@jmlanzaf said:
I assume you want to eliminate all museums and sell off the national numismatic collection.
Was this a serious post? Most of the exhibits in museums were donated or bought by the museum rather than being stolen from someone who had the good fortune to find it. How many artifacts in famous museums were looted from archeological sites located in another country?
You are completely missing the point.
The point was the value of the cultural heritage. To argue that looters should keep their finds assumes that there is no public interest in preserving cultural heritage for the public. Hence there is no need for museums or national collections because they have no value.
If you consider cultural heritage to have value then cultural heritage laws are quite natural as a way to preserve that heritage.
"Cultural heritage" is usually just a plausible excuse for the government to confiscate found property.
Who's cultural heritage? Are Celtic coins the cultural heritage of the invading Anglo-Saxons and their descendants? Are the Pyramids the cultural heritage of the invading Arabs and their descendants? We can do this all day.
So, the issue really is: The current government of whatever country "inherits" the cultural heritage by the fiat of happening to be the current land owner. It's an intellectually dishonest excuse to justify taking valuable property from private citizens.
If you wanted a more honest way to do it, have the government make an offer for the items and it's up to the finder/owner to decide to accept or not.
My cultural heritage is a free Constitutional Republic, not some feudalistic ideal that the king owns everything in the kingdom and lets you keep what you have by his good graces.
We have "cultural laws" in the US in the form of anything found on public land, that is 75 years or more old, needs to remain and cannot be "collected". This was meant to preserve items lost, discarded, or such from days of yore. So, if you are in the desert, like me, and like to hike and see stuff that was sitting there for over 75 years, just leave as is. Leave it in place. Don't pick it up and take it home like my neighbor once did. He was caught, fined big time, and jailed for 6 months for "looting" and "destroying". Certainly most people don't know the rules and don't get caught.
Maybe nobody will ever see what you saw but if they ever do they will be enriched by the experience. Take all the pics you want but leave the stuff alone. Whether it's Indian related or mining related, it's protected.
An exception to that is coin, currency and minerals.
bob
Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
Comments
"Cultural heritage" is usually just a plausible excuse for the government to confiscate found property.
Who's cultural heritage? Are Celtic coins the cultural heritage of the invading Anglo-Saxons and their descendants? Are the Pyramids the cultural heritage of the invading Arabs and their descendants? We can do this all day.
So, the issue really is: The current government of whatever country "inherits" the cultural heritage by the fiat of happening to be the current land owner. It's an intellectually dishonest excuse to justify taking valuable property from private citizens.
If you wanted a more honest way to do it, have the government make an offer for the items and it's up to the finder/owner to decide to accept or not.
My cultural heritage is a free Constitutional Republic, not some feudalistic ideal that the king owns everything in the kingdom and lets you keep what you have by his good graces.
Tell me more!
We have "cultural laws" in the US in the form of anything found on public land, that is 75 years or more old, needs to remain and cannot be "collected". This was meant to preserve items lost, discarded, or such from days of yore. So, if you are in the desert, like me, and like to hike and see stuff that was sitting there for over 75 years, just leave as is. Leave it in place. Don't pick it up and take it home like my neighbor once did. He was caught, fined big time, and jailed for 6 months for "looting" and "destroying". Certainly most people don't know the rules and don't get caught.
Maybe nobody will ever see what you saw but if they ever do they will be enriched by the experience. Take all the pics you want but leave the stuff alone. Whether it's Indian related or mining related, it's protected.
An exception to that is coin, currency and minerals.
bob
Nobody would ever know i found those, and nobody would ever see me again.