Kudos to Larry Rothfield for exposing the fallacy of the outdated claim that demand from American and European collectors drives looting. These days wealthy Gulf Arabs, Chinese and Russians are far more likely to buy recently looted material.
The prohibitionist message the AIA and elements within the archaeological blogosphere preach against American and European collectors has had little positive impact on looting. On the other hand, it has driven a wedge between collectors and archaeologists and has diminished the public's knowledge and appreciation of ancient cultures.
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A Web Log Championing the Longstanding Interests of Collectors in the Preservation, Study, Display and Enjoyment of Cultural Artifacts Against an "Archaeology Over All" Perspective
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
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About Me
- Cultural Property Observer
- Washington, DC, United States
- Peter Tompa has collected ancient coins for almost 50 years. He has written and lectured about cultural property issues for a decade. He is a contributor to a chapter on numismatics in K. Fitz Gibbon ed., "Who Owns the Past?" (Rutgers 2005). He has lobbied members of the U.S. Congress and the Executive Branch in an effort to ensure that the small businesses of the numismatic trade receive fair treatment from federal regulators. He currently serves as a board member of the Cultural Policy Research Institute and the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild. He also has been a co-chair of the American Bar Association's Art & Cultural Heritage Law Committee. His advocacy has received notice in the media, including the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Art Newspaper and the Voice of America. He hopes his views as a collector and lawyer will provide a counterpoint to the "archaeology over all" perspective found in most blogs about cultural property issues. This Web page is a public resource for general information and opinion about cultural property issues, and is not intended to be a source for legal advice. Opinions expressed here are the author's own.
2 comments:
Arthur Houghton asked me to post this:
"Peter, Rothfield's discovery is not news. The market knows where things are going -- in the direction of the new moneyed collectors in Russia, China, the Gulf and elsewhere who have the means to buy virtually everything they want with no restraints and absolutely no scruples.
It is predictable that the undistinguished non-scholar in Poland would wring his hands and say 'oh no it can't be so'. The fellow, an America hater from the get-go, can't believe that the US is not the Great Satan in fact. Let him eat hotdogs.
Thank you again for your thoughtful articles.
Arthur"
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