At lunch today, I read the LA Times and came up with the following ad: Page A23, top right corner Natural History Auction Auction: Sunday, August 27 at 3 pm in Los Angeles and San Francisco Preview: August 18-20 in San Francisco August 25-27 in Los Angeles Inquiries: David Herskowitz, (415) 861-7500 ext. 3349 Featuring a unique collection of gems, minerals, amber, fossils, dinosauria, and a large collection of exotic meteorities--even a piece of the planet Mars! Highlights include a 125-pound polished jade boulder, a 2.14-carat alexandrite, the skull of a saber-toothed tiger, the large foot claw from a Tyrannasaurus Rex, a nest of 15 dinosaur eggs, a fuel cell from a fallen Russian satellite, and an actual piece of the Apollo 11 command module. To order a catalogue ($25.00 plus $5.00 postage & handing). Please call (323) 850-7500 Ext. 3205 View or order our calogues at www.butterfields.com Butterfields an eBay company 220 San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94103 7601 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90046 End of ad No, I'm not advertising for them. It seems very wrong for these items to be available and into the hands of the general public. These sound like they truly belong in museums, not in the hands of someone who might appreciate them, but whose family may have no interest and destroy. They sound to me like they belong to society in perpetuity, not to some profiteer. And I am also concerned that, perhaps, that stolen amber that was on list a few months ago, or some other museum piece that was taken, could be on this list. And, if these are deaccessioned pieces by our members here, how do you justify not putting them out there for other museums? It feels like a breach of trust. As I sad, it alarmed me greatly. ===== Indigo Nights [log in to unmask] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send instant messages & get email alerts with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/ ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).