[MSN] Marias Fingerprints?

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

A Significant Omission

The published transcript of the Cyprus MOA signing ceremony
http://www.state.gov/p/us/rm/2007/89515.htm
omits several significant words. 
Ambassador Kakouris of the Republic of Cyprus is reported in that transcript
as saying,
"In fact, I was reminded just before we came in about something that I had
said in January when we were before the Committee and responding to someone
very much on the side of the coin collectors who -- talked about the hobby
of collecting coins. And I said to him: "It may be your hobby, but it's our
heritage!" and that is the way that we look at this issue."

What Kakouris actually said can be heard here:

http://video.state.gov/?fr_story=bf3f54f8962f3cce621ac7cd7f6015508a1630a8

Here is a transcript of his actual remarks:

"In fact, I was reminded just before we came in by Maria Kouroupas about
something that I had said in January when we were before the Committee and
dealing with the coin collectors and somebody who was very much on their
side, when he talked about the hobby of collecting coins.  And I said to
him: "It may be your hobby, but it's our heritage!" and that is the way that
we look at this issue."

The omissions in the State Department's transcript suggest that the
prominence given to inclusion of coins in the MOA extension, in the remarks
of both Under Secretary Burns and Ambassador Kakouris, had been stage
managed behind the scenes by Kouroupas. Was it later realized that these
remarks disclosed information Kouroupas did not want to become publicly
known?

This would certainly be consistent with what Steven Vincent reported in his
classic 2002 expose, "Stealth Fighter - The Secret War of Maria Kouroupas" :

<<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L/files/Stealth%20Fighter.pdf >>

Vincent observed that " . to many who purchase, collect and exhibit the art
and artifacts of ancient civilizations, Maria Papageorge Kouroupas is the
devil incarnate. They believe that from the State Department's Bureau of
Educational and Public Affairs, where she is staff director of the Cultural
Property Advisory Committee (CPAC), she has pursued a veritable - and
intensifying - fatwa against the antiquities trade, accusing it of
stimulating the plunder of the world's temples, monuments, burial grounds
and other fragile, artifact-rich sites."

"Her critics argue that Kouroupas, supported by archaeologists, journalist
allies and government policy, treatens the livelihood of dealers and
imperils the ability of museums and private citizens to enrich their
collections. She has, they say, successfully hijacked American foreign
policy on cultural patrimony, thwarted the will of Congress and violated the
spirit, if not the letter, of U.S. law."

".Secretive, obsessed with controlling information and disdainful of the
interests of dealers, she and the State Department committee she heads
remain largely unaccountable to the press and general public. Under her
stewardship, the committee, charged with determining which cultural objects
the government should ban from entering the U.S., has been transformed into
'an autonomous private club,' says an aide to former Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, the New York legislator who sponsored a proposal to reform the
Cultural Property Advisory Committee in 1996. 'Under Maria, it has become
dominated by archaeologists who hate the trade and have no tolerance for
other points of view.' "

".Quiet and determined, she works in the shadows and is well-versed in the
jujitsu of bureaucratic turf-protecting. 'Maria exerts an enormous influence
in this complex and little-understood area of State's activities,' says a
former colleague. 'But you'd never know it. She's the ultimate bureaucrat.
She never leaves fingerprints.' "

Is it possible that Maria did leave fingerprints here?

**********

This message was originally posted to Unidroit-L. Several members (who read
both lists) suggested that it should also be sent to this list.

Dave Welsh
Unidroit-L Listowner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unidroit-L
dwelsh46 at cox.net