Gill on BBC: Looting in Wales?

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David Gill was on BBC Wales this morning talking about the looting of antiquities, I thought he came over very well and explained the concerns in a manner readily understandable by the general public. He talks about the value of the market, why its important - mostly about the Looting matters rather than repatriation issues, mentions his work on the Cycladic figures and subsequent work. Then he introduces the seizure of records in Geneva, Basle and Schinoussa. To those collectors worried about what those photos show, he points out we've only located about 1% of the objects seen in the Medici Archive. There's a mention too of the sale of the objects formerly owned by Australian collector Graham Geddes from which a number of items had to be withdrawn on the eve of the auction.

My ears pricked up, 27 minutes in, when he was asked a question about "looting in Britain", it's beginning to get good I thought. Then there were sharp words about the Icklingham Bronzes, and then he mentions that there's this thing called the Portable Antiquities Scheme and these metal detecting blokes... Well, that is as far as that topic went, as the topic turned to the subject of how the PAS was going to be further funded in Wales. Obviously a key issue too, but sadly the question of how many artefacts being hoiked out of the ground in Wales by artefact collectors and not being reported to the PAS would have been (in my opinion) a better way to continue the discussion. Sadly though David's time was almost up, and he was unable to explore that topic.

You can listen to it here at the moment (starts at 2:09 hrs). It's best to avoid the two hours before it - some dire "banter" throughout and even worse music. No Welsh accents there, either.
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