they are with many posts that have appearedlately in that list. Paul Barford
and his fellow traveler Trevor have been mentioned as the originators of
some of the most objectionable messages.
I ask that our long-suffering list readers take just a moment to understand
who began this intensely disagreeable and wearisome controversy, and who are
those presently stoking the flames.
Prior to 1970 there was no public controversy regarding antiquities
collecting. Objections to this time-honored avocation were mostly confined
to a relatively small number of radical archaeologists (led by Colin
Renfrew) and cultural preservation interests, notable those of "source
states" in Latin America, Africa and other underdeveloped countries whose
citizens had no objection to exporting old cultural artifacts for money.
In these days of cultural peace, collectors and antiquities dealers were
significant supporters of the archaeological community, and often donated
generously to help start or sustain archaeological expeditions. I did so
myself, and my contribution (according to the leader of the project, who
read my letter to the expedition staff) was helpful in keeping interest
going during the most difficult times of the Mary Rose project.
In 1970 a very divisive international convention (the UNESCO Convention) was
promulgated, and since then things have never been the same. Collectors and
the antiquities dealer community on the one hand, and archaeologists,
cultural authorities and allied academics on the other hand, are literally
at war with each other. It is a cold war - so far no one is shooting at each
other - but one that is nevertheless deadly serious. I fear that it will
turn out to be like the Israel-Palestinian conflict, an uncompromising clash
of ideology that can only be settled by force majeure and will go on almost
indefinitely.
If the so-called preservation lobby would simply accept the status quo, and
agree that collectors and dealers have a right to an open licit market to
provide antiquities to collectors, there would be no controversy and
everyone involved could direct their efforts toward working in harmony to
reform and clean up the antiquities trade. The preservation lobby does not
want to settle for that. Instead, they intend to work for the abolition of
the antiquities trade and of antiquities collecting. That really is their
ultimate objective, they are working very hard and intelligently at it, and
they have powerful allies in academia and in various governmental bureaus
and ministries.
It's quite clear to me that this unrelenting assault upon collecting, this
unjustifiable blackguarding of collectors and dealers with the most
misleading doublespeak and linguistic misdirection since the heyday of Josef
Goebbels, is driven by radical socialist ideology (all artifacts belong to
the State) not by realistic practical considerations. Everyone would be far
better off if the effort involved had been cooperatively directed toward
concrete measures directed at the causes of antiquities looting and
smuggling, not the unrealistic fantasies of archaeologists and academics who
do not understand the antiquites trade, nor the views and concerns of those
doing the looting.
So when you see the next round of posts on this unwelcome topic, please
remember that collectors and dealers are not those stoking the flames -
Baford & Co. are doing that. We are their very unwilling victims, and all we
are attempting to do is to defend ourselves. When they stop this
unreasonable, unjustified and unproductive attack, the controversy will
immediately end.
Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L
dwelsh46@cox.net
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