I think a lot of you are looking at the concept of "government" from the Western European/US point of view and are wondering why these people in the Balkans,
Cyprus or wherever can't figure it out that a system like the British one is a better one. Well, they can, they just don't want to do it. Sadly, people who care about national heritage are few in the top levels of government or don't have direct powers (the
Bulgarian president has a degree in
history and shows interest in preserving
antiquities, but
Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic and the president does not have too much say at all).
Point is, it's clear what has to be done, it's not getting done for a reason - there is a strong "lobby" that is slowing the legislative process down. This "lobby" has an interest in keeping the status quo for their own benefit, as they profit from the
antiquities black market. The other thing is that to implement the British system you need the British
budget. Smaller countries like
Bulgaria and
Cyprus do not have nearly the same
budget to be able to afford paying treasure finders a
fair market
price. At the same time, the
antiquities found are not fewer (perhaps many more) which certainly creates a financial problem. After all, the great finds we see from the Balkans and elsewhere in museums and even
auctions, are only the surface of what has been found. The really great objects are indeed in private
hands, naturally by wealthy collectors, both at
home and abroad. Top archaeologists admit this as well. This has been evident recently, as new corrections to the law allowed for private
collections in
Bulgaria to become legal, thus many extraordinary
collections began to surface in public view. The most notable example - with Bulgaria's accession to the EU at the begining of the month, there was an exhibition of antiquties from
Bulgaria in the European Parliament. Well, this exhibition did not come from one of the large museums as usual, it was the private
collection of a well known
Bulgarian "entrepreneur". The words of one of the top archaeologists about this never before seen
collection were "I have never seen things like that before".
That said, I don't know if the
Cyprus situation is parallel or not, as I have no knowledge about the situation there in that regard. I know that in
Bulgaria a proposition for a rapid change in the
antiquities law was accepted by the parliament in 2005, however it
still has not passed, although it is expected to pass sometimes soon, but who knows. I think the British system is a
good one and it could reduce the black market (it won't eliminate it), but one has to wonder whether it's applicable to every country, mostly for budgetary reasons. Prices for the high end objects (VF, EF
sestertii for example) on the
Bulgarian market are becoming nearly equivalent to prices here in the US. People want more
money for their finds now, due to easier means for sales through the internet and so forth. There are also more local collectors that compete for these objects with collectors abroad, driving up the
price overall. If the British system is implemented, this means that the government has to pay a pretty high
price in order to keep those treasures from going to the black market, something it can't afford on the current cultural
budget (which should be increased of course, because it's ridiculously low). And I am not talking about
LRBs, from which there are truck loads in museums and certainly in the ground. I mean, if antiquties are actually declared, there will be
plenty that would classify as being of national heritage importance, believe me.
