The Financial Times has a blurb about Lord Renfrew as a collector of modern art: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3817064-bc1b-11dd-80e9-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
In it Lord Renfrew also states the following about collecting archaeological artifacts:
I’m much in favour of collecting, so long as it doesn’t involve objects recently taken from the ground. In my opinion all too many collections are scandalous for this very reason. I don’t mind so much people buying antiquities looted a century ago, but not if the items in question entered the market post-1970 when the convention on the illegal trade in antiquities was signed.
While the article focuses on Renfrew's collection of modern art, I also understand from several sources that he maintains a collection of ancient Etruscan coins. Given Lord Renfrew's public stance on collecting, it would be interesting to learn more about the "provenance" of the coins in the collection. It would also be interesting to learn if the collection has been published anywhere.
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I agree--it would be very interesting to know the details regarding the provenance of those coins and whether it lives up to the "due diligence" rhetoric that is regularly bandied about by the cultural property camp. Ethics often have a funny habit of bending to accomodate one's own predilections.
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