[meteorite-list] OT - Gold Hoard Found in England

From: dean bessey <deanbessey_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:10:12 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <154017.13586.qm_at_web56105.mail.re3.yahoo.com>

Well, I am not that up on british law and maybe there is a british legal clause that the guys dont own it. That is however different from what the article says as it clearly says that they will split the proceeds (Not that reporters always get the details right when it comes to value).
It is also contrary to what my friends who are coin and artifact dealers have to say about british cultural property laws. Most of them are quite happy with how the british handle things and you never hear stories about how they got screwed by the cultural property department (Compare what people have to say about britain to what they say about canadian cultural property laws for example).
Maybe though you are right and that these guys will in fact not get a cent. I am not a lawyer. But I am leaning toward thinking that they will get a fair shake come payoff time. But if I am wrong and these guys do get their loot legally stolen from them by the government you can bet that the next gold stash that is found wont end up being studied and on public display but will discreetly get sent to switzerland shaped as not so small shiney cubes.
My bet is that the guys running the cultural property system in britian is smarter than that.
Cheers
DEAN

--- On Thu, 9/24/09, ensoramanda at ntlworld.com <ensoramanda at ntlworld.com> wrote:

> From: ensoramanda at ntlworld.com <ensoramanda at ntlworld.com>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] OT - Gold Hoard Found in England
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009, 3:46 PM
> Hi Greg, Dean, All,
>
> This amazing hoard was found just a short distance away
> from me near a place called Brownhills at the side of the
> A5. Lots of discussion about its value on the news as usual.
> I think that in this case it will be classed as treasure as
> it was deliberately hidden ( I think the law is different if
> it is classed as lost ) and will not belong to the landowner
> or the finder, so will not be sold but go to the museums.
> Once valued their will be a reward allocated which in this
> case will belong to the finder as he got permission to
> search from the landowner. Apparently he has agreed to share
> that with the landowner...which only seems fair.
>
> I intend to visit the museum in Birmingham over the weekend
> to see this exciting historical find right on my doorstep.
>
> Graham Ensor, UK
>
>
> ---- dean bessey <deanbessey at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> > > From: Greg Hupe <gmhupe at htn.net>
> > >
> > > think also that the true story is all about good
> luck and
> > > the willingness to get permission and agreements
> from
> > > property owners!
> > >
> > It is more than that. It is also an example of common
> sense historical artifact laws at work. Britain has
> constructed their artifact laws in such a way that it is in
> a finders best interest to report all of their findings (It
> is also illegal to not report your findings but that dont
> really give you much incentive and wont work anyway).
> > As a result whenever artifact or coin hoards get found
> in UK everybody who is interested gets to study them and
> learn as much history as possible from the stash. And the
> actual finder gets more money for them than if he tried to
> sell them in secret on the UNESCO black market (Probably has
> to pay taxes on the sale of the hoard also). Finder,
> science, general public, government, land owners - everybody
> wins with british cultural property laws.
> > If this stash of gold was found in Italy, Israel,
> Egypt or Peru, the site would have been very quickly
> destroyed behond recognition and reburied (After dark and
> probably all in one night) to hide any evidence of the sites
> existance, and the gold melted down, stamped Johnson matthey
> and (With the governments full blessing) shipped out of the
> country.
> > Rather than being studied by researchers as this hoard
> will be, it would have gone on the next fed ex flight out
> and went directly from the archaeological site to a swiss
> bank vault.
> > It would have been UNESCO at work
> > Sincerely
> > DEAN?
> >
> >
> >? ? ???
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Received on Thu 24 Sep 2009 11:10:12 PM PDT