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The President of the US dugup numismatic artefact lobbbying group the ACCG has changed, it was Bill Puetz, owner of the lucrative V-Coins coin sales portal (current value of ancient items on sale today $22,768,493 - twenty two million dollars). He has now been replaced by Kerry Wetterstrom, whose collecting activities have concentrated on dugup coins of Roman Egypt.Perhaps this is the context of the somewhat muddled PRNewswire text "American Collectors Eye Events in Egypt with Deep Concern for the Archaeological Record", demonstrating the real extent of these people's interest in the past and preservation of our sources of information about it. "Gainesville" writes:
Ongoing developments in the Egyptian revolution and its reverberations in the Middle East have the world riveted on this historical (sic) event. Beneath the headlines, vacillating reports of vandalism and looting that allegedly took place at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and other sites have American collectors deeply concerned about the possibility that looted material may soon be appearing on the international markets, and joins the American archaeological community in calling for greater vigilance of imports of ancient artefacts deriving from Egyptian sources in order to protect collectors frequenting the legitimate antiquities market from the risk of acquiring stolen and looted items.Or at least that's what they should have said. What they actually said is a different matter. They are not at all concerned about protecting collectors and the legitimate market, but their ability to sell whatever they like in America no-questions-asked. Shame on you, shame on the lot of you.
Photo: ACCG President Kerry Wetterstrom , collector of dugup Roman coins deriving from Egyptian mints, from the ACCG website.