The Collector Abroad

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I came across this the other day, a type of collecting after my own heart, a guy ("Eyestrain" from Montreal, Quebec) set out to get as many tourist fake antiquities (coins that is) at source as he could: Tourist Fakes: The Quest - Part I (follow links for the rest). It's a nicely-written travelogue about an interesting quest.

Not all collectors however fell in with the spirit of things. One Ripley wrote from California:

Eyestrain, I think you have a fabulous idea, to plan your vacation around. Keep us posted. Yeah, I know Italy is starting to enforce its policy of not shipping ancients out of Italy. However, this can be easily circumvented. As for plunder, these things are still on the planet Earth. So they did not go anywhere.

(Ripley by the way has a signature that quotes the Book of Revelation 19:11). Again 'Ripley' writes another comment in the same vein five days later:

Interesting Eyestrain. I recently had to dodge Italian snooping in order to get a nice ancient into the USA. This was back in March, I do believe that even the Roman imperial coins are now subject to thier greedy paws and snooping.

Bible-bashing Californians who buy them and remove them from the country by 'circumvention' (a euphemism for ...?) do not of course have "greedy paws" because they consider themselves an elite to whom the laws do not apply.
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