Here is what I said at yesterday's CPAC meeting to discuss proposed renewals with Belize and Libya. My comments related solely to Libya. I hope to upload a summary of what happened in the near future.
Thank you for letting me speak on behalf of the micro and
small businesses of the numismatic trade.
CPAC should focus on facts not false narratives based on a report from
ASOR, which received $800,000 in State Department grants for its work in Libya.
ASOR’s report will
be used to justify extending this MOU to quote “save” Libyan cultural
heritage. However, after reading it, one
can only conclude that Libya has failed to take necessary self-help measures. Libya
does not enforce its own confiscatory Ghaddafi era laws. ASOR only
documents five seizures of looted antiquities in Libya since 2017 when import
restrictions were first promulgated. Thefts
from museums after the 2011 Revolution are detailed, but poor documentation
makes recovery far more difficult. Anything
recovered could be returned as “stolen property” anyway, without an MOU.
Given the
reality on the ground, can CPAC in good conscience recommend further import
restrictions on coins? It is impossible
to assume most coins on the designated list were found in Libya. The current designated list includes many Imperial
coin types that circulated regionally or internationally. Other Greek silver and gold coins did not even
“circulate primarily” in Libya, the State Department’s own standard. Recently, IAPN demonstrated that coins of
Alexander the Great should be delisted for Cyprus because they did not meet
this criteria. However, the State
Department ignored this research and instead expanded the current Cypriot list even
further! That raises the question, is
the State Department’s own standard “just for show?”
Libya is a
complete mess with a bloody gun battle between rival factions in Tripoli just
last week. Hopefully, one day Libya will be at peace and $800,000 can be used to
fund a Portable Antiquities Scheme rather than trying to justify suppressing coin collecting further. US collectors are not at fault for Libya’s
problems and should not suffer further damage in search of an illusory
solution. Thank you.
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