It was a violation of the law.  Period.  Whether he
knew the law or not while he worked in the private
sector is no excuse.

It's not an excuse for him to continue to own it once
he becomes aware that possession violated the law.  He
should then surrender the materials to the proper
authority charged with protecting them and divest
himself of any possible ownership.

The issue then becomes when was he made aware that
this was against the law--and that he was not above it
by virtue to his proximity to power?

Did the staff under him become aware of this illegal
possession?  Did they have a fiduciary responsibility
to the institution and the profession to inform him of
same?  As professionals, my vote would be a resounding
yes, they did.

We do not know if they did.  If the answer is yes,
they MAY have turned him in.  We don't know if they
tried to get him to surrender them of his own accord.
If they knew and did not turn him in, could they be
considered "accomplices after the fact"?

Think of the artifacts as you would think of a doctor
and his/her patients.  There's a trust from the public
at large in the preservation of such materials.  Due
dilligence demands it. (As an aside, one could argue
on the other side they may trust, but they certainly
don't fund).

Further, if he didn't know they were illegal, it could
be argued:  Is he qualified to lead such a
world-renowned insitution?  You don't need to be a
brain surgeon to run a hospital, but you need to know
SOMETHING about medicine.

Finally, to the aspersions cast that this was
political:  Why not?  Everything else is.  Howard
Dean's, John Kerry's, or Wesley Clark's people did it,
right?

Then again, where was Osama Bin Laden?



--- Audra Oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >>> [log in to unmask] 01/23/04 10:25AM >>>
> As I understand it Mr. Small purchased these
> collections before become the head of the
> Smithsonian.  Then, too, this "ethical violation" of
> collecting depends upon how you collect and for whom
> you work. Most art museums seem to expect their
> employees to support the arts by purchasing pieces.
> If you work at a museum that collects contemporary
> material, it would be very peculiar for you not to
> be allowed to also collect. When you work for a
> history museum, declaring all your collections that
> you had before you signed up becomes very
> problematic. (Maybe not if you are under 30 but for
> those of us over 30 listing all of our family
> mementoes, the trinkets we picked up before we
> became museum staff, and so on is pretty daunting.)
> The exhibition issue differs between art museums and
> history museums to an extent, too.
>
> I think terming this a "scandal" is a bit of an
> overstatement.  He wasn't trading on his position to
> acquire these items; he wasn't pilfering from the
> collection.
>
>
> the above opinion is that of the author alone and
> does not necessarily reflect the opinion of her
> employer.
>
>
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