A Bad State of Affairs for Collectors

Wayne Sayles sagely points out what our opponents do not want lawmakers to appreciate:

What those few elected representatives in Congress present did not hear (the room was nearly empty) was the six-hundred-year-old story of how private collectors of antiquities have saved countless objects from loss through physical destruction for intrinsic metal value (for example, melting down silver and gold coins) or the countless museums worldwide that are populated with cultural property donated by private collectors. Why was that perspective not made clear? Because the Archaeological community stranglehold on academia and bureaucracy has made alternative views all but impossible. Why was the room nearly empty? Maybe because this is a special interest and most representatives were juggling impossible schedules. The approach of bureaucracy, in its mindless support of a small academic ("expert") interest, funded mainly by public support, is actually extralegal and counterproductive. Academia and Bureaucracy have no actual control over foreign governments, so they turn their attack instead toward the innocent who are blameless. This is most obvious in the liberal media where hardly a day goes by without some blatant and typically false propaganda. The actual truth is that private collectors do far more to save the past than the loose-lipped academics ever dreamed of doing.

We need lobbyists to put forward our position and counteract the negative press we are getting from our detractors. Why are they failing to get the message across? What can we do to help them? The future of collecting is at stake.