[meteorite-list] Norway here we come!

From: dean bessey <deanbessey_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Jul 23 17:29:22 2006
Message-ID: <20060723212920.49959.qmail_at_web56104.mail.re3.yahoo.com>

--- Matt Morgan <mmorgan_at_mhmeteorites.com> wrote:
> I cannot, but I've spoken with 2 Norwegian's who
> hunt artifacts there
> and they assure me you cannot legally remove items
> of natural history
> without permit. This is hearsay, but I trust their
> word.
> Matt
>
I dont know Norway's meteorite laws but I suspect that
the only law that would cause farmer any problems is
UNESCO which norway is a part of.
Pretty much every country has laws preventing certain
items considered "Cultural property" from being
exported nowadays. UNESCO is is a wishy washy accord
where countries can pretty much interpret as they
please and can make anything they want to be cultural
property - used chewing gum if they wanted to could be
made illegal to export under UNESCO laws. Some
countries (Like Canada, India and asutralia) has
meteorites listed as cultural property and require
export permits under UNESCO and other signatory
countries to UNESCO is in theory supposed to return
the items if asked, others (Like Oman, Morocco and the
USA) do not and dont require export permits under
UNESCO.
I am sure that what Matt said above is true. In fact
it would be extremly unusual if it wasnt true.
However, wither it is illegal to export meteorites
from Norway depends on if Norway has meteorite laws.
And if it wasnt considered "Cultural property" or
otherwise fall under UNESCO rules even if there were
export laws they probably couldent be enforced once
they were actually removed from the country.
Of course, international laws concerning this is
complicated (And often convuleted), there could be
bilateral agreements in place ect, and also different
countries will treat the import differently (And often
how differently will depend on how well they get on
with the other government and the governments desire
to promote special interests and have nothing to do
with actual laws).
So while Matt is surely right in his statement above
that dont necessarily mean that meteorites can or
cannot be legally exported from Norway.
But if somebody really wants to know Norways stance on
this there is an easy way for you to find out. In fact
a gazillian emails argueing back and forth will not
change or clarify anything. The proper course if
action to find out such information is to just email
or call the local Norwegean embassy. You should easily
be able to find one in your country as Norway is a
rich country with lots of embassys.
I am sure that if somebody did this the whole list
would be interested in a report.
Me, I am not interested and wont bother calling the
embassy myself. I dont personnally have an interest in
new high publicity falls that will surely be grosely
overpriced for the first couple months that they hit
the market anyway.
Sincerely
DEAN


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Received on Sun 23 Jul 2006 05:29:20 PM PDT