Do fundo do mar... Sea bottom
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Archaeologists fear 'looters' charter'
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The Guardian
By John Hooper
Rome, Tuesday November 9, 2004
Archaeologists were yesterday aghast over a plan by MPs loyal to Silvio Berlusconi to legalise the private ownership of archaeological treasures in Italy. One called the measure a "looters' charter".
At present, all antiquities found in Italian soil are deemed to be the property of the state and are meant to be handed over to the authorities.
But under the proposed legislation, treasure hunters who declare their finds can keep and own them if they pay the state 5% of the object's estimated value.
Supporters have argued that it would bring to light previously hidden treasures.
In an article for the newspaper La Repubblica, Salvatore Settis, rector of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, said he feared "a gigantic treasure hunt all over the country" if the measures were approved.
Filippo Coarelli, professor of Roman Antiquities at the University of Perugia, called the plan "an incitement to theft". He added: "Since there appears to be no limit on the time during which artefacts can be amnestied, you could rob today so as to sell tomorrow."
Lord Renfrew, professor emeritus of archaeology at the University of Cambridge and a former director of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, said: "It sounds like a looters' charter."
He added: "Italy has a very good tradition of looking after its antiquities. This legislation would be a slap in the face for those in the administration who work for the conservation of its heritage."
Italy suffers a thriving industry of tomb robbing and is the source of thousands of illicitly sold artefacts.
In the 1990s, it was estimated that art and antiquities worth around £150m were exported from Italy each year, but the trade is so secret no one really knows its true dimensions. In 1996, in one of the largest antiquities seizures, police in Geneva recovered 10,000 artefacts worth an estimated $35m (£18.8m) that had been smuggled out of Italy.
This month, the Art Newspaper published an interview with a robber of Etruscan tombs who said he averaged a break-in every 10 days.
The proposed guidelines are contained in two amendments to the 2005 budget, which is being debated in the Italian parliament. Both were drafted by members of Mr Berlusconi's governing Forza Italia party.
The amendments would give the job of pricing and taxing newly declared antiquities to the officials who are already responsible for Italy's vast archaeological heritage.
If they failed within a reasonable time to value an artefact, the holder would automatically become the legal owner.
Once legalised, the artefact could "be the object of contractual activity", according to the text of one of the amendments.
Earlier this month, one of the signatories of the amendment said that it would help the "emergence of archaeological items in private hands".
An archaeologist working in Italy who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "Anyone who works in this sector knows the [officials] are already overloaded.
You can imagine the flood of requests this would bring and the difficulty the [officials] would have in coping with them."
The Guardian
By John Hooper
Rome, Tuesday November 9, 2004
Archaeologists were yesterday aghast over a plan by MPs loyal to Silvio Berlusconi to legalise the private ownership of archaeological treasures in Italy. One called the measure a "looters' charter".
At present, all antiquities found in Italian soil are deemed to be the property of the state and are meant to be handed over to the authorities.
But under the proposed legislation, treasure hunters who declare their finds can keep and own them if they pay the state 5% of the object's estimated value.
Supporters have argued that it would bring to light previously hidden treasures.
In an article for the newspaper La Repubblica, Salvatore Settis, rector of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, said he feared "a gigantic treasure hunt all over the country" if the measures were approved.
Filippo Coarelli, professor of Roman Antiquities at the University of Perugia, called the plan "an incitement to theft". He added: "Since there appears to be no limit on the time during which artefacts can be amnestied, you could rob today so as to sell tomorrow."
Lord Renfrew, professor emeritus of archaeology at the University of Cambridge and a former director of the Illicit Antiquities Research Centre, said: "It sounds like a looters' charter."
He added: "Italy has a very good tradition of looking after its antiquities. This legislation would be a slap in the face for those in the administration who work for the conservation of its heritage."
Italy suffers a thriving industry of tomb robbing and is the source of thousands of illicitly sold artefacts.
In the 1990s, it was estimated that art and antiquities worth around £150m were exported from Italy each year, but the trade is so secret no one really knows its true dimensions. In 1996, in one of the largest antiquities seizures, police in Geneva recovered 10,000 artefacts worth an estimated $35m (£18.8m) that had been smuggled out of Italy.
This month, the Art Newspaper published an interview with a robber of Etruscan tombs who said he averaged a break-in every 10 days.
The proposed guidelines are contained in two amendments to the 2005 budget, which is being debated in the Italian parliament. Both were drafted by members of Mr Berlusconi's governing Forza Italia party.
The amendments would give the job of pricing and taxing newly declared antiquities to the officials who are already responsible for Italy's vast archaeological heritage.
If they failed within a reasonable time to value an artefact, the holder would automatically become the legal owner.
Once legalised, the artefact could "be the object of contractual activity", according to the text of one of the amendments.
Earlier this month, one of the signatories of the amendment said that it would help the "emergence of archaeological items in private hands".
An archaeologist working in Italy who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "Anyone who works in this sector knows the [officials] are already overloaded.
You can imagine the flood of requests this would bring and the difficulty the [officials] would have in coping with them."
