Welsh addresses weighty issues

Guess who a certain Californian portable antiquities dealer and officer of a certain portable antiquities dealers' lobby group is talking about here...

He consistently refers to "collectors" and "dealers" in ways which imply that those who collect, or trade in, "portable antiquities" are morally inferior to himself and to others who would like to see private collecting of antiquities banned.

Note the subtle suggestion there (the false banning bogeyman argument yet again). All collectors and dealers, Mr Welsh, or just the no-questions-asked collectors and dealers? Precisely what superior "morals" does that kind of treatment of a fragile and finite resource for personal entertainment and profit actually evidence I wonder?

Apparently the person under discussion has some"sterling qualities" (yuk) but when it comes to portable antiquity collecting these:

are not matched by an equally developed sense of fair play and respect for the rights of others.

The rights of others to benefit from the archaeological record. One might say the same about no-questions-asked dealers and buyers of portable antiquities who take away any chance that the archaeological record of countries they've never even set foot in can ever be properly studied, because huge bits of it have been trashed so Mr Welsh and his artefact collecting mates can buy and sell geegaw bits of it.

He continues:

Although I do not have any definite knowledge of Barford's religious beliefs and political orientation, I suspect that many would join me in imagining him as an atheist who is also a far left wing Socialist, if not a Marxist. Perhaps one day he will reveal his own thoughts as to where he stands regarding religion and politics.

Hmmm. He forgot to bring my sexual orientation into it; I'm disappointed. At least, unlike some, I do not believe in benign pixies and elves who allegedly allow the no-questions-asked collecting of archaeological artefacts to take place without causing damage to the archaeological record.

Photo: Mr David Welsh - frankly I do not care to know his religion or politics.