Sale and Export, not the same - Duh!

The lobbyists for the no-questions-asked part of the antiquities trade simply do not get it. Here they go again: 

Archaeologists pleading the case of countries like Bulgaria may claim recent finds from there are "illicit," but what does that really mean in practice if Bulgarian authorities still allow small items like coins to be sold openly in markets throughout the country. 

But the halfwits that buy and sell artefacts seem to not really understand that this is one thing, and their export is another.  Regular readers will be aware of my discussions with one of those Bulgarian coin dealers at the Warsaw Expo coin fair (and his folder full of export licences for every single item he had brought) - so when can any of the dealers who pay for Mr Tompa's lobbying show me their folders of export licences like the ones I saw at the Warsaw Expo? I challenge Mr Tompa to go to Bulgaria, buy some coins and return to Washington with them in his pocket, jangling them as he goes through Customs in Sofia.A pell in a Bulgarian jail my make him do a bit more research before he goes shouting his mouth off. Go on Mr Tompa, put your money where your mouth is.