Re: Fwd: [Fwd: Re: NOVA]

["Michael D. Miller" <millerm@thunder.indstate.edu>]

>I too see nothing wrong with a "foreign" museum getting Sue but the 
assertion
>that possession by a private collector automatically means it will be
>unavailable to science is an allegation. It is in the best interests of an
>owner to make extremely rare and important finds available to professionals
>for proper documentation, if for no other reason than to increase it's 
value.


It certainly may be true, and some private owners just may do that, but 
it is not REQUIRED by any law that they do.  It must be by thier good 
nature that they would if they did and it seems the mindset, although 
negative, that most private collectors would not let people in to examine 
their collection, even the most highly trained.  The chances for a 
scientist to study a specimen through a museum is much higher than 
through a private collector.  What I am saying is that private collectors 
tend to be less flexible to the sensitivies of scientists and more 
concerned with issues which are more centered around their whims.

Michael D. Miller