Monday, May 12, 2014

Trophy Room Readied for Spoils from Egyptian MOU?

The Egyptian Museum is currently exhibiting artifacts repatriated from abroad in a temporary exhibition.  CPO is concerned the Egyptian Museum may be expanding this exhibition space dramatically, particularly if U.S. Customs construes any MOU as "allow[ing] the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to seize any Egyptian artefact entering the US as long as it does not have any official or legal documents showing that it left Egypt legally."  That's why it's so important to comment on the MOU on or before May 14th, "done deal" or not.  Can we really trust the bureaucrats to construe their enforcement authority any less broadly than their authority to promulgate import restrictions in the first place, particularly when Customs agents can and do seek more and more and more documentation to justify repatriations under the CPIA?

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