ACCG has announced that its auction to fund litigation against the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has netted over $32,000. See http://www.accg.us/issues/news/accg-benefit-auction-nets-32-000 The lots of coins and books attracted almost 2,000 bids.
It is unfortunate that it has been necessary to take legal action that then must be funded. But, concerns raised with State Department officials about problems with the system of imposing import restrictions on cultural goods have fallen on deaf ears, and while certain legislators have tried to help, the State Department has to date successfully "stonewalled" them as well.
These concerns have remained largely unchanged through the Clinton, Bush and now Obama Administrations. For example, the State Department has refused to reevaluate its decision to withhold documents in a pending FOIA case brought on behalf of ACCG and other numismatic groups despite an Obama Department of Justice mandate.
For more about these concerns (which are shared by a number of former CPAC members), see
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/search/label/IFAR
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