The purchase and sale of natural history objects such as dinosaur material
and  meteorites are of concern for natural history museums. One reason is it
creates a market that many of us cannot compete with, and it also creates a
reason for people to illegally collection vertebrate fossils on federal
lands and lie about where they came from, not to mention destroy the
scientific context of the discovery.  This is a problem on many levels.  In
one of the recent Museum News magazines members of the Society of Vertebrate
Paleontologists discussed illegal collecting. Having said this, fossils and
meteorites do end up on private lands and people are within their legal
rights to collect and dispose of as they see fit.

Minerals and gems are another story, these are generally in the private
sector as most are commercially mined and Museums are use to purchasing
them. And most reputable dealers are very aware of thefts from museums and
would be the first to turn them back to the Museum. None of the items on the
list sounded unique (without knowing more about them).

The dinosaur egg nest sounds like it would be from China, and if so, it was
exported illegally, however the laws do not seem to be enforced consistently
in China and the US Customs can't do anything unless China forces the issue
- at least this is my understanding.

The Apollo section would belong to the federal government, the feds have
objected in the past to the selling of a moon rock, but I don't know if they
would take the time to look into this.

The questions you bring up though are of continuing debate in the natural
history corner of the museum world. There are some laws, but not well known
or even enforced, there are ethical questions that we all struggle with
about purchase or receiving some donations.


So thank you for bringing this up, I would be very intersted in knowing what
other natural history museum people think.

Suzanne Cowan
New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science



-----Original Message-----
From: Indigo Nights [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 6:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: I am very concerned!

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