Amber Listserv / amberlist serv /note from a British scientest

[Frank Krell]

Dear Amber-lovers,

well, it was me, and I was unaware that my English is that bad. Thanks for your friendly words. I am German, by the way. You might try to answer this letter in German, and I will tell you how good your language skills are.
Anyway, knowing a bit about Museums' finances, I told Ron from the beginning that the valuation exceeds the abilities of public Museum's by a magnitude. If somebody want's to sell something to public Museums or keep objects of higher market value in the scientific community, he has to be rather philanthropic and selfless. It is always a bad deal for the seller, but a great gain for science. I honestly don't know what I would do in this case.
Cheers

Frank

Dr Frank-T. Krell
Head, Coleoptera Division
Editor, Systematic Entomology
Commissioner, International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
Department of Entomology
The Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD, U.K.
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7942 5886
Fax +44 (0) 20 7942 5229
f.krell at nhm.ac.uk
http://www.nhm.ac.uk//research-curation/staff-directory/entomology/cv-3566.html
http://myprofile.cos.com/ftkrell




-----Original Message-----
From:	amber-bounces at ambericawest.com on behalf of Andy Ng
Sent:	Wed 04/10/2006 08:59
To:	Maggiecatbird at aol.com
Cc:	amber at ambericawest.com; ronbuckley at fuse.net
Subject:	Re: Amber Listserv / amberlist serv /note from a British scientest

Heya Mags & all,

I got a muddy truck, muddy resinite and a muddy me to wash before dark, so
I'll make this as brief as my grimy fingers can type.

The spelling is bad, agreed. I know of many technical & scientific types who
can't spell properly or orate worth a damn, but their minds harbor great
intelligence and knowledge of their respective fields. Whoever wrote that
letter is acedemic (pun intended).

Lets look at the real world and real happenings. It'll shed some light into
the seeming reluctance of museums to buy certain stuff.

1) Private collectors are always in a better financial position than
institutions who depend on the largess of government grants and patron
donations. They (the private collectors) can afford pricy stuff. Museums
have less cash to play with. If I could offer the Mona Lisa for sale, guess
who could pay more?

2) The US embargo on Burmese gems is a farce. Kinda like trying to bail a
boat with a sieve. Burma rubies often surface as Sri Lankan or Thai
gemstones, and Burmese opium regularly wends its way to other countries with
ease, thanks to the co-operation of the various powers that be. With drugs
and precious gems easily making their way across borders, how hard is it to
buy smuggled Burmite? As I've stated before in a previous post, it's not
hard. Pop into Bangkok, talk to the right people and if the quantity wanted
is right and the price is attractive enough, it's yours. I can say this with
absolute certainty because some of my Thai customers frequently process
Burmite. It's an open secret, but purposely kept on the quiet.

I'm off to hose down the mud!

Andy.

On 10/4/06, Maggiecatbird at aol.com <Maggiecatbird at aol.com> wrote:
>
>  Hi Ron,  could you tell us who this British scientist is and what museum
> he is with? His spelling and general use of English is so bad that I'm
> wondering if it wasn't sent by some sympathetic other party who just wanted
> to make you feel better. Any chance? Do you know who it really is?    Best,
> Maggie
>
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