Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 20
A scorpion and spider expert with the American Museum of Natural History was detained in Istanbul on Monday while allegedly attempting to smuggle samples of both arachnida groups out of Turkey.
Lorenzo Prendini was held by police at Istanbul airport for allegedly trying to take about 1,500 samples out of the country, Turkish media reported.
Video published by the Demiroren News Agency showed officers searching hand luggage and removing plastic bags that appeared to be packed with dead spiders and scorpions.
The museum’s website lists Prendini as the curator of its spider, scorpion, centipede and millipede collections, and says his research into spiders and the classification of scorpions, has taken him to more than 30 countries.
That came after new director Sean Decatur, the first African American to lead the institution, announced that the museum’s holdings of 12,000 human remains, many collected under circumstances now seen as abusive and racist, would be returned where possible.
All human bones on public display were removed, and the museum vowed to devote more resources to studying the collection to determine the origins and identities of remains.
Source: The Guardian
