Thursday, 24 January 2013

Buying Saharan Antiquities and other Collectables

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"Following the recent attack on an Algerian gas plant, UK Prime Minister David Cameron says that the Sahara desert has turned into a haven for militant Islamists who are waging a jihad against the West. He says it will take decades to defeat them". 
Though obviously not the main source of funding for organizations needing to raise cash, it cannot be ignored that the money generated from the sale of illicitly-exported antiquities and geological specimens, meteorites in particular, to no-questions-asking dealers and collectors is one of the ways to achieve this. Collectors have a responsibility, surely, to ensure they buy such items only from known and verifiably (documented) kosher sources. Thousands of responsible collectors no doubt will be boycotting "arrowheads from the Saharah", plastic trilobites and NWA meteorites, won't they?

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