You are a Coiney: Follow your Leader

One of the IAPN/PNG/ACCG Red Herrings:
vacant minds to rent

The Executive Director of the ACCG has submitted his comment to CPAC. True to US coiney form, he cannot work out what all the words of the CCPIA mean, so guesses.  He refers Professor Gerstenblith and Committee members to "the lengthy and serious Congressional deliberation that led to enactment of CCPIA" and then suggests that the "atmosphere of CCPIA governance" according to the law was abandoned in 2007 in favour of "ideological and philosophical arguments". Sayles rather clumsily twists the argument to one of "provenance" and "records of ownership (provenance)". The CCPIA of course is about export dates, not ownership records and not provenance (finsdspot) - as the CPAC will know, but Sayles pretends to forget. According to him, export licences are the domain of "the retentionist views of a few ideologues, who publicly denounce and vilify private collecting". Then he suggests:

The ACCG has repeatedly affirmed its support of CCPIA, petitioning CPAC and the Department of State to follow the law as it was written and enacted. 

I suppose it really undermines their dedication to that aim when it is shown time and time again that they, the Executive Director of the ACCG timewasters included, actually have very foggy ideas about what that law in fact is. It is a shame that the ACCG does not affirm its support of a transparent and accountable antiquities trade so that collectors can buy in confidence they are not having looted and smuggled items palmed off on them by sleight of hand of dealers' suppliers.

Once again, we see the Imperial Roman Red Herring wheeled out: "In your deliberations, you must consider the fact that ancient Roman [....] coins [...] are openly collected by the public within Italy and traded...." but - watch the lips - the CCPIA is about export FROM Italy and Roman imperial coins found in the UK and recorded by the PAS are not the cultural property of Italy and never can be claimed as such. Duh.