then, as invited, went to his own Web site where he displays his more expensive wares and services. However, the very high end of the antiquities business is moving in fast: http://icollector.com in England and http://artnet.com in the US are good examples of sites which advertise and link these dealers’ sites. It is inevitable that other galleries will join them or will form similar sites which facilitate the collector and the dealer in finding out what is on currently on offer. E-commerce has also so far shown itself to be impossible to regulate, something which greatly aids semi-legitimate enterprises such as the selling of antiquities.

That’s the bad news; but it is not all bad. The fact that dealers’ inventories are out in the public venue, generally in full color, can be used to advantage by someone other than dealers and collectors, U.S. Customs, for example. U.S. Customs has established a National Cybercenter from which the WWW is patrolled continually for various classes of contraband, including antiquities. Often Customs is alerted by foreign officials because of cultural property that they have seen on-line. E-commerce goes everywhere and the "donor nations" are also patrolling the Web in the hopes of regaining some of their looted past. Customs can make a seizure/arrest under the provisions of the UNESCO Accord or under the National Stolen Properties Act, if the complaining country has legislation that meets the requirements of either of those documents. Then the material enters the U.S. legal system to establish if it has been imported illegally or stolen.

Unfortunately, the US legal establishment has tended to show itself unwilling or unable to deal appropriately with cases of looting and selling of the past. It is sad but true that our judiciary is often ignorant and racist; even if not, they are elected officials or people who plan to seek office and collectors are generally people of wealth and political power in the community. I have been witness to a number of instances in which US attorneys would not act or the scions of powerful families were not charged in cases where there was unequivocal evidence of guilt. I have also found myself in the extremely uncomfortable position of having to explain to foreign officials that to improve their chances in our courts, they had best send an expert who is tall, light complexioned, and who speaks good English. Male is better than female. This is Realpolitik as observed from the trenches.

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