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- Title
THE BUSINESS OF ART THEFT: ASSESSING AUCTION HOUSE STANDARD OF CARE AND THE SALE OF STOLEN CULTURAL PROPERTY.
- Authors
WILSON, ALEXANDRA M. S.
- Abstract
Art theft is the third largest criminal enterprise in the world. New York, the center of the international art exchange and home to major auction houses, has attempted to limit the profitability of the illicit art trade. However, the nature of the art market makes this issue difficult to alleviate, let alone solve. Auction houses' customary "no questions asked" policy towards ownership, naïve buyers unaware of market practices, incomplete provenance records, and lack of a uniform due diligence standard, are all factors that make this landscape hardly navigable. This Comment addresses the special role auction houses play in the commercial exchange of stolen art and what standard of care houses should be held to. Auction houses are in a special position of power. Established art dealer liabilities and remedies inform the fact that auction houses are better equipped than good faith purchasers to discover stolen works and rectify the problem. In appropriating an economic framework, which has been used to establish art dealer liabilities when selling stolen works, I recommend that auction houses should be held liable, and the buyer should recover the benefit of his bargain plus interest when auction houses are indifferent to a work's provenance.
- Subjects
ART thefts; AUCTION houses; STOLEN art industry; REDISCOVERED art; ANTIQUE auctions
- Publication
American University Business Law Review, 2015, Vol 4, Issue 3, p505
- ISSN
2168-6890
- Publication type
Article