He’s a “real life Indiana Jones,” trumpets a
Time headline
today. The publication is referring to Don Miller, a 91-year-old
Indiana man. We have no idea what sort of inventive traps and
possessive, violent aboriginal warriors (or Nazis!) he may have had
to overcome to amass his huge collection of artifacts, but he can
now say he knows what it’s like to be the target of a raid.
On Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
descended on his home and seized it and all his belongings,
including thousands of historical and cultural artifacts obtained
over the past 80 years.
The FBI believes some of them were obtained illegally, but they
don’t know which ones (if any), and it may take them months—or even
years—to find out. From the
Indianapolis Star:
Robert A. Jones, special agent in charge of the Indianapolis FBI
office, would not say at a news conference specifically why the
investigation was initiated, but he did say the FBI had information
about Miller’s collection and acted on it by deploying its art
crime team.FBI agents are working with art experts and museum curators, and
neither they nor Jones would describe a single artifact involved in
the investigation, but it is a massive collection. Jones added that
cataloging of all of the items found will take longer than “weeks
or months.”“Frankly, overwhelmed,” is how Larry Zimmerman, professor of
anthropology and museum studies at Indiana University-Purdue
University Indianapolis described his reaction. “I have never seen
a collection like this in my life except in some of the largest
museums.”The monetary value of the items and relics has not been
determined, Jones said, but the cultural value is beyond measure.
In addition to American Indian objects, the collection includes
items from China, Russia, Peru, Haiti, Australia and New Guinea, he
said.
Miller has not been charged with any crimes. Indeed, according
to the Star, this entire raid is to determine whether
any of the artifacts were illegally obtained:
The aim of the investigation is to determine what each artifact
is, where it came from and how Miller obtained it, Jones said, to
determine whether some of the items might be illegal to possess
privately.Jones acknowledged that Miller might have acquired some of the
items before the passage of U.S. laws or treaties prohibited their
sale or purchase.
So because they don’t know whether Miller had obtained any of
these artifacts illegally, they seized an elderly man’s home and
his property to find out.
From what we know of Indiana Jones, he probably would support
the FBI here anyway:
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