Artifact Auction & the Effects of Recent Crackdowns

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Raid drives down demand for American Indian artifacts
By brandon loomis

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Dec 27, 2010 01:01AM
Updated Dec 27, 2010 06:09PM
San Francisco • Nabil Haidar shepherds his two young sons around the Bonhams & Butterfields auction house showroom, staring through glass cases into history. And prehistory.

Ancient pottery, the San Jose, Calif., cop says, tells a story of its people. Buckskin or feather clothing is a window into this continent’s old ways.

“When it’s in your home and you touch it,” Haidar says, “it’s like, ‘Wow. So many generations.’ If only it had a mouth to speak, it could tell you what it’s gone through.”

There is a reason people dig up artifacts in places such as southern Utah’s Ancestral Puebloan ruins, target of a 2009 crackdown on looting from public lands. American Indian relics are big business in metropolitan America, Europe and beyond, often fetching thousands of dollars per piece at auction houses. Anasazi art is just a tiny potsherd in the puzzle, but it draws intense interest from history buffs.

It’s perfectly legal if the items come from private lands or from private collections predating federal antiquities law. Still, buyers at auction candidly say that they are worn down by government scrutiny and aren’t so keen on Ancestral Puebloan pieces. Ancient Southwestern pottery is still for sale and certified legal, but many say they don’t want to invite a hassle.

“You worry about it,” says Dan Hidding, an Illinois collector looking for pottery during one of two preview days before a Dec. 6 sale here. He no longer buys or sells Anasazi pots, except among people he knows and trusts.

“But I’ll tell you, this whole thing is ridiculous,” he says.

Read the full story here.

Raid drives down demand for American Indian artifacts | The Salt Lake Tribune



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