Treat the listing as a bundle of claims to test, not as evidence that has already been verified.
Before making an offer
- Save the complete listing and all photographs.
- Ask for the seller’s legal name and business location.
- Request the full ownership chain with dates and documents.
- Ask when and from where the object was exported.
- Ask when and how it entered the destination country.
- Request restoration and scientific-testing records.
- Check ICOM risk categories and INTERPOL ID-Art.
- Get authenticity, title, legality, and return representations in writing.
Walk away when: the seller invents urgency, refuses documents, offers to misdescribe customs, claims “legal because it is cheap,” relies only on a generic certificate, or cannot explain how the object left its source country.
Search clearly labeled replicas and reference books
For high-risk cultural material, use the marketplace for clearly labeled replicas, casts, museum-shop objects, and reference books rather than undocumented archaeological pieces.
Search clearly labeled replicas and reference books