It's interesting to note that an archaeo-blog from Poland tries to turn a story of an airport seizure into a supposed justification for US import restrictions on Egyptian coins. Never mind the seizure took place in Egypt or that the passenger was travelling to Italy, not to the United States.
The problem with this logic is that the import restrictions that are advocated are grossly overbroad, focusing on the place of production of ancient coins and not their find spots. Their aim is to ban all trade in undocumented coins, not just the trade in items where there is a reasonable belief (like that here) that they are the products of recent, illicit digs.
Leaving aside the question of whether Egypt's absolutely Pharaonic antiquities laws should be liberalized, it does appear that the Egyptian Military Dictatorship again has control over its borders. So, there is no longer any reason (if there ever was) for import restrictions that only apply to American collectors and not to collectors elsewhere, including within this archaeo-blogger's native Poland.
Ha, Mr Tompa, you've caught him yet again with his trousers down. He's obviously never heard of the adage, 'when you are in a hole stop digging,' or he'd stop entertaining us all with his schoolboy howlers.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even more hilarious is that if this story was archaeological evidence and he was there to interpret it....well, no need to continue is there...
Best wishes
John Howland
England