Four years Ago: "all that is needed is a piece of paper."

This was exactly four years ago:

Let us note, in order that those 23 coins pass legally and legitimately through US customs, all that is needed is a piece of paper. 

Tuesday, 12 May 2009 'ACCG Coin Import Stunt', PACHI Blog.

The stubborn numismo-mules are still refusing to admit that getting that piece of paper would have been absolutely no sweat at all. So in fact the whole case is about something else, the lifting of any kind of controls preventing the indiscriminate handling of dugup artefacts from foreign markets in the US - which will include 'black market' (clandestinely extracted and smuggled) coins. The ACCG is doing nothing useful at all, except attempting to protect US collectors' access to black market coins. Something that in the long run only culture crooks and those who profit from their activities will find "useful". It certainly is not to the benefit of "collectors" to have the US market supplied indiscriminately and with no controls whatsoever over what is coming into the country.  It is to nobody's benefit, except the profiteers, to lift the minimalist existing controls over antiquity imports. Let the dugup dealers who are behind this extended court battle explain away the logic behind their insistence on obtaining that, with reference to the issue of endemic pillage and smuggling of antiquities.  Surely a truly ethical trade (and clientele) would be urging the strengthening and extension of such controls, not their undermining.