Tuesday, May 5, 2009

eBay Fakes Devalue the Craft of Tomb Robbing

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 05, @02:36PM

from the disintermediation-of-the-illicit dept.
The Internet
James McP writes"According to an article on Archaeology, fake artifacts being sold on eBay have caused the bottom to drop out of the low-end artifact market. This outcome is exactly opposite to what archeologists feared would happen when eBay came on the scene. A side effect of more and more forgers getting in on the act has been a dramatic increase in high-quality fakes that can fool experts and illicit collectors alike, lowering the price for high-end artifacts as well. It's a lot less cost-effective to go tomb raiding than to make your own fakes, especially since selling fake artifacts isn't really illegal."

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