1. Documentary evidence
Eight months of Dispatches’ undercover journalism “exposing the traffic in looted antiquities” involved interviews with academics, police and dealers, cut with concealed camera footage and scenes of jihadist fighters.
At best it was one-sided – something the Metropolitan Police implied in a subsequent statement to ATG. The Met said it “had no referrals to support the claim that the London art market is experiencing an upsurge in artefacts from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq”.
‘Celebrity campaigning at its best’ was the tenor of most reviews for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s two hours of BBC prime-time. But was it? What began with an uncontested statement that antique ivory contributes to modern poaching ended with the host asking environment minister Andrea Leadsom if the antiques trade’s position was worth hearing in this debate. Our trade associations tried and failed to have a voice on the show – a missed opportunity to shed both light and shade on a complex topic.
2. BADA Auctions
Marco Forgione euphemistically described the first BADA live auction as “journey of discovery”. The July event was designed to beat the auctioneers at their own game, charging members a 15% selling commission with buyers invited to bid premium-free.
However, a marathon seven-hour sale was dogged by technical issues. At the time Forgione said “there will be a second auction – we are absolutely committed to that”. For this bold initiative to work, substantial surgery will be requiried.
3. Copyright confusion
Under a new law introduced in July, 20th century design objects have acquired the same copyright protection as art, music and literature.
Icons of design are now protected until 70 years after the death of the designer, although importantly to the antiques trade, the rule exempts secondary market sales of the vintage ‘lookalikes’ that were legal under the old law.
The rub was a clause that restricts the way that 2D images of these objects can be used for ‘commercial exploitation’.
One reading of the law was that museums would no longer be able to afford the costs of book publishing while dealers and auctioneers would be barred from publishing photographs of these items to aid their sale.
It remains to be seen if the law has these unintended consequences. But so far fears appear to be unfounded.
