Antiquities Dealers Suddenly Emerge Into Sunlight

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Like many high-end galleries in the city, Phoenix Ancient Art can be easy to miss. Nestled in a 1,200-square-foot space on East 66th Street off Madison Avenue, the gallery has one small external sign. It reads: “By Appointment Only.”


That sign, and the secluded, dimly lit space it discreetly advertises, is emblematic of the antiquities trade, an industry that has long operated in the shadows, but which a decade’s worth of investigations, trials, and claims of impropriety has forced into the sunlight.


For antiquities dealers such as Hicham Aboutaam, the co-owner of Phoenix Ancient Art, the heightened scrutiny has brought the need to constantly adapt to – not just accommodate – changing patrimony laws and guidelines, and also to erase the perception that buying and selling ancient artifacts is somehow inherently illicit.


“Some people are saying, ‘I don’t want to be in this field anymore’ because they prefer not to be public,” Mr. Aboutaam said. “And others are going public as much as they can. We are exposing our business.”


In a climate where suspicion can be tantamount to guilt, antiquities dealers can no longer afford the perception of secrecy. More and more, their galleries are, by necessity, becoming “mini-museums.”


Mr. Aboutaam, 38, runs Phoenix Ancient Art along with his older brother, Ali, who manages the gallery’s offices in Geneva, Switzerland. The brothers inherited the business when their parents died in a plane crash in 1998. Considered among the world’s top dealers in rare antiquities, the Aboutaams have sold pieces to some of America’s foremost cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.


In the last year, both the Met and the Getty have been embroiled in negotiations with Italian cultural officials demanding the return of objects they say were looted. The Met resolved its dispute in February, signing an agreement to return 20 antiquities, including the prized Euphronios krater, in exchange for long-term loans of comparable objects. The provenance of the krater, an ancient Greek vase, had been the subject of suspicion since the Met purchased it more than three decades ago for a then record $1 million. Since striking the pact with the Met, Italy is pursuing additional claims against pieces at the Getty, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Princeton Art Museum.


The Aboutaams have been ensnared in the web of controversy that currently plagues the antiquities trade. Hicham Aboutaam pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and paid a $5,000 fine after admitting that when filling out a U.S. Customs document, he wrongly listed Syria – rather than Iran – as the country of origin for a silver rhyton, or drinking vessel, that he imported in 2000.


Other objects they have sold also have encountered difficulties. An alabaster stele – an inscribed stone slab – that the brothers initially tried to sell to Sothebys had to be returned to Yemen after it was discovered to have been looted. In 2001, the brothers refunded the purchase of a Sumerian statue to Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. And Egypt’s antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, is now demanding that the St. Louis Art Museum return an ancient Egyptian mummy mask that it bought from the Aboutaams in 1998.


Hicham Aboutaam characterizes his run-in with the law as a “wake-up call.” More than two years later, he said his business is thriving. He expressed little worry about the claim on the mummy mask, saying it was a matter between Mr. Hawass and the museum. “Everything we had we put on the table,” he said, referring to documentation. “It’s part of the risk of being in this field.”


As he sat last week in his gallery, dressed in a dark suit, Mr. Aboutaam described an industry that has changed dramatically in the last two decades. “Twenty years ago, you see the piece, you like it aesthetically, you discuss the price, and you buy it,” Mr. Aboutaam said. A decade ago, “You ask where it was, and you get some information orally, possibly something documented, and you still buy it.”


Now, a purchase entails something akin to a full-scale investigation. Mr. Aboutaam said that before he buys an object, he asks to see official publications, old photographs, insurance policies, information about past owners, and references of people who may have seen the piece in its previous locations.


Sales to museums make up about half of Phoenix’s annual business, with private collectors and auction houses accounting for the rest, Mr. Aboutaam said. He would not say how much the company makes in a year, but he said it sold an average of 50 pieces annually at prices ranging from $5,000 to $5 million. Mr. Aboutaam said he is encouraged that museum directors have indicated a continued willingness to buy top pieces, and said he will be watching the major museums closely as million dollar works come on the market.


In fact, the controversy hovering over antiquities has been a boon to business, Mr. Aboutaam said, adding that 2005 was a record year for sales at Phoenix. Fewer objects are being traded because many do not come with the extensive documentation needed to prove their authenticity and provenance. Now, increasingly rare pieces with a clear provenance are fetching higher and higher prices.


Similarly, while some long-time collectors, citing the recent controversies, have withdrawn from the antiquities field, newcomers are entering, hoping to turn the increased risk into a higher return on their investment. Another Upper East Side antiquities gallery that has fared well in the more limited market is Antiquarium Limited, co-owned by Joseph Coplin, who said that Antiquarium has always required extensive documentation before making purchases.


“We try to debunk a lot of the mystical aspects of antiquities collecting,” Mr. Coplin said, although he added that the occasional visitor does browse through the gallery and say, “Gee I wonder where this was stolen from.” The gallery, on Madison Avenue between 74th and 75th streets, is open to the public.


Archaeologists and cultural officials of claimant countries have long criticized museums, dealers, and collectors for practices that they say encourage the pillaging of ancient sites. Mr. Hawass of Egypt has even called for museums to cease collecting antiquities altogether.


Recently, however, museum directors and dealers have been more outspoken in criticizing cultural patrimony laws and defending the antiquities trade. “Museums become mausoleums if their collections don’t grow,” Mr. Coplin said.


And dealers play a key role in the viability of museums, Mr. Aboutaam said. “Without dealers, there wouldn’t be any museums in the Western world,” he said.


Mr. Aboutaam said he would continue to make his gallery more public. In recent years, he and his brother have published catalogues, and held receptions and exhibitions to show their collections. A professor of cultural property law at DePaul University, Patricia Gerstenblith, called the Aboutaams’s decision to publish their collection a “step in the right direction.” But she also said, “We don’t know if the catalogue includes everything they have, everything they’re selling.” But Mr. Aboutaam isn’t stopping there. That “By Appointment Only” sign? After more than 20 years hanging in front of Phoenix Ancient Art, it’s about to come down.


The New York Sun

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