Law Enforcement Scores Publicity Points at Antiquities Dealers’ and Market’s Expense

Whose interests are being served here?

 Art galleries are voicing concern about the recent high-profile raids during Asia Week in New York. They feel they are being unfairly treated in the seizures of suspected antiquities and the sudden confiscations are an unduly heavy-handed approach (Marion Maneker, "Law Enforcement Scores Publicity Points at Antiquities Dealers’ and Market’s Expense" Art Market Monitor March 17, 2016), this passage from the New York Times puts the issue in a nutshell: 

Lark Mason, an Asian antiquities dealer who is chairman of Asia Week, said gallery owners are ready to work with law enforcement when questions arise about objects.: “Why are they not approaching these galleries instead of treating them like criminals trying to do something underhanded,” he said. The items seized this week were all publicized by their vendors online and in catalogs, he said, not sneaked “in to be sold in some smoky back room.” 

 Law Enforcement officials are using this prestigious event to score publicity points at the expense of individual legitimate dealers and the antiquities market.