The British Disease is Catching?

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On the 9th July, the Associazione Nazionale Archeologi (ANA) published a petition and appeal against the promulgation of proposed new measures licencing the possession of archaeological artefacts in Italy (English and Italian texts available here). They say:

Thus overnight, the law will officially transform looters and the “archaeomafia,” which the current legal system condemns and prosecutes, into collectors and managers of cultural heritage, who with the antiquities they have robbed from the public patrimony, can engage, legally, in commercial activities and with museums and art galleries. From the moment of the law’s approval, until the end of petitions for remittance, the greatest plundering and devastation ever seen of the nation’s archaeological sites will be unleashed, with epic and irreparable damage to our cultural patrimony.

Peter Tompa repreesenting the commercial interests is rubbing his hands with glee and commented on these measures yesterday as PAS Italian Style? and it is difficult not to agree with him this time.* In Britain, the PAS has transformed looters of unprotected archaeological sites into collectors and managers of cultural heritage, "who with the antiquities they have robbed from the public patrimony, can engage, legally, in commercial activities and with museums and art galleries". This legitimation of the activity has unleashed the greatest plundering and devastation ever seen of the nation’s archaeological site right under the noses of the British public and archaeological establishments, with epic and irreparable damage to the cultural patrimony of the country, which is part of the cultural patrimony of the world.

Do not let the British disease infect Italy (see also Looting Matters on this). The ANA invites

the whole world of cultural heritage and antiquities, all the peaple and those who in Italy and abroad hold dear the Italian archaeological and artistic patrimony, which constitutes our nation’s cultural identity itself and belongs to the cultural patrimony of all mankind, and is protected by our constitution, to mobilization against this law that would render vain in our country any legal efforts of protection and archaeological research. We petitioners appeal to the President of the Republic, to all political parties and to all those of goodwill to stop this mortal strike to the cultural patrimony of Italy.

This proposal has met with joy by collectors over on Unidroit-L and the Yahoo closed-access AncientArtifacts forum. This is because it has for some reason been presented to them by the dealers' lobby tub-thumpers wholly in terms of as a PAS-clone . They are all too dense to see for themselves that this is in fact instead a registration system (and one collectors have to pay for) like the ones they are adamant they do not want to see, and will never support when it was suggested that registration of artefacts held will be a way to stop freshly looted stuff being passed off on the market as from some "old collection".

* Though lawyer Tompa, wrapped up as he is in his own little vendetta against the US Government and its CPIA, fails to note that the proposed measures have no effect whatsoever on the need to have export licences to export antiques and antiquities, so have no relevance whatsoever to the MOU extension about which he is so concerned.
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UPDATE (Tuesday July 13th 2010) On the History Blog they are now reporting:

The Italian National Association of Archaeologists (ANA) has raised hell and the story got traction in the Italian press and all over the Internet [...] In the space of just a few days, the ruckus has forced a retreat. The parliamentary majority has said they will not add the archeo-remittance measure to the state budget. Assuming they actually make good on that, the acute danger will settle into a chronic one. The measure will remain in the pipeline as proposed bill, so the ruckus must remain loud to keep the scoundrels from making this monstrosity law.

While Peter Tompa records, apparently unconscious of the irony, that "Italy remains full of hidden antiquities" as :

I understand from a reliable source that the Italian Government has apparently withdrawn its recent proposal to encourage the reporting of antiquities in private hands"..

Tompa has come up with a theory to explain the scale of the opposition, far from being an expression that people actually care about the Italian heritage and fear this proposed law could have been used to 'launder' looted antiquities, Tompa surmises that this could have been: "just the latest anti-Berlusconi effort by members of Italy's left-leaning academic community". After all, he adds: "Previously, at least 7,000 academics signed a petition decrying Berlusconi's appointment of Mario Resca, a former McDonald's executive, as Italy's museum boss", obviously just their personal grudge against Berlusconi then, could not possibly be anbything to do with the lady's perceived qualifications for the task at the time...