Abstract
Art crime often is viewed in terms of being profit driven. Although it is the case in many contexts, it is hard to fully justify this viewpoint in the low-end antiquities trade. The focus on high financial value portrays an art crime as a clear-cut issue, however alternative engagement spaces such as online forums provide the hint that art crime is more than just about money. This chapter presents data that was gathered during a cross-sectional analysis of Russian treasure hunting forums and discusses the main trends observed from the data and offers a glimpse into the low-value antiquities trade that takes place in these spaces. It is argued that in the low-value antiquities trade, potentially even in the wider market, financial value is intertwined with other values, it is possible to witness emergence of human-object relationships, and make a case that an object should not be only viewed as a passive thing with a price tag.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, ‘financial values’ are used interchangeably with ‘price’.
- 2.
Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing, and amending Directives 2009/138/EC and 2013/36/EU.
- 3.
The term ‘archaeological objects’ was used here as that is the term used in the Russian Federal Law. However, the term ‘antiquities’ will also be used as it is more commonly used term when talking about the trade. Here ‘antiquities’ and ‘archaeological objects’ will be used interchangeably without a reference to the object’s age.
- 4.
Федеральный закон от 23 июля 2013 г. N 245-ФЗ “О внесении изменений в отдельные законодательные акты Российской Федерации в части пресечения незаконной деятельности в области археологии” [“On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Concerning the Suppression of Illegal Activities in the Field of Archaeology”].
- 5.
Metal detectors as they are known today originated in the setting of WWII where they were essential for locating land mines (Stine & Shumate, 2015), however soon after WWII metal detecting was picked up as a recreational hobby (Thomas & Stone, 2009)—looking both for valuables such as lost jewellery and archaeological objects.
- 6.
Conversion rate used 1 RUB = 0.0112324 EUR as on 3 June 2021.
- 7.
This was the case with Dancing Shiva Statue, which was sold by Subhash Kapoor, New York based art dealer, to National Gallery of Australia for US$5 million. In comparison, Kapoor paid the local dealer at the source only US$30,000, while the thieves who stole the statue from the temple received even less (see Boland, 2019 for more details on the case).
- 8.
By that it is meant that the cultural heritage is viewed primarily in terms of its financial, exchange value and transformed into commodities that can be bought and sold.
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Acknowledgements
The funding for this research was provided by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° 804851) and from European Commission EAC/06/2017 “Improving Knowledge on Illicit Trade in Cultural Goods in the EU”.
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Bērziņa, D. (2021). More Than Just Money. In: Oosterman, N., Yates, D. (eds) Crime and Art. Studies in Art, Heritage, Law and the Market, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84856-9_14
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