Society of Antiquartists
Charter Document · SoA 2026.003
The Antiquartist Code
We, the members of the Society of Antiquartists, holding that the private collecting of ancient antiquities carries a public trust — to the objects in our care, to the scholarship they serve, and to the peoples and places from which they came — do adopt this Code and bind our practice to it.
Document Everything
Every object in a member's care shall have a record: a description, photographs, its condition, and the fullest account of its collecting history that diligence can assemble. An undocumented antiquity is a mute one; the record is what transforms possession into stewardship.
Acquire Lawfully
Members acquire only objects they reasonably believe to have been exported and imported in accordance with law, and decline material whose history cannot withstand scrutiny. Provenance is not paperwork; it is the line between stewardship and complicity in the looting of the ancient world.
Where doubt is serious and cannot be resolved, the antiquartist walks away.
Preserve First
Decisions of cleaning, restoration, storage, and display shall favor the object's long-term survival over its appearance or market value. Members undertake no intervention beyond their competence, and engage professional conservators where the object's welfare requires it.
Share Knowledge
Objects in private hands should still serve scholarship. Members make their collections available to study, publish and photograph what they hold, welcome legitimate research inquiries, and contribute what they learn back to the community of collectors and scholars alike.
Plan the Succession
Stewardship includes the day it ends. Members provide for the future of their collections — by sale with full records, by gift, by bequest, or by placement with an institution — so that no object leaves their care less documented, less stable, or less understood than it entered.
In affirmation whereof, each member subscribes to this Code upon admission to the Society, and renews that subscription with every year of membership.
Member Signature
Date of Admission
Adopted by the Founding Members · MMXXVI