... against the wishes of the landowner and river authority. But, given it was donated to a museum (c/f Indiana Jones) no action will be taken.

There's a huge tension between Archeologists, Landholders, Developers, Metal detectorists, Magnet fishers, unexploded bomb experts, CSI labs and found objects related to crime..

But the other side of this coin is Italy where people use construction site diggers to rob graves and flee, irrespective to the damage. A framework which encourages reporting and resolution of finds, preservation of the locus and data is good.