Four disciplines of the antiquartist.

SoA.01

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.

What Members Learn

• Reading auction catalogs, sale records, and old collection labels as evidence
• Why 1970 — 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, in the format used on the Society's Register
• Where to search: databases of stolen art, published collections, and archival resources

SoA.02

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

SoA.03

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

SoA.04

Museum Deaccession Literacy

Museums lawfully release objects from their collections every year — and those sales are among the most transparent, best-documented acquisition paths open to a private collector. Few collectors understand how the process works. Members do.

What Members Learn

• Why museums deaccession: duplicates, scope, condition, and the ethics rules that govern it
• How AAM and AAMD standards shape what may be sold and how proceeds may be used
• Following deaccession sales at auction and reading their documentation
• What a museum accession number tells you, and why it strengthens provenance forever
• The responsibilities that come with owning a formerly public object