[Taxacom] sale of type specimens

[Michael A. Ivie]

John,

Speaking here of insects, especially beetles.  Types are sold all the 
time, and the Code says nothing about it.  Paratypes, which have no 
standing nomenclature, are routinely available at the Prague and Paris 
Borses.  The Basel Museum bought hundreds/thousands of holotypes when 
they bought the George Frey collection a few years ago, the BMNH bought 
the Obentheur collection of Leps back in the 1950's which had hundreds 
of primary types (maybe thousands). London buys collections virtually 
yearly, many of which contain types, and I know the Smithsonian has a 
fund to do that as well. The California Academy of Sciences bought the 
Luna de Carvalho types and associated collections a few years ago.  
Canadian Henry Howden bought the Martinez collection in Argentina, 
including types, about 20 years ago.  Harvard bought the primary types 
from the Brivio collection in the 1980's.  Collections and specimens are 
sold all the time.  As long as the  buyer is vetted and qualified to 
receive types, which is the case in all of these examples, I see nothing 
wrong with the practice.

Mike

On 6/3/2014 10:01 AM, John Grehan wrote:
> I would be interested to know from the code buffs on the list what the
> zoological code says, if anything, about the commercial sale of type
> specimens. I am curious as I came across an eBay example of a paratype
> being sold (I suspect it is from a private collection because there were
> many paratypes assigned for private collection specimens).
>
> The fact (assuming the claim is true) that the specimen is a paratype seems
> to be used as a justification for a high bidding price. It would seem that
> there would be a lot of room for fraudulent sales if the type label is
> printed rather than handwritten.
>
> John Grehan
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-- 
__________________________________________________

Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D., F.R.E.S.

Montana Entomology Collection
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Montana State University
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