Amber Listserv / Burmite collection

[Ron Buckley]

Goodmorning,

Back in 2006 my personal collection of the finest insect  specimens was offered to each and every major museum in the world, and would have been sold to them at a very reasonable price, below its value.

Unfortunatly, I heard back from several scientific sources that the museums were told not to make an offer as it would be picked up at a cheap price. Then the specimens would be made available to the different museums around the world for study.

There were even rumours that a certain museum even tried to bypass Jim Davis and use diplomatic sources to get Burmite. But this didnt work.

I had heard rumors of how one Cretaceous collection, I believe from Lebanon, was offered by a museum to purchase his collection. But upon arrival only the best specimens were offered to bought and at a much reduced price.

I then received an offer of $2000 from one museum. The top offer was $70,000 by Dr. Grimaldi(one time only offer). The collection had been valued at $400,000 by two different scientests. I thus immediatly turned the offer down flat.

In the meantime, I had found a reputable honest scientest Dr. George Poinar, and immediatly started working with him on scientific papers for these great specimens. I found him to be very honest, a real intellegent gentleman with a lot of personal drive. Since then a great number of very important papers on Burmese specimens have been written, and more are being worked on.. Dr. Poinar was graceous enough to let me be involved in the many projects.

I have now sold this 126 piece collection to a foreign collector for over 4 times of the Dr. Grimaldi offer. The party wishes and will remain private. I have kept a just few pieces for myself of these beautiful specimens.

If it were not for the efforts Of Jim Davis these fantastic Burmese specimens would have never been available to the scientific world.

Our problem now is two fold. One, It is now illegal to bring anything into the North Americas from Burma. All of Jim Davis Burmite was brought in before the embargo and he has retined documents to prove such.Two, if it can ever be brought in again it will prove very expensive. The trip alone to go over to Burma is about $10,000 for a week. So the future of Burmite is very bleak- how unfortunate.

Jim does still have raw  Burmite on hand and we have now found a person to locate the insects for us. So there will be a few more available but at a little higher cost- then there will be none.

At first we could not even get people to buy Burmite. Now we are receiving emails from all arround the world. I just had another inquiry from Bonn Germany this morning.

This has really been a fantastic experience for me and has allowed me to continue my passion for photography and the excitement of finding new specimens. 

A special thanks goes to Dr. Ted Pike who has helped with preliminary identifications and offered me much needed advise in this adventure. Another very special thanks to Grand and Scott for there support and involvent in this process.

Yes, I will dearly miss my collection but I will be retiring soon when I reach the age of 68.

Now down to clean the basement as per my wifes orders.
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