Here is the latest information on the ACCG, IAPN and PNG Freedom of Information Act Lawsuit against the US State Department: http://www.accg.us/issues/news/limited-state-department-foia-releases-raise-more-questions-than-they-answer
As the report indicates, it has been almost a year since the controversial decision to impose import restrictions on Cypriot type. Yet, the little information the State Department has released raises more questions than it has answered.
Hopefully, any reports James Glassman and Goli Ameri receive about this litigation will prompt hard questions about ECA's transparency of process.
Ellen Herscher of CAARI indicated on the Museum Security List-Serve that Dr. Parks was not a CAARI trustee. Here is my response:
ReplyDeleteIn response to Ms. Herscher's email, my apologies for evidently misidentifying Dr. Parks as a CARRI Trustee. That information was taken from the RogueClassicism web site: http://www.atrium-media.com/rogueclassicism/Posts/00006587.html ("Danielle loved Cyprus and was a trustee of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI).")
At the same time, I must disagree with any suggestion that Dr. Parks was unaffiliated with CAARI. CAARI has named a fellowship in Dr. Parks' honor and describes her affiliation as such:
"Danielle Parks, author of The Roman Coinage of Cyprus (Nicosia, 2004), directed excavations at the Amathus Gate Cemetery and for a time was assistant to the Director of CAARI. She first came to Cyprus as an Anita Cecil O'Donovan Fellow."
See: http://www.caari.org/Fellowships.htm
The fact remains that the State Department could have consulted with neutral bodies like the ANS, the Smithsonian or the British Museum about coins of Cypriot type. Instead, the State Department decided to consult secretly with Dr. Parks, who had an affiliation with CAARI, an organization that was evidently intimately involved in seeking the import restrictions on coins of Cypriot type in the first place. That the consultation took place on 1/17/07 when Cyprus only requested for import restrictions on coins in a diplomatic note dated 1/19/07 is all the more suspicious.
We would, of course, hope to learn more about this CAARI-State Department effort, but are being stymied by the State Department's failure to make meaningful disclosures of FOIA material.