Dirty Wallets

An interesting and disturbing text by Neil Brodie, 'Rich and powerful collectors (1)' Market of Mass Destruction 14th May 2016

Rich and powerful collectors are accustomed to protecting their privacy and are well able to do so. They are lawyered-up. Poor diggers on the ground are not so privileged and are in consequence more open to investigation by scholars – and by police.

So, he says we tend to write more of the looters than the collectors whose desires and wallets are it seems only common sense to agree are the motor for the activities of the latter. And it is the same wallets which would induce a lawyer to dirty his hands trying to defend something like collecting smuggled and looted artefacts.
Vignette wallet.