Man repatriates 19 antiquities after reading Guardian article | Hacker News Reader

Man repatriates 19 antiquities after reading Guardian article

theguardian.com

76 pointsispo10 comments

This is how a change in social norms occur. My extended family had a house in a Mediterranean paradise village, and my late uncle one day in the 1960s heard that local fishermen brought the nets out with a Roman amphora, not so unusual. This object went to a prominent house corner and made us all tolerant with this problem, which I now regret, albeit museums had no short supply of them. When the house was sold, it was said that the object increased the price, that it was the "tie" of the house. Times are luckily changing.

"“I told him: ‘If you follow my advice then you will have no problems and also become an example for other people to follow. You wrap them in a box for each country and go to their embassies. Please use my name – this will protect you. The most honest way is the straightforward way.’”"

What a great way to ensure these countries actually get their stuff back. Seems they would want to just offer amnesty to anyone returning things outright (maybe even a bounty if you really want things back) . I'd have a 6 hour drive to even get to a embassy to begin with

What makes an artifact okay to own versus illicitly trafficked? A government permit from the time it was excavated?

I think most governments would want to keep excavated artifacts of historical significance within their borders, permit or not. No government is going to give you a permit to take their region's history from them. I'd expect the litmus test to broadly be "if you took something of value, that's bad".

Whether it's illegal to own one of these artifacts is going to vary. Some countries have laws that make it illegal, but many don't. It's usually always impossible to legitimately sell these artifacts, since you can't show provenance (and if you could, the provenance would show that they were stolen). Just like stolen art can't be sold—even after many years and owners—trafficked artifacts can't be sold either.

These are the sort of people the World needs more of! An example to all.

This is so powerful.

Hope and displays are integrity always are. They never go out of style (thankfully).

The notes of thanks from each embassy were kind gestures, something you’d keep to share with others the experience.

The article doesn't mention who paid for shipping on what must be a very large freight bill

He walked into the embassies for each, so I don’t think there was a freight bill.

And then the embassies would have arranged for return shipment, likely paid for by the destination museum.

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