Greek Unrest

Athens Burns

http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2012/02/athens-burns.html

by Peter Tompa

Rioting has erupted in Athens over the austerity measures the country now faces. See http://news.yahoo.com/greece-boils-over-120700059.html Apparently, some historic buildings were torched overnight.

Both the Greek and Egyptian national museums are sited right in the midst of anti-government demonstrations. Yet, as Athens smolders and Cairo seethes with discontent, archaeologists and UNESCO are still advocating returning the return of artifacts to their country of origin no matter how unstable or underfunded they might be.

In insurance parlance, this is called "concentration risk," and it is not a good thing if the actual point is to conserve artifacts. After all, disaster is just one petrol bomb away.