Ethical Collectors

I was very impressed with yesterday's presentation on Ethical Collectors by Cinnamon Stephens at Queen Mary's. It made me revisit some of my research on European and North American private collectors, and to think how some of them could have avoided acquiring toxic antiquities.

Stephens reminded us that private collectors need to understand the "red flags" in their area of collecting. This will help them to avoid 'dodgy' material. They also need to seek professional advice from academics. However we see that in the elaborate catalogues that accompanied the objects that formed part of the study I conducted with Christopher Chippindale.

I suppose the main pieces of advice for collectors are as follows:

• check the collecting history for the object you are wanting to buy. Is the paperwork authenticated? Is there a clear paper trail?
• can the collecting history be traced back for certain to the period prior to 1970? 
• be prepared to walk away from an object even if it is the one that will 'crown' your collection. It could be the piece that damages your personal reputation.
• document your acquisition: its purchase, restoration, display, or loan. This will be important should you wish to lend to a museum.

Forming collections

One of the issues that LM will be exploring is the way that museum curators have encouraged private collectors to acquire objects that are then "donated" to the museum. This raises the issue of how we define a "private collection". We should recall that the stock of one London dealer was even described as from an English private collection.