Dealers Again: "No Evidence of Trade in Ancient Artefacts Funding ISIS" (4)

a duck..?

And two of the comments under a presentation of the reportage "Das geplünderte Erbe - Terrorfinanzierung durch deutsche Auktionshäuser" are rather annoying. The first by Dr. Ursula Kampmann, Kulturgüterschutzbeauftragte (sic) der IADAA calls the film "Eine Schande für den Qualitätsjournalismus" - a disgrace. The IADAA proceeds to tell the film makers how they should make films and advises them on the "journalistic deadly sins" they'd committed. Then she launches a personal attack on Dr. Michael Müller-Karpe (this is not the first time dealers have used the same attack on him. Terrible.

The second comment is also by the same person. This one (am 19.11.2014 um 11:08 Uhr) is "Widerruf von Volkmar Kubisch". It begins: "In der Wochenendausgabe der Süddeutschen Zeitung vom 15./16. November 2014 ..." - you can see where that is going. Well, readers can see above in part 1 what I made of her use of that source and look it up for themselves and work out what relevance it has to anything at all. The reason why "there is no information in the documents" about looting in western Syria is the documents examined were all about Iraq (still a different country if somebody had not realised). Then a remonstration: "Wir fragen uns, warum die Quellen nicht vorher konsultiert wurden..." Ummm, because they contain sensitive information about western fighters in ISIL and are in the hands of the intelligence services. Is that so difficult to understand? Once again we see these attitudes of coiney entitlement and exceptionalism: no matter what else those documents contain, the fact that they impinge on the collectors rights of coineys induces the latter to think they have a right to make demands on foreign intelligence services. For goodness' sake. The next demand:

Und wird man nun auch in der Tagesschau darauf hinweisen, dass die Nachricht, der deutsche Kunsthandel würde den IS finanzieren, eine Ente war?

Well, let's see if Ms Kampmann's arguments, demands and personal attacks on one of the interviewees featured in the video cut any ice with the TV production company. Coineys may feel she's done them a favour and shown the world what a duck is, the rest of us feel that perhaps given the circumstances better public relations for the antiquities trade might have accrued from another less uncompromising approach to the issue...