Variably Legal and Irregularly Regulated: Global Markets in Collectable Antiquities, Wildlife, and Fossils

This chapter examines global markets in collectable antiquities, wildlife, and fossils as ‘variably legal markets’ (VLMs) characterized by complex intersections of legality and illegality. These markets present public, legally sanctioned facades while simultaneously facilitating transactions that violate market-governing laws and regulations. The chapter argues that these trades are supported by sociocultural frameworks valorizing collection, creating ‘desirescapes’ where objects exert a compelling allure that can motivate illegal acquisition. We develop the concept of ‘irregularly regulated’ markets across five dimensions: jurisdictionally, temporally, socially, culturally, and discursively. This framework extends beyond conventional understandings of variable legality by demonstrating how social norms, cultural status, and strategic narratives sustain these markets despite growing regulation. The chapter explores how ‘criminogenic collectables’ operate through processes of sacral valuation, where objects transcend material properties to acquire profound personal and cultural significance that can override both economic rationality and legal constraints. By examining these markets through multiple analytical lenses, we better understand why traditional regulatory approaches often fail and how the boundaries between compliance and violation remain persistently blurred within collecting economies where objects themselves become central agents in transnational networks of desire, value, and contested illegality.