Antiquitist Anti-Academism

.
One of the antiquitist mantras is that they are all against the illicit trade in antiquities, their bit of the trade is "all legitimate" and they cannot abide the black sheep "who get us all a bad name". So you would think they would all welcome the announcement that the European Research Council has awarded a team at Glasgow University led by Dr Simon Mackenzie a £1m grant to study the illegal trade in antiquities. Not so, paid lobbyist for the Professional Numismatists Guild (a dealers' association) is quite strong-worded in his rejection of the idea ('Your [sic] Tax Euros at Work', 14th Feb 2012) . He dismisses the researchers as "some well known academics with an axe to grind against collectors" and suggests that the "publicity for the grant" (sic) "does not suggest anything that even remotely resembles academic detachment". he cites the Guardian article. He suggests that if its goal really is to fund high quality research, "the European Research Council should be embarrassed" by this project. He reckons that "by the looks of it" (sic):

"this study will have about as much credibility as one funded by big Pharma to justify sales of a new drug, no one actually needs. It is, however, part of a trend. Get a governmental entity to fund an anti-collector study by academics with an axe to grind, and use it to help justify further government action and spending on cultural bureaucracies.

In other words, he alleges that there is an international conspiracy against collectors, and the ERC and Glasgow University are in on it. That's before he's even had the chance to observe the team at work and learn the final results of their research. It seems he has made up his mind to prepare collectors to dismiss the results of this research into the illegal side of the market before they have even read it. Why would a lobbyist for legitimate (PNG) dealers do that? What secrets do legitimate dealers have to hide?

Vignette: Legitimate dealers and black sheep... (sodahead)