Sadigh Gallery

Image source: pbs.org NAGPRA stands for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. It is a federal law passed in 1990 that states a process for museums and federal agencies to return Native American artifacts to their original, lineal descendants or tribes. These could be human remains, sacred objects, funerary objects, or artifacts of cultural patrimony. While it all sounds black and white, museums and agencies are deeply challenged by this law, making it a controversial cultural debate over the years. Since NAGPRA’s legislation, it became a common belief that American Indians were happy about its passing. However, there were still some natives who felt that government was not doing enough to compensate for the damages that they have inflicted over the course of history. These include theft from the tribes and the damage that science has brought. Image source: theangryhistorian.blogspot.com At the same time, archaeologists and museum curators be...

When you’re paying a high price for a valuable piece of art, it’s important to know that what you’re buying is 100% authentic.   There are many ways to check if an artwork is authentic or not.   There’s the consistency of the age of the frame, the signature on the artwork, and of course, proper documentation.   When it comes to documentation, art aficionados and auctioneers make sure that customers receive provenance when buying authentic art.   But what is provenance and why is it so important? Provenance is a document that authenticates a piece of art.   It comes from the French word provenir meaning to come from. It shows the ownership history of the piece of art. Of course, like most documentation, provenance can be falsified.   This is why it’s important to know the forms in which provenance can take.   It can be a signed statement of authenticity from the artist or an expert affiliated with the artist, it can also be a sales receipt ...

Not a lot of people can manage the collection of rare coins. There are a number of considerations for the purchase and storage of these valuable items. Regardless, rare coins are a worthwhile investment and coin collecting is a fulfilling hobby. Image source: nationalcoins.ca In the pursuit of rare coin collection, their maintenance in mint condition is paramount to their market value. Here are some tips to care for your rare coins. Be careful when you hold them Even the smallest amount of oil the body produces can easily damage vintage coins. Avoid touching the faces of the coin. Instead, hold them by their edges. If you’re getting your hands on them, sanitize your hands first. Plastic gloves and other protective tools can also be used in handling these. Be careful when cleaning Ignorance of the proper ways of cleaning coins could damage them. New collectors commonly make the mistake of applying abrasives or acid to clean old coins. As much as possible, non-des...

Coin collecting can be a worthwhile hobby as it is an opportunity to learn history. But if you’ve been a collector of anything, you’d know that starting a collection is never an easy task. Image source: portcitycoinblog.com It becomes even harder if you want to collect antique coins. Disciplined maintenance has to be in place to maintain or drive up the value of the coins. Collectors have to know the ropes so they don’t get fooled into buying a coin for more than its worth. Here is a beginner’s guide on antique coin collecting: Handling antique coins is a precise process. People would think that because they’re made of metal, they would be tough or immune to damage. So putting them all in a box is a huge no-no. There are proper cases or storage options that you’ll need for these coins. Not only will these be ideal protections from damage, they will also be easier to label and more presentable. Handling techniques should also be learned to make sure coins are not damaged...

Ancient art ranging from paintings to stone carvings reveal a little about the culture, behaviors, and inclinations of societies that have long disappeared. In the Stone Age, for instance, home may be a simple cave, but the artwork is no less captivating and compelling. Image source: ListVerse.com Rock paintings, as well as engravings, are some of the oldest continuously practiced art forms in the world, and they are as wide-ranging as the cultures and civilizations that are creating them. The themes can be wildly diverse, too, such as human figures, animals, intricate geometric patterns, and even weird combinations of human and animal features. They typically represent the mundane and every day in ancient people’s lives, a representation of their common realities. Spain’s El Castillo has walls with painted dots and hand stencils. In this underground cave, there are 40,800-year-old reddish creations that emerge as the oldest-known cave art. In India’s rural village...

Ancient Egyptians didn’t have a word for “art,” but their unparalleled wealth of architecture, paintings, murals, statues, and other crafts surely reflected art in the most impressive form. Ancient Egyptian art is characterized by common themes of gods and pharaohs as well as everyday life and healthy human figures. Museums around the world – from Cairo to New York – contain many of these splendid artworks and collections. Here are some notable works of art from the Ancient Egyptian period. Khufu’s Statue This small yet grand ivory status of Pharaoh Khufu is the man’s only portrait discovered so far, the only physical proof of his reign for two decades. Found at the ancient necropolis of Abydos, the statue’s body was discovered ahead of its head. Today it’s housed in the Cairo museum. Image source : FactsandDetails.com    Egyptian Book of the Dead From the 16th century B.C., this scroll was entombed with different wealthy individuals. ...

Have you heard of out-of-place artifacts? Oopart, as it’s commonly called, represents dozens of prehistoric items found in different places around the world that appear to be technologically advanced, unlike the times in which they were made. Here are some interesting out-of-place artifacts, and they remain interesting whether they are fake or misinterpreted, misdated, or don’t come with any reasonable explanation. Image source: ArchyFantasies.com 500,000 year old spark plug In 1961, three individuals were searching for geodes for their gem and gift shop in California when they stumbled on what seemed to be a spark plug encased in a geode. The device was dated at 500,000 years or older. Armed with x-rays and an artist’s sketch of the artifact, critics of the claim thought it was truly a modern spark plug housed in a quick-forming concretion instead of a geode. Mysterious blue stone Could an odd kind of blue stone, discovered in 1990 by archeologist Angelo Pit...