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pretty shocking to see a household name like Sothebys involved. you would think they would want to distance themselves from trafficking so that their customers
by pharmakom 3y ago
pretty shocking to see a household name like Sothebys involved. you would think they would want to distance themselves from trafficking so that their customers can buy with confidence. a good brand reputation is extremely hard to build and very easily lost.
- GrumpyNl 3y agoWhenever there is money to be made, people corrupt. Why do you think Sothebys would be any different?
- w5yqw3y 3y agoSome customers might see it as a positive attribute if anything. Viewing it as signaling they might be able to acquire items that would otherwise be impossible to obtain.
- wl 3y agoThis is far from the first time someone has pointed out that Sothebys is selling looted antiquities with bogus provenance. It's no secret that virtually the entire antiquities market is guilty of these kinds of things. If you listen to experts in this material outside the institutions that participate in this market, the unanimous message is: don't buy antiquities. The buyers who continue to participate in it are either willfully ignorant or they just don't care.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoReally? There's no way to buy bonafide, genuinely traceable, antiques?
- wl 3y agoPretty much. The lawful flow of antiquities almost entirely ceased when the UNESCO 1970 Convention came into effect in 1972. Even stuff that was lawfully excavated and exported prior to then often has sketchy documentation showing provenance or no documentation at all. Thus, the standards for provenance documentation are low and easily taken advantage of by people peddling looted antiquities with fabricated documentation. Yes, sometimes institutions will deaccession antiquities with impeccable provenance going back to when it was taken from the ground, verifiable through catalogs and other records held by third parties. That's not most of the market.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoHow does one find the auctions or sellers for the latter type of antiques that are well documented?
- hannob 3y agoI'm no expert in art or antiquities. The only reason I even know the name "Sotheby's" is because it was mentioned in a John Oliver piece about stolen antiquities. So as a layman I can tell you: The only reason I know Sotheby's is in the context of this.
- banannaise 3y agoMajor auction houses have been involved in a whole lot of fraudulent and/or shady dealing. It's essentially part of their business model.