Re: UPDATE: Nest saved from auction house

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

I have problems with this nest  auction/rescue.   See:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/international/2007217/102797.htm
for  naming names of the shipper and collector.  

In news stories before  the auction, Gerald Grellet-Tinner, Xing Lida and 
Wang Xiaolin appealed to  Bonhams & Butterfields not to auction the specimen, 
because it was almost  certainly smuggled out of China.  " 'To have a wonderful 
complete nest like  this is amazing,' said Thomas Lindgren, director of the 
natural history division  at Bonhams."  Bonhams went ahead with the sale and 
issued statements on the  sale amount. 

Did Customs agents recover the egg that had been removed  from the nest for 
study?   See:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1Y1-100844605.html
"The  Cretaceous-era dinosaur nest was unearthed in the southern Chinese 
province of  Guangdong in 1984 and has been privately sold in Asia. In 2003, an 
American  collector on the East Coast bought the nest and restored it to museum 
quality."  ... "Lindgren said the collector's son has been examining the nest 
as part of  his graduate thesis and is preparing a scientific paper for 
publication next  year."

This conflicts with information in the original USA Today article  at:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-11-30-dinosaur-nest_x.htm
"Lindgren  said the collector did not have a contact in the museum world and 
had hoped that  by auctioning the dinosaur nest, it may one day end up in a 
museum."  The  collector was the one who restored it to museum quality; his 
son, 
who was  writing a graduate thesis, had never been to a museum?  

and the  original story at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15953159/
"Tens of  thousands of dollars have been spent on scientific preparation and 
studies to  determine exactly which of the six to eight known species of small 
raptor is  represented by the eggs in the nest. That will be revealed in an 
academic paper  now being prepared for publication next year."
An academic paper on a  specimen prepared scientifically by someone who had 
no contacts with museums, on  a specimen that was illegally exported from 
China?  

Mary  Kirkaldy
______________

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian  Baziak" <baziak@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 16, 2007 5:22  PM

> The eggs were found in Guandong province, China, in 1984, shipped  to 
> Taiwan
> and then shipped to a Florida collector in  2004.
>
> [...]
>
> Well score one for science I guess.