…and almost always exploitative, taking advantage of countries that do not have the resources to police such transactions. The N.Y. Times reports on the attempt to auction off a complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton:
Mr. Norell believed there was almost no chance that the 24-foot-long, 8-foot-tall fossil had been legally removed from Mongolia, the only country where that type has been found. On May 17, three days before the auction, he wrote an open letter that was posted to listservs frequented by paleontologists.
“As someone who is intimately familiar with these faunas, these specimens were undoubtedly looted from Mongolia,” the letter said.
There is an art shop in Tbilisi that I used to visit because I liked the work they would show. But every time I went, the owner, upon discovering I am a paleoanthropologist, wanted to show me the cameos he sells that are made of mammoth tusk. I tried to explain to him exactly why I did not, and never would be interested in those products, but to no avail. So I stopped going.
