selling split pairs separately?

[piranha]

11 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

...Trying to push any agenda on commercial fossil dealers seems to me to be tilting at windmills.  

 

_{^{I would rather try my luck at herding cats!}}   

[Auspex]

Don't be disheartened; you picked a tough windmill to tilt.

 

The laws that allow you to own, buy, and sell property (including fossils) are what allow you to have a fossil collection. They are your property, to do with as YOU see fit.

You may decry what others do with theirs, but it is up to them.

 

You could start a 'fossil rescue' foundation, funded by like-minded people, to negotiate the purchase of significant fossil pairs at risk of separation, and donate them to a willing museum. You cannot tell people what to do with their property (and I expect that you would fight legislation that told you what to do with yours).

 

This discussion, which you initiated, will be read by many people, and they will think about the issue. Maybe they'll start their own discussions. Broader awareness will result. You have done your part.

[Wrangellian]

That's what I'm hoping for, now. I can't tell people what to do with their belongings, but I (we?) can point out the undesirability of this practice, and that future owners might wish they had the other half.

I started this thread basically to find out how much agreement there was for my position that it's bad form to split pairs. Question answered, I guess. I realize how much of an uphill battle I've chosen. I've done about all I can do.

 

[Wrangellian]

On 3/29/2018 at 1:59 AM, Ludwigia said:

I surely appreciate and share your concern, but I'm afraid that the subject is so complicated and has so many different aspects (not to mention the inarticulated bones which were mentioned here) that it would be quite difficult to come up with a general regulatory formulation which would cover everything. If you view the situation objectively, only a certain percentage of these things are worth it to be scientifically pursued. If a lot of museums can't even afford to buy them, then the things are lost to posterity one way or the other, aren't they? At least they could be saved in private collections, but which collectors can afford to pay for them? These are only a couple of the many aspects that I can see. Like Whodaman says, the solution needs to fit the situation.

BTW I don't think that a fossil in a private collection is necessarily lost to science. As long as accurate collecting data accompanies it, I imagine it can change hands any number of times and still be found years later if shown to a specialist who may be the first to notice something that all the previous handlers missed, and could be donated to a museum at any time, not necessarily within days of being found. I realize this is much less likely with bought fossils than with self-found fossils, but you never know (and many dealers sell self-found fossils). I'm advocating good practice that will preserve as much as possible for this eventuality. I think a split pair is better side by side than on opposite sides of the world not just for potential scientific papers, but for any purpose, educational, aesthetic, etc. I for one will make my entire collection available to any researcher who is interested, though I suppose I need to get my things photo'd and start posting them in the gallery before this can happen...

The point I wanted to drive home was that many collectors and dealers may not realize what they're handling, and should err on the side of caution before splitting things up. I'm not sure that many do. (Some do, sure.)