Yes, you have said a mouth full and I totally agree with what you are saying. You have
been one of the most helpful people in both the posts that you post on here and also over
on the Coin lists (that I'm also on). I thank you for all your work. I understand that
Paul has been kicked of many other lists and when he starts up stink on another list, I
think he should be kicked off.
Kim
Dave Welsh wrote:
> Readers of the AncientArtifacts list have recently indicated how unhappy
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
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