How One Archaeologist Has Come to Love eBay

The AIA Magazine has an interesting article from an archaeologist who purports to love eBay because it has brought a host of fakes onto the market. See: http://www.archaeology.org/0905/etc/insider.html In essence, he believes that this cottage industry has led to a decline in looting as faking is "easier" than looting and far less likely to attract the unwelcome attention of the local authorities.

The archaeologist in question might be less happy about locals producing fakes if he were the victim of one of the local "entrepreneurs" I have heard about in Turkey. Apparently, they bury high quality fakes on archaeological sites with the hope they will be discovered and treated as genuine. What better way for a faker to prove the "authenticity" of a piece he wants to sell than to be able to point to a similar piece found in a bonafide local archaeological excavation?

And can we really be sure that an archaeologist will be any better than a collector or a dealer in telling a fake from the real thing? In the article itself, the author admits that the owner of a La Paz antiquities shop told him that an antiquity he thought was real was actually a fake. He then goes onto state that "the experts who study the objects are sometimes being trained on fakes. As a result, they may authenticate pieces that are not real." Certainly, none other than Zahi Hawass was apparently recently fooled by what purported to be a "real" Iraqi antiquity. See: http://www.museum-security.org/?p=1453

All in all, archaeologists should be careful what they wish for!

eBay Germany Cancels Ancient Coin Auctions

eBay Germany has cancelled ancient coin auctions under new rules requiring provenance information for even common items deemed to be archaeological in nature. See: http://groups.google.com/group/museum-security-network/browse_thread/thread/c11ad318b0a62d40?hl=en

The allusions to the Third Reich in the above thread may be needlessly inflammatory, but they reflect real frustration with eBay Germany and the authorities' construction of Germany's recent law implementing the 1970 UNESCO Convention. Adding fuel to the fire, one has to also assume that eBay's action is related to the recent seizures of entire coin collections based on the unknowing purchase of just several "suspect coins" on eBay. See: http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-on-german-coin-collection-seizures.html

I am no expert on German law, but based on my experience here in the United States, I do wonder whether the eBay Germany regulations and seizures are based on a fair reading of the governing law or some distorted version of the same being promoted by "hardliners" in the German archaeological community.

Presumably, eBay and the authorities will be called to justify their actions by members of the German numismatic community. We can only wait and see what comes of it.