France honours antiquities dealer Ali Aboutaam,

In looking something else up, I stumbled across an interesting news article ('France Honors Ali Aboutaam, President of Phoenix Ancient Art' Nov. 15 PRNewswire) which I'd not come across before (though in fact I now realise it's here too). It refers to something that happened in September 2006 (note the date) in Paris during the Biennale des Antiquaires, one of France's most important art exhibitions.

Ali Aboutaam, president of Phoenix Ancient Art, was presented with the badge of Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters by Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, the Minister of Culture and Communication. [...] In his remarks during the award presentation, Mr. Donnedieu de Vabresnoted that those in the
antiquities field "are the enlightened keepers of these jewels that are our heritage" and the "precious transmitters of culture." He also commended the dealers for their "immense professionalism"and "passion in the exercise of such a noble profession [...]

Well, I thought until now that it would be difficult to beat his contemporary UK counterpart's remark that artefact hunters and portable antiquity collectors are the "unsung heroes of the UK heritage", now I am not so sure. A close second at least.