the PAS and International cultural property protection

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In the above post I mentioned in passing the Roger Bland-Rick Witschonke hotline which prompts me to raise an issue that has been at the back of my mind for a while.

Britain's Portable Antiquities Scheme is an opinion-forming body dedicated to questions concerning the fate of dugup portable antiquities found by members of the public. I think I am right in suggesting that it is unique in such a function, so its opinion should count for something.

The PAS is one of the official bodies which should be putting into action Art 10 of the 1970 UNESCO Convention (on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illegal ....) in the UK.

It also is an organization which (in its latest conference) has expressed an interest in and opinions on foreign systems of heritage protection.

The PAS is an organization in partnership with British collectors, who look to it for guidance. It also maintains close links with related collectors' organizations outside Britain, with the ACCG and (through Witschonke at least) with the ANS.

Neither can it be denied that the US market is the destination of at least some of the artefacts dug up in Britain by metal-detectorist eBayers, so following and to some extent influencing the situation on the US antiquities market in that regard should be of concern to the organization.

British collectors were among those lobbied by international dealers urging them to express an opinion on upcoming bilateral agreements intending to curb illegal exports of cultural property from "source countries".

In that case, surely PAS should during the consultation procedures envisaged by the cumbersome CPIA add their voice to the discussions on bilateral agreements. On previous occasions nobody knew who was sending what, now there is greater transparency of the consultation process, we can see that although British collectors and I think at least one dealer expressed their opposition to any kind of understanding with Greece on artefact imports, the PAS were silent. Do the PAS condone the "internationalist" - no-questions-asked import/export, trade and collecting of portable antiquities, or does it support trade and collecting which respect the laws of the source countries of the objects collected? I think the British public has a right to know, especially as the ACCG is frequently expressing opinions on the PAS.
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