Ownership of antiquities

> Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy,

Vol. 15, No. 1, 01 Jan 2012 -- available online on Taylor & Francis Online.

> This new issue contains the following articles:

>

> Articles

> Can we own the past? Cultural artifacts as public goods Peter Lindsay

> Pages: 1-17

> DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2011.583533

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COMMENTARY

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This article is simply one more ideologically driven, anticollecting rote recitation of the archaeologist zealot's mantra: that antiquities inherently "belong to the public" and may not be privately owned.

The author presents this utter, unthinking, unintelligent idiocy as "broadening" the public perspective, which is about as far from the truth as anything could possibly be, for in every sense of the word what he advocates would instead be a drastic and very destructive narrowing of the public perspective.

The author further foolishly, irresponsibly neglects to address the extremely important question of how, in a global economic crisis where governments of most "source countries" are unable to fund their existing responsibilities in caring for their immense holdings of sadly neglected antiquities, the measures he advocates could possibly be funded.

Once again we see the flights of fancy into which advocating public policy measures based upon nothing more than ideological principles, without any consideration of practical realities, inevitably descends. This is ivory tower academic idealism at its most dangerous, for there are still decision makers who, misled by academic credentials, believe that such nonsense ought to be taken as revealed truth.