Heritage Action has
an additional comment on the revision of the PAS "finds-agreement policy":
since PAS is now saying it wishes the landowner to see all
archaeological finds then it is also saying it now wishes its database
to comprise fully provenanced finds…
After eighteen years when it seems nobody really knows [because nobody seems to have checked finds agreements and ownership-transfer agreements] whether the finders
can document the legal origins of the items they present for recording (and thus potentially also laundering).
2 comments:
"because nobody seems to have checked finds agreements"
Some of us have. In great detail over a long period of time.
They are mostly scandalous, clearly designed to put the owner/landowner at a disadvantage. If PAS or anyone else care to put "agreements" into the Heritage Journal search box it will save them a lot of time in confirming that is the case.
Hitherto they've supported the scandal by silence. But now that they have announced that wish farmers to see all archaeological finds they can't possibly keep quiet about thousands of Agreements designed to avoid it. Can they?
This is a big positive step forward for landowners IMO.
What I meant was that actually to establish legal possession of the artefacts they bring along to the PAS, the searcher should in each case present for checking a signed agreement (a) to access and search a given area and (b) a signed document releasing the individual find under consideration. Otherwise the FLO could be handling stolen property, and in the event of false data getting placed on the public record, laundering an illicit antiquity, also be liable to charges of fencing.
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