It’s official. Lucy will be coming to America now that the U.S. State Department has given approval to allow the Lucy fossils into the United States. Last October 2006 the Houston Museum of Natural Science issued a press release [Word document] about the partnership with the Ethiopian government. The negotiations with the Ethiopian government took seven years to conclude. See also the official press release, The Exhibition “Lucy Legacy: Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia”, from the Honorary Consul General of Ethiopia. The arrangements have not been without controversy as reported by National Geographic and other news agencies. While the most public criticism against moving the fossils revolve around their supposed fragile condition, there appears to be an undercurrent of concern about how much money is being paid the Ethiopian government and their National Museum. The Cleveland Plain Dealer buries the fact that an estimated $5 – $7 million will be generated by just the Houston leg of the tour. Nature magazine’s Rex Dalton quotes palaeoanthropologist Bernard Wood about how lucrative this is for Ethiopia:
“I don’t think original fossils should be moved without good scientific reason,” says Bernard Wood, a palaeoanthropologist at George Washington University in Washington DC who signed the 1999 policy. Wood, however, concedes that a lucrative series of US exhibitions could help the Ethiopian museum. “African museums are badly underfunded,” he says, adding that the exhibition could be justified if enough of the proceeds go back to the museum in Addis Ababa. The terms of the proposed deal have not yet been negotiated.
Answers in Genesis speaker Dr. David Menton has several critiques of Lucy’s evolutionary significance. See Farewell to “Lucy”, and even a DVD: Lucy—She’s No Lady! A Critique of One of the Supposed Ancestors of Man. AiG also features a sample of the video.
CP
U.S. fans will be able to see Lucy’s bones
Feds OK visit by earliest hominid ancestor
by Natasha T. Metzler
San Francisco Chronicle, page A2
28 Jun 2007
The State Department gave final approval Wednesday for one of the world’s most famous fossils — the 3.2 million-year-old Lucy skeleton unearthed in Ethiopia in 1974 — to tour the United States on exhibit for the first time.
The Smithsonian has objected to the idea, however, because museum experts don’t think the fragile remains should travel. So Lucy won’t be stopping at the National Museum of Natural History, but at other U.S. museums instead.
Smithsonian scientists feel that certain artifacts, such as Lucy, are too valuable for the stresses of travel and should remain in their homes, according to National Natural History Museum spokesman Randall Kremer.
