Jos van Beurden writes:
- ‘There are many misunderstandings about our trade. Art dealers are too easily lumped together. The outside world makes no distinction between who of us comply with the law and who do not.’
- ‘Dealers who respect the ethical codes stay away from objects of dubious provenance, even if they are of high aesthetic quality or great value.’
Two countries, two approaches
It is not hard to think of modern-day art dealers who make statements like the above ones, while these two were made a quarter of a century ago (published in 2001).
The first is of Jean Nies, owner of a gallery in Eersel, Brabant in the Netherlands, where he sold Southeast Asian objects. The second comes from Wim Bouwman of ‘Aalderink Oriental Art and Ethnografica’ in the district with upmarket galleries in Amsterdam.
This possibly typifies the relationship between certain museums and the art trade in the Netherlands, but immediately across the border things can be very different.
In the year 2000, the Ethnographic Museum in Antwerp (now merged into the Museum aan de Stroom, MAS) held an exhibition, titled ‘Steps to Liberation. 2500 years of Jain Art and Religion’. The Jains are a religious group in India. Director Jan Van Alphen said at the time: ‘Our museum collection is too small for such a large exhibition. We cannot do without the art dealers. We have good relations with them.’
Director Thys van den Audenaerde of the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren expressed similar views. Although his museum had a much larger collection, it could not do without the art trade.
From his side, Marcel Nies of ‘Oriental Art’ (Jean’s son) in the Scheldt city also praised the cooperation with the ethnographic museums in Belgium. ‘Our relations are good.’
Art museums
The relationship between the art trade and museums is not only foggy, museums do not like to be open about it, as Mark Westgarth showed in the exhibition ‘SOLD! in the Bowes Museum in Northeast England in 2019. In his view, it is ‘one of the most persistent taboos in current museum practice’.
In general, there is regular contact between art and history museums on the one hand and art dealers, auction houses and private collectors on the other’.
The TEFAF 2024 art fair (Maastricht 9-14 March; New York 7-13 May) claims that among its visitors there were 300 museum directors and 650 curators, while major museums in the global north made substantial acquisitions, especially works from artists in Europe and the Mediterranean.
Museums with colonial collections
At both fairs, there were also art dealers who offered objects from former colonial regions, and they were also successful. But the TEFAF overview does not mention any of their sales.
According to both museum professionals and experts in the art trade, the ongoing debate about restitution is enlarging the gap between museums and traders.
Museums with colonial collections do not buy from art dealers anymore.
One reason is distrust. ‘I stay as far away as possible from the trade,’ assures a Belgian curator on the basis of anonymity. Often provenance reports from the art trade that accompany objects do not match the high standards of ethnographic museums. Unlike in the past, these museums accept only crystal clear provenances.
When meeting Marcel Nies again in 2023, he confirms the existence of this gap. ‘I scarcely sell objects without decent provenance research. The media now dominate the restitution discussion.’ He is visibly unhappy about this development.
Change in the trade
The provenance research reports of some art dealers have become richer, their answers to difficult questions are starting to look like museum answers. ‘Primary research is not the exclusive preserve of curators and academics – art market practitioners do it too’, a 2016 conference participant argued. A decade later, this may be even more so.
That, however, does not diminish the gap between them and museums with colonial collections.
In many European countries, the authorities are cutting back on culture and museums have to do with less money. ‘Our museum hardly has any links with the art trade anymore, because virtually no purchases are made,’ reports a curator of a major university museum.
Finally, there is a tendency among these museums not to acquire new collections that date from the colonial days, and if they do, they prefer to do so in cooperation with source communities and avoid the art trade.
