My Great uncle

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/03/298721814/thousands-of-artifacts-seized-at-91-year-old-indiana-mans-home

 
"FBI agents took over a Rush County man’s home on Wednesday. Dozens of police cruisers, an FBI command station, several tents and crime scene tape litter the block surrounding the home of Don Miller.

Over the decades, Miller has traveled to some 200 countries collecting and bartering for artifacts. He tells CBS News everything is rightfully his, but he’s fully cooperating with the FBI, which believes some of his possessions may violate several treaties."

It kind of sucks what is going on, but I'm not an expert on artifact laws. The guy is one of the most interesting people I've ever met. His house had at least 3 pipe organs inside of it, the museum in the basement, and a 100+ ft tunnel connecting buildings on his property. He worked on the Manhattan project, and has spent his life traveling the world and building this collection
 
Op your uncle sounds like he was a really charismatic and great guy! thats messed up the fbi is doing this right now. If he is 94 why not have the decency to wait until he dies before confiscating his life's achievements
 
I thought they only ate their feces as a ritual following coitus with their fathers. Didnt know they jacked it to pictures of it.

I hope one of them reads this and puts us on a watch list
 
I went to his house when I was young, but a couple things stood out to me. He had shrunken heads, an incredible number of arrow heads, pottery, and antique firearms. A large portion was native american artifacts. His house was pretty big, and the whole basement was filled with display cases of this stuff. In the tunnel connecting the house to the barn there was a 60 ft long anaconda skin. The barn had a couple classic cars. In the main house a large portion of the second level was taken up by the pipe organ room, which housed a set of pipes for at least one organ. He had a couple organs and pianos and played them all. The main level was fairly normal, except for one wall covered in radio equipment. I think he was really into ham radio. He used his vacation days from work to travel and go on archaeological digs, and he was full of stories about far off lands. Apparently in Libya in the 80's he was detained by gunmen and interrogated because they thought he was CIA. I'll have to ask my parents for more details because I was really young, but he's an interesting guy for sure. It sucks that he FBI can go into your house, take everything, and then figure out later if you have a right to own it.
 
Also from what ive heard, dea agents have a ritual where they shit in a condom, put it it in the freezer then fuck their transexual wives with them.

Just a rumor but rumors are sometimes true
 
that sounds pretty legit.

next question is, did he get this stuff legally or did he steal it like bad guys on Indiana jones?
 
Here's some pics from when I visited his house for a family reunion. You can see the shrunken head and me in the first picture.

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As for the legality of all of it I don't know. Most of the indian artifacts were found before there were laws expressly against keeping finds. The stuff from other countries is more complicated, because apparently a nation can make requests to the US to get stuff back no matter how/when it was found. I doubt any of it is illegal in the sense of black market trade, because he's never kept it a secret. He's given tours to local schools and had numerous reporters write about him/his collection.
 
i met a dude in washington that claimed to have a similar collection of things. i had no idea what was real and what was not. Also, if he was liar or not. But at the time what i saw i was in awe. The dude was a trip. He had a bunch of train connex buried in his backyard that was a end of the world/self defense fort type thing. His son took us down for a little tour that was sweet. Some of the ways to get to the next rooms were so small you had to crawl through and they could be sealed off for defense reasons. i think he was part of some washington militia. no clue about him or what ever happened.
 
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