“The Republican Party of Wisconsin, in convention assembled, asks lawmakers to pass a bill exempting art, books, coins, militaria, pottery, stamps, weapons and other common antique collectibles for consideration from future import restriction and cultural property laws and treaties.”
Full text here.
This affirmation of a group of citizens of the US of their “right” to spit in the face of the international community is of course treated by the US collectors’ and dealers’ lobby as a great “victory”. Does the Badger State, Wisconsin not have any of its own cultural heritage worth preserving that some of its citizens feel the need to grab little pieces of everybody else’s instead? Shame on those who passed such a scandalous resolution showing such a woeful grasp on the issues involved and so little regard for the protection of the cultural heritage. Heaven help the cultural heritage of Wisconsin state if the individuals who passed this resolution should ever gain power over it.So who was behind this? It is unlikely to come as any surprise to learn that once again, it was the US ancient coin collectors’ lobbyists, who else? The ACCG through its representative Jim McGarigle apparently arranged this so-called “Collectors Rights Resolution” (sic) with Republican politicians Congressmen Mark Green, Tom Petri and Paul Ryan. For their efforts these three gentlemen received the ACCG “Friend of Numismatics award” in 2006. It is worth noting that in addition to supporting this scandalous resolution, all three of them opposed, apparently also on behalf of coin collectors, HR-915 which, if successful, would have imposed import restrictions on various ancient coins of Afghan origin. Coin collectors however are happy that this never became law and they are free to purchase the many choice coins apparently from this “crossroads of civilization” which now relatively frequently appear on the US markets after the American invasion.
I wonder what Green, Petrie and Ryan think export licences are for? Would they support the abolishment of export controls from their own country? With some important elections coming up soon over there, it might be an opportunity to hear the candidates' opinions on these matters.
5 comments:
Jim McGarigle sent a comment to this blog which I rejected as was rather involved and largely off-topic. He has claimed on Moneta-L that I was instead “wimping out” of correcting a number of "factual errors". I contacted him and in an email to me he has summarized these errors, and I append (unedited) this part of the communication below, followed by my response. He wrote:
quote:
1) You identified me as a lobbyist, I am not. A lobbyist falls under certain laws in this country and is regulated under strict lobbying laws. I have acted as a citizen and as a constituent.
2) There were substantial inaccuracies in the fact finding section of the bill that even the original authors of the bill recognized later and for that reason the bill HR 915 was not advanced any further. As we know now from official government reports, the extent of the looting of the museums in both Iraq and Afghanistan were greatly exaggerated. That is a fact.
3) There is a difference between a party resolution and a plank of a party platform. The Collectors Rights Resolution was adopted as a State Resolution, not as a party platform plank.” [end quote]
jim, you are mentioned once, and in passing. The text as I wrote it on 29th of July remains and reads “it was the US ancient coin collectors’ lobbyists, who else? The ACCG through its representative Jim McGarigle apparently …”. The ACCG is indeed a lobbying organization [from its website: “the ACCG is designated as a 501( c)(4) organization involved in issues of lobbying and advocacy”…] but I referred to you as representing the interests of that group to another body (for which you received the "ACCG Exceptionally Meritorious Service award"). I did not use the word “lobbyist” with regard to Jim McGarigle, so there is no error of fact.
The second issue. There are a number of reasons why HR 915 was not passed, I did not discuss any of them in my blog posting, so no “error of fact” is involved. My interest here was that coin collectors opposed a measure intended at the time to protect archaeological heritage from plunder. The reasoning behind it, as is clear from the advocacy material they produced at the time, was to protect their own local interests, without a thought for the in situ protection of the remains of the past about which coin collectors claim to be so passionate.
The grounds for the third alleged error of fact are incomprehensible to me; nowhere do I use the term “party platform plank”. I took the wording mainly from the ACCG press release and other material.
Thank you Jim for your comments. I beg to differ whether there were “factual errors” rather than matters of interpretation of wording in what I wrote. Nevertheless the fact remains that the Republican Party of Wisconsin have shown a very questionable attitude to the preservation of the archaeological heritage, and international cultural relationships.
Paul Barford
From a newly-registered account somebody called ‘Brian Holland’ left this morning a comment which I am rejecting because it was abusively phrased. He is invited to resubmit it in a tone more conducive to getting it accepted.
US Secretary of State Nicholas Burns is now the target of a member of the coin-collecting community. See Looting Matters.
For more on Afghanistan and why HR 915 was necessary, see http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2008/10/at-crossroad-of-civilization-money-into.html
I wonder if ACCG "Friends of Numismatics" Congressmen Mark Green, Tom Petri and Paul Ryan still think they did the right thing here?
For more on Afghanistan and why HR 915 was necessary, see http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2008/10/at-crossroad-of-civilization-money-into.html
I wonder if ACCG "Friends of Numismatics" Congressmen Mark Green, Tom Petri and Paul Ryan still think they did the right thing here?
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