Submitted by Christine McCann, May 23, 2007 18:20

Although Levy and White may have in their own lifetime/generation have been generous philanthropists, supportive backers of excavations, research, and museum exhibitions, and successful collectors of antiquities, they failed nearly wholesale to abide by certain codes of ethics which are now becoming standard in the archaeological and museum communities, codes which were not new to the 1970's academic population, but merely made a public formality. It is not always about what you do, but how you do it. Levy and White should be respected for their ambitious philanthropy and scholarly support, but must also bear the heavy yet didactic burden of the incorrect ways and means of collecting antiquities for current and future generations. Hopefully museums, private collectors, and the archaeological communities not just of the United States, but of the global community can learn from the mistakes of its predecessors.

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