I am in awe of Michael's work and collection. It is not just the money, although there was a lot of that. To me, the really significant part is the scholarship and research, the effort made to track down each piece, not just guns, but all the accessories and tools. All the work building the histories of each set of items, all the time and travel. Every bit of it had to be a lot of fun for Michael.
With Michael's passing and now the auction, the curtains are closing on on one heck of a show. Of the hundreds of millions of people in the world of the internet, how many are there who are even capable of understanding what we have lost? My feeling is that our numbers are in the 3- or 4-digit range and most of us are a lot closer to the end than to the beginning. In 20 or 30 years, none of us will be here. What then? Are there any young people who have a clue?
