Antiquities For Sale
When I was visiting a friend of mine over the summer, he took me to look at some Greek coins for sale. I had never really understood his fascination with coin collecting before, and to tell you the truth I wasn't particularly excited about the trip. Nonetheless, he needed to go, and I was enjoying catching up with him. There was an antiquity for sale that he was extremely interested in purchasing, and the opportunity was limited. Reluctantly, I agreed to go along.
It turned out to be a store that specialized in selling a wide variety of antiquities for sale. There were treasures from practically every land and from thousands of years of time. In addition to Greek and Roman gold coins for sale, there were altars from India, ritual daggers from the Aztec Empire, and strange amulets which I couldn't recognize as belonging to any culture I had ever heard of. There was even a modern altar there that had been made out of neon a few years previous by some artist as a commission for the store's owner. Oddly enough, people had left coins as offerings at the base of it.
I had never really seen antiquities for sale before, and I was fascinated by the idea. I had seen plenty ancient antiquities in the museum. I was a big fan of ancient Egypt when I was a kid, And I used to always like to go look at the sarcophagi when my parents would take me to the museums. I loved the dark dramatic lighting, the aura of silence and age, and the strange pictographs decorating the the coffin walls.
This place was somehow even more dramatic. Looking at all the antiquities for sale from all over the world, I had a sense of international travel and adventure. I pictured some Indiana Jones character who had painstakingly collected many of the worlds greatest treasures over his years of exploration.
The truth was closer to that than I had expected. Apparently, many antiquities for sale are actually plundered from temples around the world. This particular antiquities dealer was known to be very reputable, but my friend had cautioned me. He told me that if I wanted to buy an antiquity for sale, I had best make sure it was from a respectable source. Otherwise, I could expect to eventually have an unwelcome visit from US customs. Even if that didn't happen, I would have a theft on my conscience ? and that is something that I didn't want. I'm glad that most antiquities sellers seem to be honest.
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