Andre Emmerich wonders why museums like Iraq’s National Museum have such a high concentration of available artifacts in one place. Wouldn’t it be better for the preservation of the art if it were spread between many museums and collections? “Contrary to what some believe, trade in ancient objects is not the enemy of preservation. The great contribution the art market makes to this cause is to endow works of art with value. As a practical matter, the objects yielded by excavating tombs are generally quite repetitive within each culture. An obvious solution would be to deaccession the masses of such repetitive minor objects now stored in deplorable conditions.”