David Gill notes the irony of the police working with the PAS to protect the archaeological heritage from pilfering (Heritage and Cultural Property CrimeFriday, January 3, 2014). He notes the refusal of the PAS to get involved in the PIA forum discussion to which he contributed the keynote paper ("The Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Treasure Act: Protecting the Archaeology of England and Wales?") and notes the somewhat low profile the issue of heritage crime in the PAS 'outreach' materials and even that the PAS:
has contributed to media programmes that have encouraged the search for Britain's buried "treasures" [...] How many finds go unrecorded? (This was an issue raised in the PIA forum piece.) How will the removal of finds from scheduled archaeological sites be addressed? On a wider scale, will the working party look at the way that cultural property from other nations, including Europe, continues to be sold on the London market?The latter is an important question. Can one separate heritage crime affecting British culture, British national interests, from heritage crime committed in the UK? When is heritage fcrime in the UK not heritage crime in the UK? Is this not something that should be the subject of broader, and informed, public debate? And who is doing the "informing"?
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