By advocating for an international convention that would reverse the burden of proof and place it on auction houses selling antiquities, Cyprus has turned further away from its past Common Law traditions as part of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
Auction Houses can and should be more transparent about what is known about an object's provenance, but proposals that call for a reversal of the burden of proof are more appropriate for Middle Eastern dictatorships than for democracies like Cyprus.
And as one of the comments to the linked Cyprus Mail article mentions, in any event perhaps it's not the best time for Cyprus to make such demands given that ongoing matter in Paphos
Hello Peter:
ReplyDeletePresumably these proposals only apply to the Greek half of the island and not to the Turkish held portion?
The Greek Cypriots apparently lacking the will, skill, or ability to catalogue their own museums, are shifting that responsibility on to presumably more adept collectors and dealers.
It's also evident that Middle Eastern Dictatorships (corrupt or otherwise), where Human Rights are an affront to their institutionalised brutality, wields a powerful attraction to archaeology's Commissars and one has only to look at the CVs of some international proponents to realise that in international archaeological spheres, the inmates are slowly taking control of the asylum.
Best
John Howland
UK
After years of insulting us the gentleman in Warsaw seems to think we should share his comments on our respective blogs. Well, speaking for myself he can spend all the time he wants writing and sending comments to Stout Standards….they, like those he has sent in the past, will wind up in the trash bin.
ReplyDeleteIt’s really too bad he doesn’t know how to convey his thoughts or converse with anyone who disagrees with him or who doesn’t share his "all or nothing" views.
I originally let him comment, but gave up in frustration given the tenor of many of his comments and what he said about me and others on his own blog. I then gave him a chance to comment if he were mentioned, but gave up on that too for the same reasons. He's got plenty of other outlets and he's now very active on Twitter. That will have to do for him.
ReplyDelete