The Obama Record for Collectors: Not a Good One

President Obama's reelection efforts will not rise or fall on his Administration's position on ancient coin collecting, but his record on cultural patrimony issues is worth recounting because of the stark contrast between the Administration's rhetoric and the dismal reality of its actions.

Transparency-  The rhetoric:  President Obama promised that his Administration would be the most transparent in history.   The reality:  The Obama State Department has refused to release the most basic information about its decision making on import restrictions on cultural goods.  Moreover, the Administration has started closing interim reviews of MOUs.  This contrasts with the practice of the Bush Administration, which allowed the public to comment at CPAC meetings whether Italy and Cyprus had met their own obligations under MOU's.  For now at least, the public can still comment before MOU's are renewed.

Overregulation of Small Business:  The rhetoric:  The President claims to be against overregulating small business.  The reality:   The Obama Administration has extended difficult to comply with import restrictions to Greek and Roman coins from Italy and Greece (the heart of the ancient coin market), and will likely add Bulgarian coins to the list soon as well.   In so doing, the Administration has ignored multiple requests for meetings to discuss compliance issues from different coin groups, has offered only condescending responses to bipartisan Congressional inquiries (including one coordinated from the office of Republican VP Candidate Congressman Ryan), and has packed CPAC with academics with little sympathy for such concerns.

China:  The rhetoric:  The President claims he will be tough on Chinese "cheating."  The reality:  The Obama State Department has closed a CPAC meeting to discuss the interim review of the Chinese MOU.  CPAC should be discussing how import restrictions have done little but empower Chinese auction houses linked to the country's ruling elite, but the State Department will instead likely take advantage of this secrecy to spoon feed CPAC a wildly different version of whether import restrictions have been successful.

Numismatic Press Helps Promote Temple Cleanup

Coins Weekly, a German Internet numismatic publication, has spotlighted community efforts in Greece to cleanup the Temple of Aphrodite in Thessaloniki. See http://www.muenzenwoche.de/en/page/4?&id=1157&type=a

Greek archaeological authorities had allowed the temple to be taken over by trash, and had refused private efforts to help.

Apparently, however, an article in Coins Weekly helped embarrass Greek authorities enough that they allowed community members access to the site to clean up the mess.

Perhaps then, coin collecting and what it does to encourage interest in the past should be encouraged rather than suppressed as advocated in archaeological circles, and by cultural bureaucrats in both Greece and the United States.

As WikiLeak Diversion Continues, Greece Faces Meltdown

The proposed Wikileak vigilante effort to reclaim lost antiquities for Greece and Italy must be considered a diversion compared to the meltdown facing Greece's cultural establishment. See http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/government/greek-antiquities-at-risk-as-budgets-shrink-economy-falters-8929.html

The sad thing is that archaeologists seem as out of touch as ever. They are apparently hoping that a poster campaign will stave off massive budget cuts.

What is actually needed is a dose of reality and recognition that conservation can no longer be associated with control by the bankrupt Greek state. Turkey has finally recognized that not all artifacts should be in museums; it's okay to sell duplicates. Greece should do the same.

It's also interesting to note that Jack Davis, director of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, argues that collectors in the Middle East and China are the real drivers of any looting.

Respected Greek Newspaper Suggests New Approaches Needed

While archaeologists remain in denial and even hostile to any suggestion that there must be a rethink of the status quo, here is what the Telegraph has reported about what a respected Greek paper has said about the situation:

With Greek morale at rock bottom, the national mood darkened yet further after armed thieves looted a museum on Friday in Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games, and stole bronze and pottery artefacts - just weeks after the country's National Gallery was burgled.

One Greek newspaper suggested the state could no longer properly look after the nation's immense cultural heritage. "The Greek state has gone bankrupt, let's face it," the conservative daily Kathimerini said in an editorial.

"If the state cannot guard the country's great cultural heritage for financial or other reasons it must find other ways to do it."

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9091021/Germany-drawing-up-plans-for-Greece-to-leave-the-euro.html

When are we going to hear ideas from the archaeological community other than more bail outs of the bankrupt cultural establishment in Greece and more clamp downs on collectors, dealers and museums?

Time for a Major Rethink in Greece

Greece's financial meltdown has prompted calls for its economy to be liberalized by cutting back on excessive government regulations and ending state subsidies for connected insiders.

While the archaeological blogosphere remains in denial, it's time for those without a vested interest in the status quo to make suggestions on how Greece can turn its current challenges into an opportunity by similarly liberalizing its cultural establishment. Here are some ideas, though I'm sure others will have their own views.

In the Short Run:

Deploy the Greek Army to protect archaeological sites and museums.

Reduce the cultural bureaucracy. Greece sent a huge delegation to the US to appear at the State Department's CPAC hearing on Greece. (My recollection is there were 12 people there!) Most countries make do with one or two representatives. This confirms for me other complaints that the cultural ministry's upper management is grossly overstaffed.

Deaccession and sell off duplicates from museum stores to foreigners and wealthy Greeks.

Give tax breaks to individuals that donate money to Greek museums.

Require foreign archaeologists to pay a hefty user fee for the privilege of excavating in the country, but as a quid pro quo reestablish the historic practice of partage.

Require foreign archaeologists to police their own sites when they are not being actively excavated.

In the longer term:

Establish a legal market for ancient artifacts that can be taxed.

Establish a recording system akin to the Treasure Act and PAS.

Require developers to pay for the services of archaeologists to undertake salvage excavations on land likely to contain ruins, but then allow the developer to sell what is found after it is recorded, or give them a tax break if the artifact is worthy of going into a museum.

I'm not expecting any suggestions from the archaeological community other than more clamp downs on collectors, dealers and museums, but perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.

Greece in Meltdown; Archaeologists in Denial

The Greek financial meltdown has led to further cuts in Greece's already poorly funded cultural establishment, and has contributed to an increase of thefts, including a recent break-in at Olympia.

Here is how the LA Times summarized the problem:

Greece's economic crisis has left the Culture Ministry desperately short of cash, resulting in a near-shutdown of scores of museums, dwindling archaeological work in various parts of the country and, in some cases, severe cutbacks in security.

At the National Gallery, the curator acknowledged that although the safety of its collection "is not in peril," budget cuts have scaled back security personnel by about 50% since 2010, leaving the country's biggest storehouse of fine art with just 19 of the 37 guards it employed before the fiscal crisis."If robbers are breaking in here," said Vassiliki Paraschi, a bystander peering up at the gallery's assaulted balcony door, "then I can't imagine what is happening to small museums in remote locations."

Greece has never been a generous investor in culture. Even in the 1990s heyday of spendthrift policies, Athens allocated just 0.7% of the national budget for the promotion and preservation of Greece's cultural inheritance.

Now nearly bankrupt, the state has halved that figure to 0.35%, allotting 42% of that � about $173 million � to the operation and security of museums, monuments, monasteries and archaeological sites, according to the 2012 budget.

Government officials are emphatic, however, that the financial crisis is not taking a toll on the safety of Greece's fine art and antiquities."We made drastic cuts in 2010. We hired no one, not even a single archaeologist," said Lina Mendoni, secretary general of the Culture Ministry.

"We have now come back, hiring just security personnel to man museums and archaeological sites. Well, doesn't that prove our genuine conviction to safeguarding our cultural heritage?"

About 1,900 government-paid guards protect more than 15,000 museums, monuments and archaeological sites across the country. Of these, 1,350 are full-time staff members; the rest are either contract employees hired during the peak tourist season or civil servants relocated from state corporations that the government shut down last year in a bid to slash public spending.

"What am I supposed to do with a 63-year-old mechanic or bus driver who is clueless about antiquity and is just interested in clocking time until retirement?" asked Giorgos Dimakakos, the head guard at the Acropolis, Greece's landmark monument.In recent months, Culture Ministry guards have heightened demands for permanent employment and an exemption from further austerity cuts, saying the government's Band-Aid solutions to personnel shortages pose grave security and liability risks.

With poverty levels rising and more than 100,000 businesses shuttered or close to bankruptcy, art and antiquities thefts are up by at least 30% in the last year, said Kouzilos of the special police unit. It's hardly a surprise, then, to see a dramatic increase in small-time hoods and first-time crooks trying to join the ranks of seasoned art thieves."

About 95% of the names coming in from our informants are newcomers," Kouzilos said. "Not a single one of the arrested had a euro to show for [their troubles].

All were in financial ruins."In one of the most high-profile cases last year, police arrested a trio of smugglers trying to sell artifacts that included 6th century BC helmets, gold funerary masks and part of an iron sword linked to the dynasty of Alexander the Great. Only one of the gang members had a record in antiquities smuggling; the others were bouncers newly fired from a nightclub in northern Greece.

As the recession deepens, police expect art and antiquities crime to rise, but there is a silver lining."The more amateurs join in, the easier it is to nab them," Kouzilos said.

See http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-greece-antiquities-20120212,0,3742515.story

Yet, it's business as usual in the archaeological blogosphere. Bash the collectors and museums. Call for more repatriations. No one has much as suggested that the real problem facing Greece might be gross underfunding, bureaucratic incompetence, and corruption combined with excessive state controls on everything and anything old.

Acropolis for Rent

In a move that will no doubt leave archaeological purists aghast, the bankrupt Greek state is considering putting up its major historical sites for rent:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jeUrA6jll-SsuqVTVwl6nmZRk4LA?docId=CNG.f8db7d69218339b9285abcf6567bb20c.471

Hopefully, the next step will be the deaccession of excess museum inventory and the creation of a licit antiquities and numismatic market in the country.

What better way to generate much needed cash and to end a corrupt system that allows only the connected to collect what they want.

Addendum: Perhaps the Acropolis is not for rent after all: http://tom-flynn.blogspot.com/2012/01/greeks-culture-minister-rushes-to-deny.html

Coin World on Greek Import Restrictions

Coin World has published this straightforward article about the new import restrictions on Greek coins.

Seehttp://www.coinworld.com/articles/mou-results-in-broad-restrictions-by-state-de/

The author might have also added that import restrictions are not only difficult to enforce, but to comply with as well. Under the circumstances, one must again ask why the Obama Administration-- which has promised to curb stupid regulations-- has instead imposed these broad restrictions, particularly when public support is so slim.

Greek Import Restrictions: Winners and Losers

Winners

1. The Greek Cultural Bureaucracy-- The Greek Government has mismanaged its economy so badly that it is relying on Germany and the rest of the EU to bail it out. Greece's cultural bureaucracy is as poorly managed and as corrupt as the rest of the Greek government. Yet, the MOU will no doubt be cited as some sort of U.S. "seal of approval" for the status quo.

2. The Obdurate State Department Cultural Bureaucracy- You've got to hand it to the entrenched bureaucrats at the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center. Important members of Congress have expressed severe misgivings about the implementation of their statutory authority. They have been sued in Court, and even though their decisions have been upheld to date as a matter of judicial deference, this is not the same as a ringing endorsement. Yet, culture creep has turned into a roll with these expansive regulations, by far the most wide ranging since the Chinese MOU in 2009.

3. The AIA and its Archaeological Fanatics- These fanatics hold that the only legitimate exchange of archaeological artifacts is a museum loan. They view import restrictions as a way to clamp down on a trade they do not believe should exist. So far their anti-collecting agenda has meshed well with the nationalism of countries like Greece and the predilection of the State Department to trade favors to the detriment of American collectors, dealers and museums.

4. Wealthy Greek Collectors- The fanatics criticise American collectors and museums, but don't seem to care that wealthy Greek collectors buy from the same sources as American collectors do. Now, Greek collectors will gain a competitive advantage over their American counterparts who can no longer import undocumented cultural goods. No wonder a representative from the Alpha Bank, which maintains Greece's best coin collection in private hands, was part of the Greek delegation that attended the public meeting of CPAC that discussed the MOU.

Losers

1. Greece's Cultural Patrimony-Even before Greece's recent financial meltdown, the country was highly dependent on EU funds to care for its major sites. Now, with money so tight, how can the country take care of its major sites, let alone the millions of minor objects in its stores? Yet, Greek cultural officials will no doubt hope that news about the MOU will will divert attention away from these hard financial realities and help stave off much needed reforms.

2. The CPIA and the Process Congress Contemplated- Import restrictions under the CPIA are supposed to be limited to culturally significant artifacts. Less onerous measures are supposed to be considered first. The restrictions are supposed to be part of a concerted international response. Here, these broad restrictions simply ignore these requirements. Moreover, the failure to give heed to the vast majority of public comments that opposed restrictions on coins again suggests that the whole process is little more than a farce.

3. The Small Businesses of the Antiquities and Numismatic trade- Import restrictions bar entry of cultural goods legitimately for sale abroad where documentation requirements for legal import cannot be met. This is particularly a problem for the small businesses of the numismatic trade. The documentation necessary for legal import is either typically unavailable for artifacts of limited value like most ancient coins or cost prohibitive to produce for such inexpensive items.

4. US Collectors- US collectors of cultural goods, including the thousands upon thousands of Greek coin collectors will face considerable problems securing material, particularly as time goes on.

5. US Museums- Loans are a poor substitute for purchases or donations for collecting museums. The archaeological fanatics may promote loans as a substitute, but they don't have to arrange such loans with the Greek bureaucracy or pay the considerable expense associated with such loans, which typically include expensive conservation costs.

6. US Customs- US Customs officers now have another broad set of import restrictions to administer. While they may make the "big bust" on occasion, I doubt that will make up for the frustration factor of trying to ascertain whether every ancient coin or minor antiquity that "looks Greek" is on the designated list or not.

Obdurate Obama Bureaucracy Imposes Broad Import Restrictions on Greek Coins and Cultural Goods

The Obama State Department and US Customs have imposed broad import restrictions on most Greek coins and other cultural goods. See http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-12-01/html/2011-30905.htm

The restrictions on coins are exceptionally broad, but seem to exclude large denomination trade coins:

Coins�Many of the mints of the
listed coins can be found in B.V. Head,
Historia Numorum: A Manual of Greek
Numismatics (London, 1911) and C.M.
Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek
Coins (London, 1976). Many of the
Roman provincial mints in Greece are
listed in A. Burnett et al., Roman
Provincial Coinage I: From the Death of
Caesar to the Death of Vitellius (44 BC�
AD 69) (London, 1992) and id., Roman
Provincial Coinage II: From Vespasian
to Domitian (AD 69�96) (London, 1999).
a. Greek Bronze Coins�Struck by
city-states, leagues, and kingdoms that
operated in territory of the modern
Greek state (including the ancient
territories of the Peloponnese, Central
Greece, Thessaly, Epirus, Crete and
those parts of the territories of ancient
Macedonia, Thrace and the Aegean
islands that lay within the boundaries of
the modern Greek state). Approximate
date: 5th century B.C. to late 1st century
B.C.
b. Greek Silver Coins�This category
includes the small denomination coins
of the city-states of Aegina, Athens, and
Corinth, and the Kingdom of Macedonia
under Philip II and Alexander the Great.
Such coins weigh less than
approximately 10 grams and are known
as obols, diobols, triobols,
hemidrachms, and drachms. Also
included are all denominations of coins
struck by the other city-states, leagues,
and kingdoms that operated in the
territory of the modern Greek state
(including the ancient territories of the
Peloponnese, Central Greece, Thessaly,
Epirus, Crete, and those parts of the
territories of ancient Macedonia, Thrace
and the Aegean islands that lie within
the boundaries of the modern Greek
state). Approximate date: 6th century
B.C. to late 1st century B.C.
c. Roman Coins Struck in Greece�In
silver and bronze, struck at Roman and
Roman provincial mints that operated in
the territory of the modern Greek state
(including the ancient territories of the
Peloponnese, Central Greece, Thessaly,
Epirus, Crete, and those parts of the
territories of ancient Macedonia, Thrace
and the Aegean islands that lie within
the boundaries of the modern Greek
state). Approximate date: late 2nd
century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.

Obviously, the obdurate bureaucracy could care less that over 70% of the public comments received by CPAC opposed these restrictions and that the actual support for them is limited to archaeological fanatics who hold that the only legitimate cultural exchange is a museum loan.

It is also ironic that these restrictions provide for the repatriation of any coins seized by US Customs to the bankrupt Greek state, which has no money to care for major cultural sites, let alone for the thousands upon thousands of ancient Greek coins already within State collections.

Again, more proof that the Obama administration is anti-small business and pro-government regulation, despite all the claims to the contrary.

Greece's Bloated Cultural Bureaucracy

The New York Times has a good story about Greece's bloated bureaucracy which has defied efforts to cut it. See
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/world/europe/greeces-bloated-bureaucracy-defies-efforts-to-cut-it.html?_r=2&ref=global-home

Of course, the recently announced Greek MOU is a boon to the Greek cultural bureaucracy, which will no doubt cite it as a reason not to reform it.

Yet, unless you are a State Department bureaucrat or an archaeologist, one should find it hard to escape the fact that while an oversized Greek cultural delegation was making the rounds in Washington to lobby for the MOU, rank and file museum guards were rioting on the Acropolis after not being paid. See
http://ordinarymag.blogspot.com/2010/10/oversized-greek-cultural-delegation.html

Is the main purpose of MOU's to protect cultural sites or is their primary purpose protect the jobs of cultural bureaucrats abroad and thereby support the bankrupt status quo?

Bankrupt Greek Government Seeks More Money From Germany as Greek Cultural Bureaucrats Work With State Department Against German Interests

Go figure. On one hand, the bankrupt Greek Government is begging the German Government for yet another bailout promising "reforms" in return. See
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/27/us-eurozone-germany-greece-idUSTRE78Q1XV20110927

On the other hand, now that the US has agreed to an MOU with Greece, the Greek cultural bureaucracy is likely working with our own State Department bureaucracy to harm the interests of German small buisnesses that export ancient Greek coins to the United States. Of course, the clamp down won't impact the ability of Greek collectors to import such coins, but it will certainly impact the ability of German businesses to ship ancient coins to the US market.

And it's not as if German officials have not raised concerns about this. Indeed, the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, Martin Zeil, has raised concerns about this in a letter to Judith McHale, Undersecretary of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In his letter, Minister Zeil states,

The proposed restrictions (along for similar ones being considered for Italy) would negatively impact the legitimate numismatic trade between Germany and the United States of America and also people to people contacts between US and German citizens.

Apart from very few exceptions, no licence or permit is needed in Germany, neither for import to Germany nor for export from Germany of coins.

If the import of certain coins into the United States required an export licence granted by authorities of the export country in future, this requirement could not be fulfilled by German retailers. Legal trade would then hardly be possible between Germany and the United States.

In Germany there are around 100 auction houses, more than 500 retailers and estimated more than a half million collectors of old coins. Moreover, a considerable number of them are located in Munich, and are engaged in trade with customers in the United States.

See http://www.accg.us/news/item/Europeans_Oppose_Potential_U_S_State_Department_Import_Restrictions.aspx

Will the Greeks and our own State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs heed these concerns? Or, will they just ignore them along with those of the 70% of the public who expressed opposition to extending import restrictions to Greek coins?

Double Standards: Unprovenanced Athenian Decadrachms in Greek National Coin Collection and Alpha Bank Collection

As set forth below, Greek cultural bureaucrats and their allies in the archaeological community have lobbied for the inclusion of coins in the newly announced MOU with Greece.

Yet, why should the US Government preclude American citizens from importing unprovenanced Greek coins when both the Greek National Coin Collection and the private Alpha Bank collection recently accessioned valuable Athenian Decadrachms that also lack a provenance?

Has anyone in the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs told Hillary Clinton that imposing import restrictions will place burdens on Americans that the Greeks themselves won't put on their own citizens and institutions?

And it's not as if these coins likely came from Greek contexts. In fact, the scholarly literature puts the typical find spots of such coins further East in places like Turkey and Syria.

Thus, the Greeks have little basis to claim they were merely buying back what had been "stolen" from them.

Of course, all this was discussed during the CPAC hearing on the Greek MOU. But, did it sink in?

Image: Reverse of Unprovenanced Athenian Decadrachm from Greek National Coin Collection

Collector Gifts Hoard to Athens Numismatic Museum After Study

Noted collector Jonathan Kagan has gifted a hoard of coins struck in Abdera to the Athens Numismatic collection after publishing them in a study dedicated to numismatic scholar (and AIA member) John Kroll. See
http://archaeologymatters2.blogspot.com/2011/07/return-of-coin-hoard-to-greece.html

The Greek cultural establishment and archaeologists will no doubt politicize this gift as a repatriation that helps argue for support for the recently announced Greek MOU. But, what are the odds that Greek authorities would have published the hoard, particularly given cuts to Greece's cultural establishment? And if the Greeks and archaeologists are so concerned about unprovenanced coins, why don't we hear more about the unprovenanced coins in Greek public and private collections, most notably valuable unprovenanced Athenian Decadrachms, recently added to the collections of both the Alpha Bank and Numismatic Collection in Athens? Scholarly publications place the find spots of virtually all of these coins as being outside of Greece. David Gill and Paul Barford, where are you?

Image: Unprovenanced Athenian Decadrachm in Alpha Bank Collection

Generally Pro MOU Media Outlets Question Greek MOU

The Art Newspaper and "Culture Grrl" have been generally supportive of repatriation efforts, but each has expressed some misgivings about the recently announced MOU with Greece. See http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Clinton+signs+memorandum+with+Greece+restricting+import+of+antiquities/24369
and http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2011/07/greek_cultural-property_agreem.html

And no wonder. The articles point to the lack of transparency, the apparent overbreath of the coming restrictions and Greece's own abysmal record in protecting its own cultural patrimony.

They might have also mentioned that approximately 70% of the public comment posted on the regulations.gov website either opposed the MOU in toto or the extension of import restrictions to coins.

Apparently, Secretary Clinton considers "confidence building measures" for the bankrupt Greeks to be more important than the views of American citizens or the legal limitations the governing statute places on such MOUs. But does the ordinary Greek citizen really care? See http://safecorner.savingantiquities.org/2011/07/repatriation-effects-greeces-national.html

And what will American voters who collect ancient art and coins think about these new restrictions? The ever political Hillary Clinton should also consider that as well.

Secretary Clinton Misinformed?

The text of Hillary Clinton's signing statement for the Greek MOU can be found here:
http://rose4hillary.blogspot.com/2011/07/slideshow-hillary-clinton-at-acropolis.html.

In addition to the predictable pandering to the bankrupt Greeks, Secretary Clinton makes the following statement:

This agreement that we are signing today will protect Greece�s culturally significant objects even further from looting and sale on the international market. It will be illegal to import protected items from Greece into the United States unless they have been certified by the Greek authorities. And that will help reduce the incentive to illegally remove such objects in the first place.

Of course, if that was all the agreement did it would be far less objectionable than it is: But restrictions also bar import of items on the designated list from other legitimate markets abroad unless accompanied by documentation proving they were out of Greece as of the date of restrictions. The problem is that such documentation typically does not exist for common artifacts like ancient coins. Certainly, as far as I know no other country (including Greece) requires such documentation before importing ancient coins into the country.

Is Secretary Clinton misinformed about the impact of import restrictions? And if so, who at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is responsible?

Greek MOU Signed

The State Department has announced the signature of a MOU with Greece. See
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/07/168670.htm

Expect a laundry list of Greek cultural property to be restricted to be announced shortly. I assume coins will be included despite the fact that approximately 70% of the public comment received by CPAC either opposed the MOU in its entirety or the extension of import restrictions to coins.

I also wouldn't take the claim that the decision was consistent with the recommendations of the CPAC too literally; State made the same claim with respect to Cypriot restrictions despite CPAC's recommendations that coins not be included in the MOU.

President Obama has claimed he is not anti-business, that his administration is for government transparency, and that he is against over regulation. Yet, his State Department's administration of the CPIA and its extension of import restrictions to common artifacts like coins (that are widely collected abroad including within Greece) strongly suggests otherwise.

Greeks Find Famed Altar

Greek archaeologists hope Greek railroad authorities let them investigate the remains of the famed Altar of the Twelve Gods rather than rebury it under a railway line. See
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite4_1_17/02/2011_379147

The fact that such an important site instead will likely be quickly reburied to hurry along the project once again shows countries like Greece may make grandiose claims about the importance of their cultural patrimony to justify repatriation and import restrictions, but archaeology is the first to go by the wayside when a country's own economic interests are considered.

State Department Secrecy Continues: Closed CPAC Meeting on Greek MOU

The State Department has announced a closed CPAC meeting to continue discussions about the Greek MOU scheduled for February 23-24, 2011. See
http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2011/2011-2397.htm

Based on the Government's statements in briefing in the ACCG Customs case, it appears Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs bureaucrats have reacted to adverse publicity to their rejection of CPAC's recommendations about Cypriot coins by simply no longer seeking CPAC's advice on the subject.

I have to suspect the tone deaf State Department bureaucrats will ignore the overwhelming public comment against including coins in the Greek MOU just as they did with respect to imposing import restrictions on "coins of Italian type," but I guess we will just have to see.

In any event, Assistant Secretary Ann Stock should be ashamed about how the bureaucrats under her command manipulate the law to achieve a predetermined result, facts, law and public comment be damned.

The Archaeological Lobby's Role Models

Just turn on the news and one can see what the people think of the government of one of archaeology's role models, Egypt.

What about some of the others: Italy, Greece, Cyprus and China?

All have been in the news lately. Italy is as dysfunctional as ever. Pompeii is falling down. The cynical Italian public has become expert at maneuvering around bureaucratic rules, just as Prime Minister Berlusconi did himself when he performed unauthorized construction on his archaeologically sensitive property. Yet, the AIA and Italian Cultural Bureaucracy can at least celebrate their great victory against the small businesses of the numismatic trade and US collectors, all courtesy of the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center.

Greece is bankrupt. Museum guards recently rioted on the Acropolis for back-pay. Ordinary Greeks are fed up with over regulation, cronyism and corruption. Yet, at a recent CPAC hearing, the AIA was out in force to cheer on a bloated Greek cultural delegation that included a representative of a well-connected private institution, the Alpha Bank. Even as the AIA pressed for yet more restrictions on American coin collectors, none of the archaeological community so much as acknowleded the fact that the Alpha Bank regularly purchases on the open market the same sort of unprovenanced ancient coins that the AIA hopes to make taboo.

The Greek Cypriot Government seems as unwilling to compromise as ever when it comes to the sad division of the country. Yet, this division is cited as the reason it is so important to continue import restrictions on cultural goods. But while Americans are precluded from importing unprovenance Cypriot artifacts, including coins, the Cypriot cultural bureaucracy turns a blind eye when connected Cypriot collectors buy artifacts looted from archaeological sites on the Island. And let us not forget about the private Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and its continuing ability to purchase unprovenanced ancient coins on the open market. More endemic cronyism of the Greek sort.

Finally, there is China. The Chinese Government encourages the rising middle class to collect ancient artifacts to help promote nationalism. Sure, a few peasants get the death sentence for looting, but Chinese auction houses connected to government officials and the People's Liberation Army have flourished. Yet, the AIA has supported import restrictions aimed at precluding Americans from collecting such items. And our State Department, as always, is only too willing to oblige.

No wonder it's so easy to be cynical about the efforts of the AIA and its allies in the State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to clamp down on American collectors and the small businesses of the numismatic trade.