Glasgow Wants to Liaise with "Matt From Oregon"

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As I have remarked previously it seems to me that there is a total lack of clarity just what it is that Simon MacKenzie, Neil Brodie and their assorted young ladies of the Glasgow team are investigating; the title "trafficking Culture" says nothing, and there is as yet nothing on the website which resolves the puzzle. It seems Gareth Harris of the Art Newspaper ('British called upon to stem illicit trade of artefacts', Issue 239, 18 October 2012) seems equally unclear what they are up to. The main aim of the text seems to be to invite art dealers and collectors from among the readership to become "part of future policy decisions":

The head of a new research programme dedicated to combating the illicit trade in cultural objects has made an open call to the art trade and collectors, asking for their co-operation. Simon Mackenzie, the principal investigator for the Trafficking Culture project, says: “[...] It is vital that the trade is adequately represented in discussions about future policy developments in market regulation, so if anyone is reading this and feels moved to get involved in the discussion we invite them to contact us”. 

That really was a rather dumb remark in the circumstances. I bet they'll all be falling over each other in the scramble to get involved in regulating their market. There is a sceptical comment from old friend Costas Paraskevaides ("ArtAncient, a Cambridgeshire-based company that sells historical objects [sic] online") and a bland one from Chris Martin (representing the Antiquities Dealers Association). Meanwhile under the text is a comment which illustrates just what Glasgow would be up against. My bet is "Matt from Oregon" is the owner of an accumulation of contextless dugups that he imagines are an "ancient art" collection:

“So, China floods them. Syria bombs them, Panama, Ukraine and Eygpt just sell them, and forest fires burn them up in the Western US and Australia. Museums put them in a basement for none to enjoy. The "now or never" split just does not work - nor will it ever. Time is not on their side, nor should the academics get to dictate a work schedule measured in centuries. The problem is clear - get them out of the ground now, find the solution later, and allow the entire world to enjoy and study them". 

"Them" is presumably collectable artefacts, "work schedule measured in centuries" is what the rest of us call resource conservation, promoting which I would hope is at the roots of the glasgow project. I bet by "the whole world" Matt means the USA (while "now or never split" is incomprehensible to me). Getting archaeological artefacts out of the ground NOW is like getting all the elephant tusks off all the elephants and made into ghastly trophy geegaws NOW. In the case of the ongoing unregulated mining of archaeological sites to fill the personal collections of individuals such as "Matt", sadly the option of "finding the solution later" is not one that is open to us. Like the elephants, once archaeological evidence is gone, it is gone.

Have the Glasgow team added their voice to Tim Haines' Yahoo "Ancient Antiquities" list? There are a lot of dealers and collectors there who claim to be ethical, responsible and terribly concerned to help cut out the illicit trade. They could try contacting the Ancient Coin Collectors' Guild too, which claims to have similar aims. Oh, and there is the Moneta-L forum, they'll get a great welcome from collectors and dealers of "culture" there no doubt. Let us not forget liaising on these matters with the metal detectorists of the UK either, they too collect and sell antiquities, vast numbers of them. 

Will the British "stem the illicit trade of artefacts"? I doubt it very much.

Vignette: But it's nice to know that somenbody thinks that if anyone can

 deal with the problem of illicit antiquities, they'd be British. 

Used to be perhaps, but now the country's gone to the dogs.