Monday, August 15, 2011

Wall Street Journal Legal Blog on ACCG Case

As the Wall Street Journal Legal Blog observes,

"The next time you try to bring antiques into the U.S., think again: if they look old enough and don’t have any documentation, customs officials might just seize them as potentially looted cultural artifacts."

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/08/15/court-rules-u-s-customs-rightfully-seized-ancient-coins/?mod=google_news_blog

Scare tactics? Hardly. It's not too hard to imagine someone purchasing an old Roman Republican coin at a shop in Italy or one of the millions of Chinese cash coins extant at a stall in Indonesia, only to have it seized by those ever so friendly US Customs officers after a long flight at the end of what had beforehand been a pleasant vacation.

Perhaps the bureaucracy is out of control after all....even if at least one US District Court Judge would rather not hold it accountable as a legal matter.

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