More Evidence of Government Overreach and Maladministration at Expense of Small Business dealers and Collectors!

The evidence still continues to pile up concerning our government's continued overreach and maladministration of antiquities regulations at the expense of small businesses in the antiquities trade and collectors. Jim McAndrew, a former top customs official detailed to head up enforcement of  laws relating to cultural property, has recently expressed serious concerns that US Customs agents may be confusing their roles ('Former Top Customs Official Expresses Serious Concerns About State, Customs Program').  McAndrew is concerned that while their badges say US Customs, DHS appears to be acting as Chinese, Egyptian, Italian, etc. Customs, i.e., there seems to be a "seize first" mentality based on little more than a foreign request. Meanwhile Mark Feldman, the State Department's point person on accession to the 1970 UNESCO Convention and the passage of the CPIA, continues to express concerns with how State has administered the statute ('Feldman on State Department's Administration of CPIA')