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Focus 
news agency reported on June 8 2011 that about 21 000 smuggled archaeological objects and ancient coins will be returned to Bulgaria by the Canadian department for cultural heritage. A delegation headed by Bulgarian Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov will receive the items at a special ceremony on June 10 at the Museum of Civilization in Otawa. Following a decision of the Canadian court, the archaeological items, proven to be of Bulgarian origin, will be given back to Bulgaria.That'd probably be something like 30kg of 'partifacts' and coins then. This is probably the same haul as this one reported from 2010:
In August, customs officers in the Canadian city of Montreal seized 21 000 antique objects with Bulgarian origins, in a smuggling attempt. The antiques consist of coins, jewels, metal and glass objects from the Bulgarian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman heritage.I discussed this on this blog at the time. It is interesting to note that we are nowhere nearer to learning the answer to any of the questions I raised here last year when discussing this, who sent these coins from where, and to where? 'Repatriation' of the artefacts involved alone will do nothing to stop the smuggling and looting. Remaining silent about the source and destination of the illicit artefacts does nothing to help citizens learn about the mechanism of the trade in illicit objects and therefore how they can avoid becoming a participant.
So Canada has stopped just one shipment of contextless artefacts. Big deal. How many items, how many kilogrammes of looted ancient artefacts of Bulgarian or Southeastern European origin have slipped through the net by the same route since (say) 1990? How many will continue to pass through Canadian customs in unmarked or mislabelled packages to dealers and collectors who are not in any way accountable for their transactions involving antiquities?
The USA is even slower to react to the huge numbers of artefacts taken from Bulgarian sites (by looting on an industrial scale at sites like Archar being sold there like potatoes by the kilogramme), to which it seems the recent expansion of the ancient coin trade there owes so much.
3 comments:
Unfortunately, it's the same re Australian and New Zealand customs. For every one South/East Asian artifact shipment stopped, plenty more will get through.
If countries would be rational about objects found in their countries then people would not need to smuggle things out. Instead, a farmer that finds coins but collects them instead of giving them to the government is arrested then jailed. I don't blame poor people that find treasure on THEIR land for selling them. Feed your kids or follow stupid laws?
If collectors showed (that's how we make a second conditional 'if' phrase Mr Baptist) self-restraint and only bought the material which was documented as legally entering the market, then there would be no problem. in the case of Bulgaria - the antiquities trade of which is fairly well-documented, it is not the "farmer' who smuggles items out by organized criminal gangs. Perhaps you think countries should be "reasonable" about the existence of organized crime within their territory, like your country presumably also is.
If you found a bag with 55000 dollars in it at a bus stop, would you Mr Baptist "feed your kids or follow stupid laws"? I think your answer may reveal much.
What "farmer" has been "jailed" for his eyes-only coin collection? Where?
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