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The Strange Case of Christos Tsirogiannis

June 26, 2018 by Marion Maneker

Bloomberg spent some time with Christo Tsirogiannis, the archeologist who keeps a secret database of illegally exported antiquities. Sotheby’s recent lawsuit against the Greek government was sparked by an object Tsirogiannis identified as suspicious. The greek academic claims to have spotted 50 objects and proudly claims to have “disrupted” $10m in sales.

Tsirogiannis makes no money from his vetting of antiquities auctions. He feels the auction houses should be vetting their objects with the governments of the countries that once produced them; the auction houses feel that would be a cumbersome and inefficient process that might open the door to governments cherry-picking objects from sales. Clearly, there’s a need for an honest broker in between who might be paid by the auction houses and dealers to add value to the antiquities market.

Curiously, Tsirogiannis expressed frustration to Bloomberg that he has made no money from his efforts identifying works that might have been sold illicitly. The auction houses are not shy about their frustration that Tsirogiannis keeps his database secret. The profile makes a big show of the lengths he goes in protecting his data:

More than a decade ago, Tsirogiannis started building a secret archive of tens of thousands of Polaroids and other photos from the artifact underground, where illicitly dug pots and statues are laundered as they pass from tomb raiders to smugglers to dealers and then on to museums, collectors, and auction houses. Most of his images were seized in police raids and given to him by prosecutors in Greece and Italy. Working independently, Tsirogiannis matches the photos with objects that surface at auctions or museums and then works to repatriate the pieces. […] Tsirogiannis takes great caution to keep the images from prying eyes. The archive itself—30,000-plus pictures depicting more than 100,000 objects—is a digital one, taking up a half-terabyte on a server in an undisclosed country in the South Pacific, accessed with passwords he changes twice a week. “There is no actual copy with me or in my house or in my working space,” he said.

“His approach has made auction houses and other dealers take due diligence much more seriously,” said David Gill, a professor at the University of Suffolk who specializes in cultural heritage issues and helped supervise Tsirogiannis’s grad work. Sotheby’s contends that the industry’s due diligence would benefit if the archives were made public. “Regrettably, those materials have been and remain at present completely inaccessible—except to one private individual,” it said in a statement. Bonhams has asked for access to the archive, “to assist the rigorous due diligence that we do for each object in our sales,” said spokeswoman Lucinda Bredin.

Christie’s NY Antiquities = $13.2m

December 10, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Online Bidders Drive Sotheby’s NY Antiquities to $31m

December 9, 2011 by Marion Maneker

The $30.9m sale of antiquities in New York had stunning bids on several works and strong internet participation:

The sale was led by A Marble Group of Leda and the Swan, Roman Imperial, circa 2nd Century A.D which sold for $19,122,500 (est. $2/3 million). The sculpture was sought by four bidders before eventually selling to an anonymous purchaser bidding over the telephone. The competition included an online bidder who participated up to $16.5 million.Leda and the Swan was recently discovered in Aske Hall, North Yorkshire and had been in the collection of the Marques of Zetland since 1789.

An Egyptian Basalt Head of a King, Early Ptolemaic Period, Reign of Ptolemy I/III, circa 304-200 B.C. from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans, the late San Francisco philanthropist and collector, sold to an online bidder for $392,500 (est. $100/150,000). This is the highest price paid by an online bidder in a live auction at Sotheby’s.

Other strong prices from the Rosekrans collection included A Marble Head Of Zeus Ammon, Roman Imperial, Circa A.D. 120-160, which sold for $3,554,500 and was purchased by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (est. $800,000/1.2 million), and An Egyptian Black Basalt Head Of Tuthmosis III, 18th Dynasty, Reign Of Tuthmosis III, 1479-1426 B.C, which sold to an online bidder for $602,500 (est. $150/250,000).

New York Antiquities = $21.67m

June 14, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Lack of Supply Creates Demand in Antiquities

March 13, 2011 by Marion Maneker

The Wall Street Journal discovers that Antiquities are having a very nice run up in prices even if the works are considered “priceless:”

The prices of antiquities, defined as artifacts mainly derived from the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, including Egypt, the Near East, Greece and Rome, have soared tenfold over the last decade, according to G. Max Bernheimer, Christie’s International department head of antiquities.

Since 2006, sales at the privately-owned auction house have quadrupled from $10.2 million (€7.5 million) to $42.7 million. What is more, unlike other parts of the art market, sales have steadily increased throughout the recession. […]  John Ambrose, director of U.S.-based antique dealer Fragments of Time, says: “We see more than 10,000 ancient objects each year but it is becoming increasingly difficult to find good quality objects. This is not just in the traditionally difficult areas of Attic pottery, Egyptian objects and glass, but in every area including Roman pottery. The lack of supply is pushing up demand.” […]

In the 1970’s, the British Rail Pension Fund invested 2.9% of its portfolio – around £40 million – in more than 2,000 objects including antiquities. Fifteen years later the fund sold its art investments – gaining an annual compound return of 11.3%. Around the same time U.S. bank Merrill Lynch set up two funds –Athena I and II – to invest in ancient coins and antiquities. It poured over $30 million into these under the management of coin and antiquities dealer Bruce McNall. After two-and-a-half years the managers reported a 36% net gain.

Pricing the Priceless (Wall Street Journal)

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