Canada Makes the Bulgarians Pay

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Peter Tompa suggests that in writing about the return of stolen antiquities to Bulgaria archaeobloggers might have 'Misplaced Priorities', CPO, June 20, 2011. This is because "Bulgarian authorities are spending up to 320,000 Euros to repatriate minor Bulgarian artifacts" recently seized in Canada.* Tompa argues that this cash could have been better spent in Bulgaria on protecting sites and issuing artefact hunters rewards for handing finds in (see below).

Well, if we are going to take that attitude, I would ask why the Canadians made the Bulgarians travel all the way to Canada to pick up the stuff and call it "repatriation"? Have the Canadians no diplomatic post of their own that they could send the goods safely to their consulate in Sofia to be handed over there? Or was the whole point not so much getting the artefacts back, but through holding a ceremony on Canadian soil making a big political show of what good guys they are for keeping an eye on what crosses their borders?

*(We may note that Tompa, quite correctly for a lawyer, says "allegedly smuggled", because "As is the case with many similar reports, we'll never know the actual facts because the importer abandoned the property". Let us note that the reported value of the shipments seized was 707,000 euros ($1 million), and my feeling is an importer would have to have a pretty good reason to shrug his shoulders and simply abandon such a haul - surely it can't cost that much in Canada to send your lawyer along to the customs office with a copy of the export licences. So if there had been export licences issued for this shipment (ie the objects were not smuggled), what conceivable reason is there for him to simply abandon his purchase? I really am curious to know).