If the commercial fossil dealers are operating within the law, I see no
reason not to accept material collected by them, but under no
circumstances would I accept material from them "if the origins are
dubious." Now, if an unscrupulous dealer should be caught, and the
authorities are looking for a repository for ill-gotten specimens rather
than see them return to the collector market, I would see that as valid
circumstances to accept the material.
I was in a similar situation a few years ago when a hobbyist called the
museum I worked at, looking for a map of a nearby ghost town that would
show its landfill (read: the town dump). He was planning to go bottle
hunting, and offered to donate a portion of what he found to the museum
in exchange for our assistance. I politely informed him that his
proposed actions were likely in contravention of the provincial Heritage
Act protecting archaeological resources, and that the museum could not
ethically provide him with the information he sought, or accept any
spoils of his search. That was the last I heard of him. I don't know
whether or not he went ahead with his digging, but at least I never had
to second-guess the rightness of my informing him of the laws, and
refusing to play any part in his plan.
On the other hand, while at that same museum, a diver brought in a
piece he took off a famous shipwreck he collected in 1965, before the
Heritage Act protected shipwrecks as archaeological sites. The museum
had an unofficial policy of not accepting anything collected by divers,
partially because it's difficult to prove when a piece may have been
collected, and because it may indicate tacit approval that could
encourage further looting of wreck sites. I made an exception in that
case, because the piece had been collected lawfully according to the
laws of the time (which, although not proven conclusively, I was fairly
confident that the diver did in fact collect the piece in 1965), and
figured the piece would be better off in a public collection than in
private hands, where it may have done more to encourage the looting of
shipwrecks.
Cheers,
------------------------------------------------------------
Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
1302 Bomford Crescent S.W.
Medicine Hat, AB T1A 5E6
(403) 502-8587
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 4/23/2004 8:59:06 AM >>>
Hi,
This might be kind of a touchy subject, but I have a few questions
about commercial fossil dealing and museum policies. I am a grad
student in paleontology working on a research paper on this topic and
I
was wondering if any of your museums have specific policies about
whether or not to accept material collected by commercial fossil
dealers? Also do you have policies on whether to accept unique
material
even if the origins are dubious? I know that this is not allowed by
UNESCO but i curious as to people's opinions as well on this subject.
I have read arguments for obtaining these fossils so that they will
end
up in a museum and not a private collection.
thanks in advance for any thoughts on this!
talia
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