To all of those who are looking for treasure.
I hope here are some words of advice to those who walk in the footsteps of history to seek treasures of the past.
For some who dream and others who live their dreams for what ever they seek! The world is changing and the fundamental primeval right to seek treasures from the past is by rights becoming more and more legislated out of existence.
Governments are becoming aware as technology improves and become more available to the general public there is a risk more archeological sites will be trashed. They fear that their cultural history will be looted from them. It is our history not theirs that has become a valuable commodity just like water. It is now in ownership of the state on behalf of the people in name only, but not for the people.
It does not matter if the treasures you seek is on sea or land. Governments? policy is dictated by a small group of intellectuals in the field of archeology. Who by pretensions of their profession believe that the interested general public should not be part of policy making? Or be activity involved in seeking the treasures from history?
They actively exclude all interested parties and have not encouraged learning or controlled archeological treasure recovery projects. They have a tax payer funded life style with the world?s history at their control and the world as their play ground. The UNESCO agreement of shipwrecks is clearly written and drafted by an elite group of archeologists set to preserve the status quo. They aim to stop the privatization of their profession and open up their stranglehold on what is now becoming a recognized valuable commodity.
Because of this legislation thousands of shipwrecks will be left to rot for eternity because of lack of funding by governments to recover our history. Governments should privatize the recovery of history and archeologists should be part of the free market forces. And archeologists should not be a protected species. Are you in your job?
Private enterprise under set protocol and the guidance of archeologists could effectively fund the recovery of our history and treasures in a more cost effective manner. Thus avoiding costly archeological projects by under funded by governments. And by the simple fact that most of the general public never gets to see the results of their research that we pay for from our taxes, it could in theory give us tax payers some input into the discovery of our history. Items of treasure not considered of cultural importance could be sold off to the general public to fund such projects.
All cultural artifacts discovered to be taken in custody of the state for museums. Gold and coinage to greater part be treasure trove to the privatized interested parties. Providing they follow all protocols in the search and recovery of the treasure. This would insure all parties followed protocol.
The UK in some respects has a fair system with artifacts and treasure trove if claimed by the state has to compensate the finder by independent panel on the value of the find. This system if adopted world wide would reduce the black market for historical artifacts and be more inclusive for the general public to be involved in recovering their history.
Under current status quo of UNESCO agreement much of our history and treasure will disappear in secret never to see the light of day ever again. And that for any one who has interest in the subject is a travesty of justice.
There is some thing else at stake with a powerful force in dictating treasure trove laws? The UNESCO international agreements and laws have restricted the legal trade of cultural historic artifacts for many years now.
The desire to acquire items from various cultures of antiquities has created a market of over demand than supply. However the demand is still dictating the market forces behind such a trade. Which is in turn is fueling the black market trade in antiquities.
And who do you ask is the main collectors and buyer of such illicit items of history? The museums and private collectors, directors of large corporations and the wealthy and some times the very famous elite, all have their fingers in the pie.
An example came from this when a ring of treasure hunters and smugglers a few years ago were involved in removing secretly plundered artifacts from Peru. Pre Columbian Items were shipped from northern Peru to a dealer in the United States.
The dealer on sold such items to some of the most famous people in Hollywood as decorations and as private collections. The secret network was so strong and had so much influence even museums and large corporations got in the act.
It all went horribly wrong when the original treasure hunters were caught by the Peruvian Antiquities police uncovered the network. The paper trail which led to the trader and dealer who in turn was investigated by the FBI lead to further arrests.
There were many red faces among the Hollywood elite. Large Corporations and companies quickly went into damage control with their purchases. Even our bastions of moral obligations for the protection of cultural assets the museums had their hands dirty. In an effort to avoid an international incident the United State government retrieved most of the treasure without further prosecutions to avoid the embarrassing revelation of the influential people involved.
This is by no means, not only country that has its citizens with fingers in the pie. Other countries have handled the situation very differently. However where there is the rich and powerful involved the charges always seem to melt away. The fear is once Pandora?s boxes is opened up, you never know who it could lead to?
Even today there are places in Asia among other places were I could acquire artifacts from China, Cambodia. India etc? The leading buyers are from the Middle East and Asia as they are awash with oil money and prepared to pay big bucks for items of antiquity.
Such a high demand on artifacts has led many other black market operations. There is a fake artifact of antiquity industry. This industry is very big business. So big if it was fully revealed it would embarrass the main leading cultural institutions of the world. It is estimated that perhaps about 15 to 20% of artifacts in museums and art galleries today could possibly be fake.
Some museums to protect their integrity will cover up the fact that many of their artifacts are clever fakes. Many a fortune has been paid out in the past for historical items which with today technology can be proved to be fakes.
The driving force of this industry for fakes is of course market demand. There are flourishing industries in India, Peru, Ecuador, United States, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Turkey and Asia that excel on the level of authenticity of the items they produced. Some are so good that even the so called experts with technology at their finger tips can some times be fooled.
An example of this is Southern Peru there is group of people so good at faking the real thing. They have a method that can fool carbon 14 dating of items. It is a process of baking and item in an oven with mixture of llama droppings to give a false Carbon 14 reading.
They say time spent in a successful research and recovery is researching the treasure story is 40%, searching for it is 10% and trying to keep it from the paws of greedy government officials is another 50%.
But unless there is change of policy from the countries that have signed up to the terrible UNESCO agreement and countries ill defined and poorly designed legislation in regards to treasure trove laws, the days of people openly researching history and searching for treasure is numbered. And the black market profiteers from fakes and illicit antiquity dealers will continue to line the pockets of the rich and powerful.
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