Bell Zoni's Explorations of Ancient Tombs

William H. Stebing says quote throughout his explorations, Bell Zoni continually looked for portable antiquities and papayri that he could sell to the consul general or other European collectors. He openly admitted that his purpose in entering ancient tombs was to quote, rob the Egyptians of their papayri end quote from Bell Zoni's account of his experiences while exploring dark, unventilated tomb passages and chambers. Can you imagine the tears of modern day archeologists thinking how they would have lovingly used a paintbrush to just remove the tiniest bits of dust off every one of those objects?