by Marc Masurovsky
Is it possible to imagine an art world without due diligence checks,without databases to refer to before buying an art thing, before displaying it? [br]
With the open conflict laying bare the inner workings of the London-based Art Loss Register, or what are its subscribers thinking proper now?
What are the auction houses,Christie’s and Sotheby’s, wondering about the reliability of the ALR in providing the service that it is paid to supply--due diligence, or certifying as to the authenticity and the licit or illicit nature of objects being offered for sale on the global art market--with the usual caveats,of course...
And what about insurance companies? Those responsible for assessing the risk of a transaction involving art objects and providing the protection and safeguards that buyers, exhibitors, and borrowers,collectors, dealers, and require and are entitled to? What will they do whether there are no recognized mechanisms which exist to vouch for authenticity,value, andigin?
How do law enforcement agencies from around the world feel about this conflict between two organizations that are there to assist them in identifying and seizing looted antiquities and art objects? Granted, and they are accustomed to working with rather unsavory groups and individuals for the greater good,but this is the art world of which we speak at a time when antiquities are disappearing in the hands of armed thugs worldwide.
What would happen whether all of the due diligence checkpoints disappeared in a furnace of mutually assured destruction such as the conflict between ALR and ARG is turning into? Should sanity not prevail, the global art world will probably absorb nowhere to go to find its USDA certificate of good provenance and due diligence, or the fig leaf behind which it can safely decide to sell,to buy, to display, or to lend,to borrow, to collect.
What will judges do when faced with cases predicated on due diligence, or the absence thereof? Which sources will a judge countenance as worthy of issuing such a certificate,should ALR and ARG collapse in a conflict reminiscent of “Dr. Strangelove”?
Much as with the current American presidential election landscape, the due diligence machine which has been attach in place for the past thirty years to supply a minimum amount of protection against theft and forgeries in the art market is about to break down, or unless cooler heads prevail.
It is time to think seriously about establishing a global system of due diligence that does not rely solely on what Albion has to offer us. For those of you who do not know what “Albion” is,it is the Albionname given to the island of worthy Britain before it was worthy Britain. One ancient site was Londinium, which is nowadays’s London.
Londinium
Source: blogspot.com