Peruvian archaeology has found an unusual ally in the battle against looting in the internet and websites such as eBay. This is according to Charles Stanish, a UCLA archaeologist, writing in the June 2009 issue of Archaeology. Stanish has excavated for 25 years at fragile archaeological sites in Peru. It was feared that online auction sites would increase looting as the looter could sell directly to the buyer eliminating costly middlemen. In fact, online auction websites have actually helped reduce looting as the average looter or craftsman can now make more money selling cheap fakes online rather than spend weeks digging for the real thing and running the risk of not finding anything. It is less costly to transport a fake and the risk of arrest is removed. Moreover, workshops churning out cheap fakes and replicas can also produce elaborately detailed fakes which can be so authentic even experts are deceived. Locals can use original ancient moulds, often found during excavations but of no real value themselves, to create exact replicas using clay from original sources and local minerals to make paint for decorating the pottery. The only way to know for sure if a piece is genuine is through thermo-luminescence dating which calculates when the pottery has been fired. But this is expensive for the buyer and many sellers will not offer refunds on pottery that has undergone “destructive” analysis. Ten years ago the ratio of real to fake Peruvian artefacts for sale online was roughly 50:50. It is now thought that only 5% of items are authentic, 30% are fakes and the rest are too difficult to judge from online photographs. This turnaround emphasises how paradoxically online auction sites have helped to combat the trade in illicit antiquities. Also, its not just Peruvian fakes that are flooding the illicit antiquities online market; Chinese, Bulgarian, Egyptian and Mexican workshops are also producing fakes at a frenetic pace.
To read my thoughts on fakes, please read my follow up article.
Reference: http://www.archaeology.org/0905/etc/insider.html
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4 comments:
Perhaps the production of fakes should be encouraged in order to decrease the destruction of sites and looted materials.
There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind about these claims:
1. The production of fakes only makes economic sense if there is a large cohort of uneducated rube buyers. Ebay provides that cohort, in the short run. But it also dramatically increases the size of the market, and those who get into antiquities-buying as a result will almost certainly begin to get educated over time about the need to have objects authenticated. The educating of the larger market will mean that there will eventually be more demand for authenticated artifacts, raising the price for the real thing, which will fuel digging.
2. It may well be the case that some locals who looted are now making fakes, but the unemployment rate is high enough in most places that there will be plenty of others who will step in to take their places digging, as long as there is a premium for authentic antiquities (and as long as collectors at the very top end are willing to pay millions for the very best pieces.
It must be noted that while the production of fakes can sometimes discourage local thieves from looting, it does nothing to educate people of the damage caused by looting nor does it reduce the demand for authentic antiquities. Also, an influx of fakes to the market would make it more difficult for authorities to prevent the smuggling of genuine artifacts.
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