The True Way Forward: Cooperation

Archaeological bloggers and others inclined to blame collectors for society's difficulties in "preserving the archaeological record" should realize that the collecting community is not confined to a negative approach discouraging innovation. What follows is a serious proposal, to which much thought has been given, which per best present knowledge would effectively control looting whilst preserving the rights of private collectors.

THE REGULATED LICIT MARKET CONCEPT.

OBJECTIVE

To provide a regulated licit market for artifacts, in which every item traded
has at least a provenience (indicating licit origin).

OPERATION

An international bureau or agency administers the system. It provides
proveniences, releases provenienced artifacts through periodic auctions, manages the market (balancing releases with demand) and polices the system in cooperation with national authorities.

AUCTIONS

At regular intervals (perhaps quarterly) auctions are held to release artifacts
entering the regulated licit market. Only licensed dealers would be allowed to
participate. The auctions could be arranged so that specific types of artifacts
were grouped together in separate auctions, e.g. coins, medals and seals as
distinguished from pottery. It would also be possible to hold these auctions in
different places so that every dealer would be relatively close to at least one
auction per year in his/her field of interest.

DEALERS

To participate in the regulated licit market, a dealer would be required to
obtain a license (after passing an examination to demonstrate knowledge of the
subject, knowledge of regulations and understanding of ethical obligations).
After being licensed, a dealer would accept being restricted to trading only in
provenienced artifacts. A dealer found to have violated regulations or ethical
obligations could be penalized by suspension or loss of license.

PROVENIENCE

A provenience would be a machine-readable physical attribute attached in some secure manner to an artifact. It would be important to make these provenience "tags" both easily readable, and very difficult (and also dangerous) to counterfeit.

COLLECTORS

To participate in the regulated licit market, a collector would be required to
obtain a license (after passing an examination to demonstrate knowledge of the
subject, knowledge of regulations and understanding of ethical obligations).
After being licensed, a collector would accept being restricted to collecting
provenienced artifacts. A collector found to have violated regulations or
ethical obligations could be penalized by suspension or loss of license.

STARTUP

An international commission would be necessary to plan arrangements required to devise an effective system, regarding the agreements necessary to implement it, the agency that would manage it, means for policing its operations and "grandfathering" (issue of proveniences for existing collections and dealer inventory during startup).

GRANDFATHERING

The agency would establish a reasonable time window (at least one year) during which a collector or dealer could acquire a license and have his/her collection or inventory provenienced. After expiry of that window, it would still be possible to obtain provenience upon reasonable evidence of licit origin (to allow for discoveries of artifacts that had been inherited, found in old trunks in attics, etc.) There would be no charge to those being grandfathered.

FINANCE

The proceeds of release auctions would pay for the entire system, with a large
surplus over costs. Proceeds would be divided so that half are returned to the
owners of released artifacts, and half are used to fund operating the system and also to sustain archaeology, museums, conservation of endangered sites and related causes through grants and similar allocations.

MANAGING THE MARKET

This could best be done through a committee of experts which would operate as a sort of "public cartel," whose objective is to ensure a steady supply of
releases, sufficient to stabilize prices in the market but not large enough to
depress prices. A slow rate of price increases, tracking the international
average rate of inflation, would be desirable. The committee would determine
target levels for releases in various artifact categories and then assign quotas
to participating nations. One example of how such a cartel might operate can be found in the diamond trade, but of course there would be differences.

NATIONAL PARTICIPATION

Nations participating in the licit regulated market would be required to manage their antiquities laws so as to conform to an approved model determined during the startup phase. It would be necessary that these laws provide a fair system of compensation to landowners and finders, sufficient to make cooperation with authorities more rewarding than illicit trafficking. Participating nations would also be required to allocate a reasonable supply of redundant artifacts for release to the market. Nations not electing to participate (or not meeting their responsibilities as participants) could face withdrawal of international cooperation in enforcing their antiquities and export laws.

EFFECT ON ILLICIT TRAFFICKING

The effect of a well devised and well managed licit regulated market would be to instantly devalue unprovenienced artifacts, making them difficult to sell and
creating a strong incentive for everyone to cooperate voluntarily with the licit
regulated market. This would be much the same as what happened at the time
Prohibition was repealed in the USA. Although illicit production of and trading
in alcohol did not entirely vanish, it was reduced to the point of being an
easily manageable problem, in contrast to the out of control situation
prevailing during the "Roaring Twenties."