2024 ILAB Symposium Paris

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, ILAB, is pleased to invite antiquarian booksellers, librarians, collectors and art market professionals to a one-day symposium in Paris at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), part of the Bibliothèque national de France, on the now vitally important issue of provenance and security.

This symposium follows those organised around similar themes in New York (Grolier Club) in 2019 and in Oxford (Bodleian Library) in 2022. It will once again bring together an international panel of experts to address these crucial issues & highlight some of the realities of the rare book trade. The idea is to encourage cooperation between all the players in the market, ahead of the Salon du Livre Rare Paris 2024 at the Carreau du Temple.
The Paris book fair opens the following day.

The event, organised by ILAB and supported by the French antiquarian booksellers association, Syndicat National de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne (SLAM), will be followed by a reception at the INHA.

Participation is free but booking is compulsory.
The event will be held in French and English - simultaneous translation is available for all guests in both languages.

Please contact the ILAB Secretariat to make your reservation: secretariat@ilab.org

In conjunction with the symposium, a guided tour of the BNF's newly renovated reading rooms will be organised for a limited number of people on Thursday 13 June.
Reservations are also required.


PROGRAMME

WELCOME & REGISTRATION: 1 pm START OF SESSION 1: 1.30 pm

OPENING:
Mario Giupponi, President of the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and Jean-Marc Dechaud, President of the Syndicat National de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne (SLAM).
Welcome by Nicolas Malais (Symposium Moderator)

SESSION 1

New provenance requirements & the day-to-day reality of booksellers & libraries

Provenance research aims to retrace the history of a book and its owners: this has always been an essential task for rare book dealers and library curators. But the situation has changed: market players are faced with ever greater legal, institutional and public demands. Closer collaboration between the various players in the book trade on these issues is now more crucial than ever. Are the new provenance requirements always justified and necessary? How can we strike a balance that meets everyone’s needs while respecting an increasingly strict regulatory framework?

PRESENTATIONS:

Cultural property protection and provenance research: The particular responsibility of German antiquarian booksellers and librarians
Dr Markus Brandis, Managing Director at Bassenge Book Auctions, Berlin & President of the German Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association, Verband Deutscher Antiquare

Sold in Italy. Examples of Italian Institutional Deaccessioning Revealed by the Rare Book Trade
Ariane Adeline, Proprietor of Livres anciens Ariane Adeline, Paris

The identification of provenance in libraries, between a legal and scientific challenge
Jean-Marc Chatelain, Director of the Rare Book Reserve of the Bibliothèque nationale de France

ROUND TABLE:

The search for provenance between regulatory framework and collaborative work.

The above speakers will be joined by:
Pierre-Jean Riamond, Head of the Heritage Office, Department of Books and Reading, Ministry of Culture and Yann Sordet, Director of the Mazarine Library and the library of the Institut de France

COFFEE BREAK: 3.30 – 3.45 pm

SESSION 2

The book trade, provenance research & safeguarding written heritage

Provenance research makes it possible to combat trafficking in cultural goods: books that have been stolen, forged, spoliated, illegally exported, etc. It is therefore an essential tool for protecting our written heritage: the book and manuscript trade can no longer do without it. This session will be followed by a presentation of ILAB’s Missing Book Register (MBR).

PRESENTATIONS:

T.J. Wise Revisited: When Two Young Booksellers Exposed a Notorious Forger
Joseph Hone, author and book historian, Newcastle, UK

Theft and spoliation of written heritage during the Second World War: provenance research and current issues
Dr Isabelle Rouge-Ducos, Palaeograph Archivist, Head Curator of Heritage, Researcher at the Mission for the Research and Restitution of Cultural Property Looted between 1933 and 1945, General Secretariat, Ministry of Culture

UNESCO’s tools for protecting cultural heritage and combating illicit trade
Louise Malecot, UNESCO - Associate Programme specialist at the Movable Heritage and Museums Unit

Institut Art & Droit: Presentation of the working group on provenance in the art market
Prof. Françoise Labarthe, Université Paris-Saclay, Institut Art & Droit

Neither a stigma nor a secret - Why thefts and missing books need reporting
Presentation of the ILAB Missing Books Register
Angus O’Neill, Omega Bookshop, London & ILAB Vice President and Security Chair

ROUND TABLE:

Provenance research and the fight against book smuggling

The above speakers will be joined by:
Colonel Hubert Percie du Sert, Central Office for Combating Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC - Office Central de Lutte Contre le Trafic des Biens Culturels)

CONCLUSION

Presentation of the new SLAM training institute at the École des Chartes
An opportunity to teach future booksellers about provenance research.

Anne Lamort, Anne Lamort Livres anciens, Honorary President of SLAM and Executive Director of the new SLAM Training Institute