German High Court Rules Export Permits Not Required for Collectors' Coins in Trade

Germany's highest regulatory court has ruled  that coins in trade will not be treated as archaeological objects requiring an export permit under EU law. The court said that because they are objects created in quantity, they have lost any archaeological value, and to require export permits for them would put an unreasonable restraint on trade. The decision in its entirety can be read here.   

UPDATE 5/4/13:  Not surprisingly, archaeo-blogger Paul Barford is in denial about the implications of Court's ruling and has even implied the court's decision-making was corrupted by "commercial interests."  As to the former, I think a well known numismatist said it best:

Of course Mr. Barford is in denial of the court's actual ruling: �coins coming from Antiquity generally have no archeological value and thus are not archeological objects�. It doesn�t come much clearer than that. Nor is this �the Bavarian judiciary� as Mr. Barford would like to believe; it is the supreme court of Germany for cases involving customs and taxes.

As to the latter, I think Mr. Barford should compare what Transparency International says about Germany and places whose views of cultural property matters he champions, like Greece, Cyprus, Italy and China.

Germany Helps Smuggle Manuscripts to Save Them

Germany has helped smuggle historic manuscripts from Timbuktu to save them from the clutches of Islamic radicals bent on their destruction. Was removing them from their context to save them justified?  Was Germany helping or interfering by supporting the effort?   I'd say an unqualified "yes" to the first question, and "helping" as to the second.  But what of UNESCO and the archaeological fanatics?  Do they support this effort or not?  I wonder.

Return our Rock!

Venezuela�s Leftist Regime has taken up the cause of an indigenous tribe which claims that a German artist stole their sacred rock. The artist in question is devastated because he believes the rock was legally exported with the full consent of the tribe. One suspects that Hugo Chavez�s regime is stirring up the controversy for its own political ends. If the rock is repatriated, it will not only spoil the unity of artist�s vision but divest him of the value of his own efforts to prep the rock for its installation with other rocks from other lands. The rock in question has been on display since 1999 in a Berlin park.

European Commission Funded Campaign to Repatriate Nefertiti to Egypt?

This blog has expressed concern about the US State Department funding groups that support repatriation of artifacts to places like Cyprus and Cambodia. See http://ordinarymag.blogspot.com/2008/05/cash-and-caari-cyprus-american.html and http://ordinarymag.blogspot.com/2008/06/state-department-slush-fund-for.html

Now, it also appears that the European Commission was funding a group that wants to send the world famous bust of Nefertiti back to Egypt. See http://www.nofretete-geht-auf-reisen.de/f_pdf/epressrelease_long.pdf and http://www.nofretete-geht-auf-reisen.de/

Though supposedly the Egyptians just want the bust back as a loan, one can easily imagine scenarios where any such "loan" becomes "permanent."

Perhaps, the German Government, presumably one of the European Commission's largest funders, should have demanded an explanation why the European Commission supported such a campaign directed against German interests.

Germany Told to Save Europe

Europeans (and Americans) are looking to Germany to "save Europe" by doing more to prop up the bankrupt Greek economy and the ever more shaky Italian one. See
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d29da7fc-19ee-11e1-b9d7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1f6othzXp

However, throwing more money at the Greeks and the Italians will only delay the inevitable. What is really needed is to break down the internal barriers in each country that have led to special interests strangling any chance for much needed economic reforms.

But this is a blog about cultural property issues. On that score, isn't it funny that self-righteous archaeologists hold up Italy and Greece as models for all to emulate? Meanwhile, rational systems like those in Germany and the United Kingdom that recognize the importance of collectors and the trade in cultural goods to the appreciation of ancient culture and its ultimate preservation, get little but scorn heaped on them, largely because they don't allow archaeologists to monopolize policy toward cultural property issues.

Archaeologists assume that government control over all cultural artifacts is the answer-- but how can this be, particularly in the current environment where these governments and their economic and cultural systems that favor the connected few are facing default?

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?