Bloggie Silence

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It's rather odd, isn't it, that a major antiquities trade story breaks - probably the most significant story of the last couple of months, and.... there is total silence from the dealers' and collectors' lobby. Peter Tompa ('Cultural property Observer (sic)') is talking about Jewish manuscripts (Holyland Numismatics is selling them too). Dorothy King - despite her very close interest in the looting question at the moment has a post on a doggie cartoon. Wayne Sayles waffling on about how context of archaeological finds is not really all that important because coins have pictures and writing on them... David Welsh is fulminating over the announcement that somebody he does not like is going to chair the CPAC. Alfredo De La Fe is joyful that you can study egyptology online at Michigan now. Jim McGarigle is urging everybody to fight import restrictions and reiterates the "Collectors' Rights Resolution" of the Wisconsin GOP. Jorg Lueke likewise. Candice Jarman rails against repatriation of stolen artefacts.

Tim Haines hides his Yahoo group's posts from me, so I could not say how well informed the members of this group are being kept about these developments, likewise Moneta-L hides its discussions from non-registered-non-coin-fondlers. Certainly there has been no news yet on Dave Welsh's near monologous Unidroit-L discussion forum.

UPDATE, two hours later: Peter Tompa has decided to enter the discussion. In his "Bad Paperwork" he says,

the indictment in United States v. Khouli, et al., really comes down to the issue of whether the Defendants submitted proper paperwork to the Government when they imported Egyptian artifacts from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

But that is precisely what export and import are about, is it not? That is all we want of the antiquities trade, to have the paperwork in order. Not having the paperwork in order is what makes the illicit trade.

The others however have not yet broken silence

UPDATE: except Sayles in a snide comment on Looting Matters.

UPDATE 16th July A.M.: PhDiva has now joined the discussion with two welcome posts ICE makes arrests and seizes cultural artifacts stolen from Egypt though vaguely in apologetic tone: "shows 'the system' is working" (no, its the exception that proves the rule that most other 'minor antiquities" get through US ICE with no problems at all to "surface" on the market there - if they had been stopped at the border and questioned, exactly the same problems would arise with the vast majority of them, I am sure). Also: "The dealers, none of whom I had heard of before, suggesting to me that they are on the fringes of the art world"> Hmm. One of them is a third generation dealer and extremely well known in the milieu, the other quite prominent in the numismatic milieu, among other things as a supplier of "dealers lots" and some quite spectacular fresh material. But these people selling dugups are indeed peripheral to the ART world, I suppose. Dr King has another text too: Federal Authorities Charge Four Smugglers.