This is getting exciting, as others are observing, it remains unclear in what way when it put up well-provenanced artifacts for sale to benefit local programs designed to foster interest in archeology the St. Louis Society violated AIA regulations. But the members and board of the organization are standing by their decision (CPO: '
Saint Louis AIA Chapter Stands Firm')
They must be made of tougher stuff in Missouri. First, the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild was born there. Then, the Saint Louis Art Museum stood up to overreach by both the Egyptian and US Governments in successfully defending its title to the Ka Nefer Nefer Mask. And now, by voting to retain its current board, the Saint Louis Chapter of the AIA has rightly stood up against the ivory tower bullies of the national organization. That the fanatics that currently run the AIA made the deaccession of such well provenanced artifacts such an issue at all speaks volumes about how far archeological elitists have distanced themselves from collectors and museums.
Collectors' rights advocate Wayne Sayles warns that the AIA leadership probably in fact has a much smaller mandate than most realize and that they cannot represent the heart and mind of the science.
What human being in their right mind would want to be held in tow by a group of fanatics? The St. Louis Society deserves huge applause for their intestinal fortitude in standing on principle and adhering to the rule of law rather than the rule of an ideological dictatorship.
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