Robert Korver has resigned from his position on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee to protest the State Departement Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs' and U.S. Customs' decision to impose new import restrictions on "coins of Italian type." See http://www.coinworld.com/articles/korver-resigns-from-cpac-in-protest-over-impo/
Such coins had been previously exempted from restrictions in 2001 and 2006. Based on his resignation, it again appears that CPAC recommended against import restrictions, but ECA rejected that advice-- just as it first did on the Cypriot renewal of 2007.
Was this action justified by the facts on the ground (which if anything suggest that all restrictions should be scaled back), or did the bureaucrats at ECA merely act to try to help justify their earlier controversial decision on Cypriot coins and/or what they want to do anyway on the proposed MOU with Greece?
Korver had served on CPAC since 2003.
Hopefully, ECA will be called to account either by Congress or in the pending ACCG test case in Baltimore.