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! ========================================================= 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).