perfidy

John Derbyshire of the National Review has some interesting points on the ultimate fate of the artifacts that were looted from the museum in Baghdad. The gist of his argument is that those who stole the Sumerian thingies were in all likelihood museum employees, and will in all likelihhod sell the loot to western collectors, who will eventually die and leave the stuff to a museum in their will. This is a reassuring thought - the artifacts will be dispersed rather than destroyed. It won't be like the burning of the Library, or the Cultural Revolution in China.