Glass Houses or Spiteful Shippe of Fooles?

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According to Peter Tompa, of Bailey & Ehrenberg PLLC, Dorothy ("global warming is good for you") King accuses Professor Donny George Youkhama of single-handedly (?) "looting" the Kuweit Museum and private collections for "Saddam's henchmen" in August 1990 . He justifies this attention-seeking personal attack on the expatriate because allegedly Dr Youkhama "has become an icon to many in the archaeological community" and admonishes that "people in glass houses should not throw stones". How right that general advice is Mr Tompa, but how right Ms King turns out to be remains to be seen.


UPDATE: Well, Looting Matters has taken up this story and publishes a fairly full explanation of Donny George's side of the story (on which - though only at second hand - lawyer Tompa's accusations are reputedly based). It seems that when the facts are checked, the story is somewhat more complex than the supporters of the no-questions-asked-market in ancient antiquities insist. George concludes his account:

this is my information about this subject, and it is my responsibility to tell it to the world, the museum, archaeological community all over the world, and it is my responsibility in front of my God, that this is the whole truth, and whatever is said about this subject that does not include these facts, is all l[ie]s and false accusations, these people should be ashamed of themselves.

It is a pity that "Cultural Property Observer" failed to exercise his professional judgement and was once again apparently more interested in creating scandal around the Iraq looting issue than checking his facts before jumping in with accusations of "looting". This however is unsurprising, scandal-mongering and name-calling are tactics that the whole ACCG/no-questions-asked-trade lobby and its supporters have employed all along to deal with the issues which are so uncomfortable for them which are raised by the looting of collectables from archaeological sites in Iraq since the 1990s. Shame on them all.

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