The small world of Byzantine coins at Parisian auction: Agents, collectors and value

During the nineteenth century, Byzantine culture gained new interest from artists, scholars, and collectors. Consequently, a market for Byzantine artworks emerged. Little is known about the actors of this market, its evolution, and its structure: did Byzantine coins constitute a distinct subfield, with different prices suppliers, and collectors than icons and enamels? One document allows us to analyze the market for Byzantine coins, and to compare it with that of the Byzantine works to a broader extent, and with the numismatic one, in the nineteenth century. Indeed, the minutes of Parisian auction sales, curated at the Archives de Paris, make it possible to pinpoint the seller of each object, its buyer, and its hammer price. Matched with the corresponding auction catalogue, which gives all the information on the objects, the minute allows a comprehensive picture of all the transactions. Based on a dataset of Parisian auction sales of Byzantine artefacts, including coins, this paper aims at reconstructing the commercial paths of the Byzantine coins in the nineteenth century, comparing the different prices and their evolution, and, finally, identify and map the private and public actors of this market.