An Open Letter to “Indiana Jones”

Dear Dr. Jones,  

As a General Trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America, you must be well acquainted with the AIA position on cultural property.  Your fans will recall those immortal words from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- "It belongs in a museum."  That might well be true for the Ark of the Covenant, but did you really mean to say that EVERY cultural object, from broken pottery to long-lost pocket change, belongs in a nationalist state museum near the place it was found?  I rather doubt it, but that is precisely what your esteemed AIA colleagues lobby for and exactly what their "friends" in the U.S. State Department (DOS) are delivering through a stream of bilateral agreements with cultural property nationalist countries.  Make no mistake, we're not just talking about rare objects from the dawn of civilization, but about ordinary objects that can range from musical instruments to postage stamps.  Under the UNESCO Resolution of 1970, that cultural nationalists consider their Bible, millions of common objects made at the beginning of the 20^th century are already classified as "cultural property" and are subject to import and/or export controls.  

Think about it – a mid-level bureaucrat working for the U.S. Government essentially decides whether an American citizen can legally import something as mundane as a postage stamp.  Crazy idea?  Orwellian? Yes, it is, and they would have thought so in 1911 as well -- but similar restrictions have already been imposed here in the "land of the free."  Contrary to its own law, the American government is restricting the importation of minor utilitarian objects, including common coins, under the guise of protecting cultural property.  

Why?  Because archaeologists believe that trade encourages looting?  What would the State Department gain by restricting trade in old coins and the like?  Is this some sort of quid pro quo for diplomats to repay favors from nationalist governments--including some who deny personal property rights and even basic human rights to their own citizens?  What do archaeologists gain for their support of these nationalist regimes?  Approval of excavation permits in foreign lands?  Why do these cultural property nationalist countries even care about coins?  The evidence seems to suggest that some probably don’t – that they didn’t even ask for restrictions that have been imposed by the State Department on coins.  It's all quite convoluted and masked behind a wall of secrecy.

There are a lot of unanswered questions here Dr. Jones.  Maybe it's time for you to ask some serious questions of your own in those closed-door board sessions and consider whether you really do want to lend your fame and fortune to the ideological warfare that the AIA and DOS are waging on the rest of America.