Paraphrasing Rick St Hilaire:
After news broke of the forfeiture case of United States v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton, a Bataar skull of Mongolian origin and in the possession of a Wyoming and Colorado fossil dealer quickly disappeared from public view. That led to a tipster's call and a subsequent federal investigation.
He should have kept it on sale right under everyone's noses like thousands of other collectables of doubtful origin ion sale in the US and probably everybody would sill be closing their eyes, shrugging their shoulders and looking the other way. Anyway, the Federal Authorities came down on this fossil retailer like a ton of bricks and he got a very nasty hand-slap and was told 'not to do it again'. It remains to be seen whether anyone in the old-collectables trade takes a blind bit of notice.
Meanwhile the newspapers are having fun making up headlines: "Bad to the Bone: Dealer Pleads Guilty in Fossil Smuggling Scheme', LiveScience.com 7th Jan 2014.
"It's unfortunate that there are literally thousands of these things out there, and for years, no one regulated the importation or the sale of any of these fossils. Now all of a sudden the rules have changed", said Crank.No, it's not a change in laws that is the problem, it's the fact that until now dealers have been ignoring the existence of those laws and somebody needs to remind them all. Lex dura sed rex.
On the blogosphere, Rick St Hilaire's coverage is, as usual, excellent and well-researched: 'Dealer Pleads Guilty to Smuggling, $2.5M in Fossils to be Returned', Cultural Heritage Lawyer Rick St. Hilaire 7th Jan 2014
Peter Tompa seems not to have 'observed' the case at all, and seems loathe to discuss it and its implications for the dealers he represents.
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