Come to think of it, this whole brouhaha surrounding the Mansoor Amarna Collection, started in the late 1930’s when some ignorant and jealous antiquarians in Cairo, preached the non-authenticity of the Mansoor Collection, when they found out that Mansoor was selling some of his Amarna artifacts to King Farouk. The rumors started again, in the 1950’s, when an inexperienced dilettante, William J. Young, who was associated with what was one of the world’s great museums, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, botched an elementary scientific test.

This quickly degenerated to a smear campaign, accompanied by gossip and innuendoes, thanks to John D. Cooney of the Brooklyn Museum. Cooney, Hans Wolfgang Muller, Philippe Derchain and others stooped to the level of these ignorant and jealous merchants and joined in condemning the collection; they were probably the original " Egyptian Art Milieu " which Dietrich Wildung controls today!

It is a shame that a whole generation of Egyptologists was brainwashed by these

" intellectually dishonest " individuals. For those who wish to follow in their footsteps, we suggest the following:

Keep this philosophy in mind, next time you either hear, or about to repeat a rumor.

In ancient Greece, Socrates (469 – 399 BC) was widely lauded for his wisdom. One day the great philosopher came upon an acquaintance who ran up to him excitedly and said,

" Socrates, do you know what I have just heard about one of your students?"

" Wait a moment," Socrates replied, " Before you tell me I’d like you to pass a little test. It is called the triple Filter Test."

" Triple Filter?"

" That’s right, " Socrates continued. " Before you talk to me about my student, let’s take a moment to filter what you’re going to say."

" The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

" No," the man said, " actually I just heard about it and…."

" All right, " said Socrates. " So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my student something good?"

" No, on the contrary…."

" So," Socrates continued, " you want to tell me something bad about him, even though you’re not certain it’s true? "

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed.

Socrates continued. " You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter- the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my student going to be useful to me?"

" No, not really".

" Well," concluded Socrates, " if what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me at all?"

The man was defeated and ashamed.

This is the reason Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.