by ADA | Jan 4, 2025 | Views |
Alerting the public to existential threats posed to much of the art market by draconian regulations is a difficult task. Unless your audience has a stake in the game, it can be difficult to hold their attention or gain their sympathy.
Surely this is just another example of the market pleading for special treatment, critics will say.
So, getting the message across can depend on making a connection with something that resonates far more closely with the public’s conscience.
This is where the Windrush scandal comes in.
Its origins date to 1948, just after the Second World War, when the British Nationality Act granted British subjects from the Colonies the right to come to the UK and settle. Many came from Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean, and what became known as the Windrush generation acquired its name from the Empire Windrush, one of the first ships to transport them across the Atlantic to Britain’s shores.
Up to 1970 around 500,000 people arrived in Britain under the scheme, encouraged to make the journey by successive governments in an effort to help rebuild the country post-war.
Having a legal right to come to the UK, they neither needed nor were given any documents upon entry, nor following changes in immigration laws in the early 1970s.
When former colonies established their independence, new legislation limited the rights of their citizens to emigrate to the UK. Those who had arrived before 1973 had an automatic right to remain permanently unless they left the UK for more than two years.
Enshrining rights in legislation
Again, because the right was automatic, many people who qualified were never given, nor asked to provide, documentary evidence of their right to remain. Those rights were further enshrined by the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which protected long-standing residents of the UK from Commonwealth countries from enforced removal.
The Home Office deemed such people adequately protected when immigration legislation was updated in 2014, and so the provision was not included. By then, however, the UK was already operating a hostile environment policy to discourage immigration and to make it easier to expel illegal immigrants.
As policy tightened, ID checks and other measures such as the continuing provision of services made it necessary for individuals to prove that they had legal residence.
When the scandal eventually broke in 2018, thanks to legal action by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), it became clear that people had been wrongly detained, denied legal rights, and threatened with deportation, because they could not prove their status; 83 cases of wrongful deportation were identified. Others lost their jobs and homes or had their passports confiscated and were denied health care or benefits to which they were entitled.
The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, resigned over the scandal.
The ensuing independent inquiry, Windrush Lessons Learned Review, reported back in early 2020, ruling that the Home Office had shown “ignorance and thoughtlessness” and that what had happened had been “foreseeable and avoidable”. It further found that immigration regulations were tightened “with complete disregard for the Windrush generation” and that officials had made “irrational” demands for multiple documents to establish residency rights.
“Ignorance and thoughtlessness”; “foreseeable and avoidable”; “complete disregard”; “irrational”.
Essentially, the innocent fell victim to a cruel and excessive policy because of the retroactive application of modern standards: although when they came to Britain documentary evidence of their residency rights was seen as unnecessary and so not issued, they were being forced to provide it decades later or suffer the consequences.
The demand to supply non-existent documentation
This is what was meant as “irrational”; how can you supply evidence that never existed? How can the authorities demand it when they know it never existed?
Not just “irrational”, the policy was also tyrannical, undemocratic, and a breach of human rights. No wonder politicians expressed their shame and resigned; no wonder the public and human rights bodies were outraged.
And yet, this is far from an isolated incident.
At the heart of almost every debate between the art market and the authorities, regarding cultural property, is the matter of provenance. Vanishingly few artworks and artefacts have a complete documented history dating back to their creation or discovery. In many cases this is because where such documentation once existed, it has been lost or destroyed over time. In many other cases it never existed because it was not required at the time of original sale or export.
Nonetheless, those who challenge the market – from governments and NGOs to law enforcement and advocacy bodies – demand that such documentation must be provided now if these items are to be allowed to circulate freely in the international market. Failure to provide this non-existent paperwork to meet a modern standard that was not in place before very often results in these items being deemed illicit and so seized.
Far from being ashamed, embarrassed and outraged at this treatment of businesses and individuals, those championing such policies continue to press for more restrictions.
If you agree that the victims of the Windrush scandal were ill-treated and were subject to a serious infringement of their human rights by being subjected to such unreasonable demands, then the violation of rights meted out to market professionals and private individuals alike on the same score should concern you deeply.
by ADA | Sep 20, 2023 | Views
How do those buying antiquities protect themselves and the public?
Anyone buying items online needs to ensure that what they are paying for is genuine and that the seller has the right to sell them. That’s true for ordinary household goods and consumer wares, and especially true when it comes to the trade in antiquities.
The two trade associations supporting the Antiquities Forum, the UK-based Antiquities Dealers’ Association (ADA) and the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA), have long pioneered policy on this. Having a clear and effective crime-prevention policy is the best way of safeguarding their members and their members’ reputation, as well as boosting confidence in the trade among the public. It is also essential for preventing ancient artefacts being exploited by the unscrupulous.
In doing this, the two essential considerations are Provenance and Due Diligence. But what do they mean?
Provenance is the history of an object, tracing its ownership back as far as possible to ensure that it remains an item that can legitimately be traded. The ADA sets out a detailed summary of the different types of provenance an object can have, what that means and why it is important, on this website.
Due diligence, meanwhile, is the process which trade professionals undertake to ensure that the items they are handling are authentic and can be traded legitimately. It is important to remember that in the event of any legal dispute, the effectiveness of the due diligence undertaken by those responsible will be taken into account.
Effective due diligence is a vital part of protecting traders’ good reputations, which are essential for success in business.
What the associations have to say
The ADA sets out the process of due diligence for its members as follows:
Before offering property for sale, members must be satisfied that they have conducted the level of due diligence required to establish that the property they are handling is authentic and that there are no known legal obstacles to selling and passing title.
The ADA requires members to adhere to the relevant domestic and international laws that govern the markets for archaeological and ancient property and, in many respects, ADA standards go beyond the legal requirements.
If members are not certain as to the laws of a particular jurisdiction, or their application to a specific item, please consult the ADA Council for advice.
Members must act in good faith throughout all transactions.
Members should record each transaction with diligence and keep records for a minimum of 6 years.
Where a member is buying from another dealer or an auction house then the member should record the transaction and note the provenance as provided. Some items will have more detailed provenance than others.
Where a member is buying from a person other than a dealer or an auction house then the member should establish the identity of the vendor. Unless the vendor is well known to the dealer, where an item is worth over £3,000 then member should request photographic identification and if practical take and retain a copy of it. Members should obtain in writing:
- The name and address of the vendor;
- A warranty that the vendor has good title to the objects;
- Confirmation of where, when and how the vendor obtained the objects, as can be provided by the vendor;
- Where the vendor acquired the objects outside the United Kingdom, confirmation that the item has been exported or imported in conformity with local laws and where available evidence of that.
In addition, wherever possible members should arrange payment by a method that leaves an audit.
Lawful Trading
Members undertake to carry out due diligence, as set out under this Code, to ensure, as far as they are able, that objects in which they trade were not stolen from excavations, architectural monuments, public institutions or private property and are lawfully on the market for sale.
Members will make all reasonable enquiries to ascertain earlier ownership history of any object they are considering purchasing, mindful that the illicit removal of archaeological objects from their original context is damaging to our knowledge and understanding of the past.
Members have a duty to record and preserve relevant prior ownership history of an object along with any evidence supplied.
Stolen Art Databases
“It is a condition of membership that all goods acquired at the purchase price of £3,000 or more be checked with an appropriate stolen art database, unless they have already been so checked.’
No system is perfect and many items have very little documented information establishing a detailed history going back decades or longer. This does not necessarily mean that there is anything wrong as there can be a number of valid reasons for this: for instance, paperwork may have been lost or not kept – in the past, such information was not deemed important, as it is today.
As can be seen from the due diligence requirements set out above, however, a higher level of checking is demanded for higher value items.
Market professionals also tend to have effective antennae for picking up ‘red flags’. Remember, just like anyone else, they do not want to hand over ready money for something that may later turn out to be a problem.
Additional things they look out for include items that are significantly under-priced, as this may point to someone handling stolen goods trying to offload them. Another thing to check is how credible the seller is as a source of the material being offered.
The ADA and IADAA have both been proactive in developing due diligence over the years. Indeed, UNESCO’s code of conduct in this field was based on the earlier code published by IADAA.
Both the ADA and IADAA provide further advice on their websites at www.theada.co.uk and www.iadaa.org
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