{"id":144,"date":"2025-06-17T07:39:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/?p=144"},"modified":"2025-06-17T07:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T11:39:39","slug":"the-art-of-ownership-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/17\/the-art-of-ownership-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Ownership \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Free market exchanges, by definition, entail the transfer of legal property claims between buyer and seller. When a visitor leaving a museum buys a pair of sunglasses from a street vendor for $20, a legal transfer of property rights assumes that the visitor has a legal right to the $20 bill and the street vendor has a legal right to the sunglasses. If the vendor had stolen the sunglasses, he would be legally liable for criminal theft. But in Indiana, as in most jurisdictions, the sunglasses <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indyjustice.com\/blog\/criminal-defense\/possession-of-stolen-property-indiana\/%22%20\/l%20%22:~:text=Per%20the%20Indiana%20theft%20laws,with%20a%20Level%206%20Felony.\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">buyer could also<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\"> be<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Although unwitting buyers of low-value goods stolen by fly-by-night hustlers may not run much risk of prosecution, museums and private collectors of ancient artifacts are under increasing scrutiny to ensure items in their collections have been obtained legitimately.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In New York City, the district attorney has a special unit called the Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU), which a prosecutor and a retired marine lead. The ATU pursues recovering and repatriating stolen antiquities to their countries of origin. Since 2017, the unit has recovered and repatriated over 5,700 antiques. The ATU isn\u2019t the only \u201cart cop\u201d out there. According to <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">the <\/span><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Economist,<\/span><\/i><span data-contrast=\"none\"> \u201cItaly\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Carabinieri Art Squad has a staff of several hundred, compared with the ATU\u2019s 19.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The issue is always about the artifact\u2019s \u201cprovenance,\u201d which is the record of ownership of the work since its creation. If the artifact is an ancient Egyptian statue, it is nearly impossible to trace it back to 500 B.C. So, how far back does one have to go? We asked our friend and colleague Dr. Robert G. La France, Director of the David Owsley Museum of Art here on the Ball State campus, about the matter: the critical date is <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.unesco.org\/en\/fight-illicit-trafficking\/about\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">1970<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> because that is when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established rules on Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Robert told us<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> \u201cThe Museum adheres to the 1970 Convention and use<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> the November 14, 1970, date as an \u2018ethical bright line.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u2019<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u2019<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">If there is even a hint of evidence that the antiquity was removed from the country of origin after November 1970<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> it is treated as illegally exported art by the international community. All subsequent transactions of stolen art are null and void.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Is there something arbitrary about using November 14, 1970, to decide if someone has a legal title? Well, yes, but bright lines in law are necessary for functional markets.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Free market exchanges, by definition, entail the transfer of legal property claims between buyer and seller. When a visitor leaving a museum buys a pair of sunglasses from a street vendor for $20, a legal transfer of property rights assumes that the visitor has a legal right to the $20 bill and the street vendor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[1399,1404,1405,1409,1264,1410,1401,1408,1411,1407,1412,1406,768,1402,1400,1403],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microeconomics","tag-antiquities","tag-antiquities-trafficking","tag-art-law","tag-atu","tag-ball-state","tag-carabinieri-art-squad","tag-cultural-heritage","tag-ethical-collecting","tag-illicit-trade","tag-legal-markets","tag-market-regulation","tag-museums","tag-property-rights","tag-provenance","tag-stolen-art","tag-unesco-1970-convention"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Art of Ownership \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/people.bsu.edu\/econbriefs\/2025\/06\/17\/the-art-of-ownership-by-dr-cecil-bohanon-and-dr-john-horowitz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Art of Ownership \u2013 by Dr. Cecil Bohanon and Dr. John Horowitz - Econ Briefs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Free market exchanges, by definition, entail the transfer of legal property claims between buyer and seller. 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