Four disciplines of the antiquartist.

Provenance Research

Provenance, an object's chain of ownership, is the foundation of everything else. This discipline teaches members to reconstruct that chain, judge its strength, and recognize when it cannot be trusted. And where no history survives, members learn to start one: an honest record made today is the first link in an object's future provenance.

What Members Learn

• Reading auction catalogs, sale records, and old collection labels as evidence
• Why 1970, the year of the UNESCO Convention, is the threshold date the entire field turns on
• The warning signs of freshly surfaced material: vague findspots, convenient stories, missing decades
• Building a provenance dossier for each object, using the Society's Object Record
• Where to search: databases of stolen art, published collections, and archival resources

Import, Export & Cultural Property Law

Antiquities cross borders, and the law follows them. This discipline gives members a working, plain-language understanding of the legal landscape: enough to ask the right questions and keep the right papers.

What Members Learn

• The U.S. Cultural Property Implementation Act and how import restrictions actually work
• Bilateral agreements with source countries, and how to check whether one covers your object
• Customs declarations, invoices, and export permits: the paper trail of a lawful acquisition
• National ownership laws and why some categories of object should simply be avoided
• When to consult a cultural property attorney, and what to bring them

Conservation & Stewardship

An ancient object has survived centuries of accident; it should not be endangered by its own collector. This discipline covers the practical care that keeps objects stable, and the humility to know where amateur care ends.

What Members Learn

• Handling, mounts, and storage for the common materials: ceramic, bronze, glass, stone, bone
• Light, humidity, and temperature: what actually matters for each material, without a laboratory
• Bronze disease and other active deterioration: recognizing it and responding to it
• What never to do: aggressive cleaning, adhesives, home restoration
• Finding and working with a professional conservator

The Ethical Marketplace

Knowing what to buy is half the craft; knowing where and how to buy it is the other half. This discipline maps the marketplace itself, so members can judge every channel an object might arrive through, and buy from the ones that deserve their trust.

What Members Learn

• The acquisition channels compared: dealers, auctions, museum deaccession sales, estates, and online marketplaces, with the strengths and risks of each
• What dealer trade association codes of ethics require, and why buying from association members matters
• How museum deaccessions work, and why those sales are among the best-documented paths to ethical acquisition
• Reading an auction catalog: estimates, conditions of sale, and what the fine print actually guarantees
• The fake problem: why reproductions flood the market, and the habits that protect a buyer
• Negotiating for documentation: what to ask for before money moves, and walking away as a skill