[MSN] FW: Coin Collectors Sue State Department Over Import Rules

[Museum Security Network Mailing list]

Dear MSN-  As I did not get an acknowledgement and this story has not
appeared on your list, I thought I would resend it. 

 

Peter K. Tompa 

Dillingham & Murphy, LLP

1155 Connecticut Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20036

Telephone: (202) 835-9880

Facsimile: (202) 835-9885

pkt at dillinghammurphy.com

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-----Original Message-----
From: Goodetompa at aol.com [mailto:Goodetompa at aol.com] 
Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 7:35 AM
To: msn-list at te.verweg.com
Cc: Tompa, Peter K.
Subject: Coin Collectors Sue State Department Over Import Rules 

 

Please consider reposting this story from the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/arts/16cnd-coin.html?_r=1&ref=arts&ore
f=slogin

 

November 17, 2007


Coin Collectors Sue State Department Over Import Rules 


By JEREMY KAHN

Three organizations representing coin collectors and dealers have filed
a lawsuit against the State Department demanding greater disclosure of
how the government makes decisions on the import of ancient artifacts
from abroad.

The suit, filed jointly on Thursday by the three groups in Federal
District Court in Washington, asserts that the State Department violated
the Freedom of Information Act when it failed to release documents that
the coin collectors had sought concerning recent decisions in which the
State Department either considered or imposed import restrictions on
ancient coins. The documents involve trade between the United States and
Italy, China and the Republic of Cyprus.

If the coin collectors were to prevail, the State Department might be
compelled to shed more light on the way it makes decisions on protecting
the cultural property of other nations, a process that many art dealers,
museum directors and collectors argue has been unnecessarily shrouded in
secrecy. Among the information sought from the State Department are
documents related to a May 2004 request from China that the United
States restrict the import of a vast array of art and artifacts,
including coins, dating from Chinese prehistory through the early 20th
century. The State Department has repeatedly delayed action on the
Chinese petition in the face of strong opposition from museum curators,
art dealers, auction houses and collectors. 

The Chinese request is supported by archaeologists, however, who believe
that the antiquities market and trade in ancient coins encourages the
pillage of important ancient sites. 

The lawsuit also follows a controversial decision by the State
Department in July to ban imports of ancient coins from the island of
Cyprus. It was the first time the government had barred trade in a broad
category of ancient coins, and collectors and dealers were startled.
Archaeologists, who often use coins to help them date finds, supported
that ban on the grounds that treasure hunters using metal detectors to
search for coins frequently damage significant sites.

The coin collectors described their lawsuit as a last resort, taken only
after the State Department ignored multiple Freedom of Information Act
requests made over the last three years as well as unsuccessful efforts
by two Republican legislators, Representative John Culberson of Texas
and Senator Christopher S. Bond
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/christophe
r_s_bond/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  of Missouri, to persuade the State
Department to divulge more about its decision-making. 

"We have tried every other step," said Wayne G. Sayles, executive
director of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, one of the groups
bringing the suit. "We are not getting any transparency in the process,
and we need that transparency to make sure our position is considered
and that our rights are maintained." The other two plaintiffs are the
International Association of Professional Numismatists and the
Professional Numismatists Guild.

Darlene Kirk, a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, said the department would not comment
on a pending lawsuit as a matter of policy. 

Peter K. Tompa, an attorney who serves as president of the Ancient Coin
Collectors Guild and has represented collectors before a committee that
advises the State Department on the antiquities trade, suggested that if
the lawsuit succeeds, it might yield evidence that would allow the coin
collectors to challenge the legal basis for the ban on Cypriot coin
imports.

Mr. Tompa said that the coin collectors suspect that the State
Department imposed the restriction on coins against the advice of its
own Cultural Property Advisory Committee and perhaps in violation of the
procedures established by a 1983 law governing cultural property
protection. They want the State Department to release documents that
could prove or disprove this suspicion.





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