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Stealing History: How does Provenance Affect the Price of Antiquities?

Author

Listed:
  • Katherine Kiel

    (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross)

  • Katherine Tedesco

    (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross)

Abstract

In 1982, the United States passed legislation that partially implemented the UNESCO Treaty, the Cultural Property Implementation Act. Despite the fact that the United States signed onto this treaty, it was common knowledge in the antiquities world that the enforcement of these laws has been lax, and the illegal sale of artifacts has continued. In December 2005, the Italian government took the Curator of Antiquities at the Getty Museum Marion True and Robert Hecht (a well-known antiquities dealer) to trial for conspiracy to buy and sell looted artifacts. This paper tests whether a good provenance increases the price of an antiquity and also whether the impact of appropriate provenance has changed since the trial began. To test these hypotheses, a hedonic regression on sales prices of provenanced and unprovenanced artifacts is estimated. We find that provenanced items are indeed selling for higher prices after 2005, ceteris paribus, which is evidence that the art market has responded to the law suits.

Suggested Citation

  • Katherine Kiel & Katherine Tedesco, 2011. "Stealing History: How does Provenance Affect the Price of Antiquities?," Working Papers 1105, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hcx:wpaper:1105
    as

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    File URL: https://hcapps.holycross.edu/hcs/RePEc/hcx/HC1105-Kiel-Tedesco_SellingHistory.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victor Ginsburgh & David Throsby, 2006. "Handbook of the economics of art and culture," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/1673, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    2. Laurence Massy, 2008. "The antiquity art market: between legality and illegality," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(10), pages 729-738, August.
    3. Orley Ashenfelter & Kathryn Graddy, 2003. "Auctions and the Price of Art," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 763-787, September.
    4. Katherine Kiel & Melissa Boyle, 2001. "A Survey of House Price Hedonic Studies of the Impact of Environmental Externalities," Working Papers 0111, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hedonics; market for antiquities; provenance; difference-in-difference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z11 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economics of the Arts and Literature
    • C29 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Other

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