ATADA addresses Federal raids on Native American artifact dealers and collectors.

We attended a meeting of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association on August 16, 2010 in Santa Fe.

The subject was the incidences of raids conducted by Federal investigators in the homes and premises of dealers in Native American pre-historic artifacts.

While ATADA opposes and condemns the behavior of the some bad actors in the pre-historic artifacts trade. But the ATADA maintains that the raids and allegations against a wide number of dealers, three of whom committed suicide, were without legal basis.

Jim Owen, a retired attorney, collector and member of ATADA, provided these comments at the meeting.




We do not endorse or rebut these observations. We are not attorneys. We feel, however, that the more you know about this controversy, the better you will be prepared to draw your own conclusions.