Tut on Tour: 30-years of Demand Creation through Exhibition

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study is a multidisciplinary investigation into factors that create, enhance, and normalize demand for collecting antiquities. Using the original blockbuster, Treasures of Tutankhamun, as the case study, this doctoral research investigates the correlating antiquities markets' reaction to Tut blockbusters by gathering, quantifying, and contextualizing 30 years of exhibition and antiquities market data. The market for illicit Egyptian antiquities is a demand-driven economic system predicated on collectors and museums acquiring antiquities; thus, we must understand what influences demand for antiquities. Drawing on primary sources coupled with archaeological, economic, museological, and criminological theory, this research addresses the assumption that blockbuster exhibitions influence demand in the antiquities market. Anecdotal evidence cited in news articles and single-auction evidence in academic journals make up the totality of evidence for this assumption; thus, this research addresses a pivotal gap concerning causality between museums, the market, and the illicit trade. By identifying and understanding trends related to blockbuster exhibitions and collecting, the objective of this study is to introduce reliable data to the crucial debate concerning the relationship between museum blockbuster exhibitions, end-market demand, and the illicit antiquities trade. The results illustrate an instantaneous and intense demand for ancient egyptian material on the market when tut tours.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37741.0