Ethics + No-Sell Items

We follow a strict code of ethics on what we feel comfortable participating in within the antiques trade. This is the list of items we never sell.

The short of it: we do not sell objects that were stolen.

Cultural property

The standard we use is the museum standard. No paperwork, no sale.

Grave goods, ceremonial and sacred items, funerary material, objects of cultural patrimony, anything excavated without documentation and removed from its provenance.

Part of this is law. Selling Native American human remains, or cultural items obtained in violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 1170, and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act reaches anything dug from federal or tribal land. The law binds a private dealer less tightly than most people assume. We follow an ethical boundary further than the law requires.

The American Alliance of Museums treats 17 November 1970, the date of the UNESCO cultural property convention, as the acquisition cutoff: if an object left its likely country of origin after that date, there has to be documentation that it left lawfully. We apply that to archaeological and ceremonial material wherever it came from.

Colonial-era African, Asian and Pacific objects with no paper trail. A great deal of what circulates through estate sales in those categories came out of the same century of looting, and the receipts are long gone. We will never sell these items.

If something reaches us that we believe was taken, we work to send it home. For Native American material that means the tribe's Historic Preservation Officer, or the ATADA Foundation Voluntary Returns Program, which exists for this exact situation and works directly with tribal communities. For foreign material it means the country's consulate, or Homeland Security Investigations, which handles most repatriations out of the United States. We do not ask for compensation, and we do not name the community publicly without permission.

We may still write about a piece like this. Research and a proper write-up are a different thing from a price tag.

Racist memorabilia

Historical evidence, to be studied in context. Not somebody's decor.

Mammy figures, minstrel material, Jim Crow era caricature, lawn jockeys, and everything adjacent to them. These items turn up at estate sales and other antique stores far more often than we would like. We will never sell these items.

When we come across it, we work to take it out of circulation if we have the ability. Any of these pieces are donated and placed within an institution that collects this material for research and teaching. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University in Michigan is the one that does this work best. As of summer 2026 the museum has paused artifact donations while it sorts out storage, so where that holds we keep the material out of the market until it can be placed.

This material is historical evidence and it should be studied within its context to talk about racism. It should not be somebody's decor.

Other items we do not sell

Human remains

Bone, teeth, skulls, anatomical specimens. We will never sell these items.

Firearms and live ammunition

Neither, in any condition.

Anything flagged as stolen

We search the FBI National Stolen Art File and Interpol's stolen works database before anything goes up.

Hairwork and mourning jewellery are a separate matter, and we do sell those. Hair is not treated as anatomical material. It was cut and kept deliberately, usually by the people who loved the person it came from.