The membership of European community aligned the government’s efforts to
make Britain a multi cultural
[8]
cosmopolitan community may have raised the awareness of the
county’s own culture
[9]
. The minority groups fighting to maintain their own beliefs
and related practices have given rise to some investigation into the natives
own culture. Academically and through
visual investigation it is clear that Britain has been subject to influences
from outside its shores. Aesthetically the iconography of Britain is more cosmopolitan
than most of the inhabitants wish to believe
[10]
.
Membership of this cosmopolitan community, with England’s position as one
of the depositories for the world’s heritage from antiquity to modern day has
forced the government’s hand to abide by various agreements. This raises issues
in the ownership of cultural properties when new cross border law is produced
or denounced within Europe Community. A huge effort had been placed in the control
or transfer of cultural property across country borders. These agreements/directives/laws
are imposed on a market that is fragmented and trades without any governing
body either in Europe or nationally. Requiring each citizen to be aware of each
directive placed, believed to be 1,200 published within the last year
[11]
.
The open discussion that follows removes the legacy restraints placed on
it by academics and the markets themselves. This is due to the conflicting terms
[12]
used by the active market compared against interviewees
[13]
. Dictionaries now use contemporary common terms along side
slang as part of the English language make up. Moreover, the fact that the apparent
global market for Fine Art, antiques and collectables uses these terms in different
period time frames. The removal of these barriers eliminates the need to continually
place them in context
[14]
for the related discussion. The market discussed relates
to second hand portable goods on the basis that they were previously sold as
new
[15]
at least once before. The definition of Fine Art has been
a topic of discussion in many books
[16]
.
Historically the world has traded second-hand goods from the beginning
of the civilised world.
[17]
Records in Venice
[18]
show a high trade in goods from previous and the same period.
The English market though not formalised by catalogue production until ‘1689/90
refers to the selling of ‘paintings and limmings by auction’ at the Barbadoes
Coffee House…’ then Sotheby’s 1744
[19]
and Christies in 1766
[20]
. The medieval vernacular cultural and social
formed its trading activities around a number of market towns. Selling livestock
and foodstuffs drawing rural dwellers and townsfolk alike to a commercial centre.
Today the market still appears to be stuck in this time frame. Research
into the trading volumes and financial activities has to be calculated from
a number of resources with many reluctant to forward financial information
[21]
.
Government and company figures combined provide an estimate of the volume
traded in one year believed to in excess of 10 million transactions, traded
within the market or sold to the consumer
[22]
. A similar amount of transactions as the UK and Irish equity
markets on the London stock exchange 1992
[23]
. The DTI and Customs & Excises provide some indication
of the turnover, yet unlike nearly all other retail business these figures cannot
be sampled or tracked to the quantity or price with any reasonable accuracy.
In fact the EC and British government directive to control prices simply excludes
art and antiques without established qualification
[24]
.
The hammer fell with the various anti trust cases against Christies and
Sotheby’s
[25]
along with the internet bubble busting
[26]
following the success of eBay
[27]
. Bernard Arnault CEO of LVMH
[28]
including Louis Vuitton attempting to corner the luxury goods
market by purchasing the majority of shares in companies such as Phillips, QXL
and Art Price Index. City analysts and investors to make a commercial success
for the shareholders benefit,
[29]
the reduction could have been from closer inspection of this
sector and the inability to directly market to its buyers. This being based
on the newspapers ability to portray aspiring or super rich demographical group.
[30]