UK metal detectorists guilty of theft

Interesting article...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...y-of-theft-after-concealing-3m-treasure-hoard

 

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I think the BM official said it best: "The stupidity is that our treasure system is the most generous in the world in terms of providing rewards for those who abide by the law. These men would be rich by now if they had done things by the book. They have chosen not to and in doing so have destroyed an important part of our history. It’s difficult to feel any sympathy for them at all; they have been greedy and selfish and the nation is the loser.”

 

Wow, Alfred and Ceowulf! Nice.

 

Interesting read.

 

They ought to be tarred and feathered... or whatever the punishment back in the good old days was for thievery...

 

Dunno about tarred and feathered, they should be strung up by their naughty bits. OK, then tarred and feathered.

 

They found the coins while illegally trespassing, so that probably explains why they decided not to tell anyone (not saying it's right).Classic beware of your wishes coming true story right there.

 

"They could be given prison sentences."

They have to be. You have to make them examples, to deter others
from not reporting finds. They were on the property without permission as well.

 

With all the news stories about detectorists reporting their finds and getting nice chunky 50/50 rewards, you'd think people would be racing to report finds. I'd love the reward, but I'd be just as proud to have added to the historical record by turning in a find like this.

 

And yet.
When all is said and done, the treasure is, after all, just some hunks of metal. Kind of interesting how we--myself included--can place so much value on some things that have absolutely no practical use. I wonder how economically advanced a civilization has to be before it can decide that such tiny bits of symbolism or ornamentation are worth millions.

 

I'm not quite agreeing with this statement. The same sentiment could be directed towards art ("just a combination of paint and canvas"), music ("sounds at differing frequencies"), or basically any type of culture.

Even though the stolen property in this case is indeed just chunks of metal, “it’s not just a theft of the items,(...) it’s a theft of our history."[BM-specialist, original article linked above]. While a specialist from the BM is unlikely to say anything else, cultural heritage often includes history, as well as music, art, and many many other things.

 

Absolutely. Imagine a painting by Picasso or Rembrandt. Probably worth millions. Now an expert declares the painting a forgery. Suddenly, the painting is worthless. Nothing has changed; it's the exact same painting as before. A simple statement by one person and suddenly, millions of dollars have evaporated. The same could be said of an Athenian decadrachm or an Eid Mar denarius.

I'm not saying this is right or wrong. I'm just saying it's kinda weird. And it can happen only once a society reaches a certain level of economic complexity. It could never happen in a hunting/gathering or even relatively young agrarian society.

 

The good people at Time Team had an interesting episode in 2008 which touches on some ethical and practical aspects of detectoring and the oftentimes tense relationship between the hobbyists and treasure hunters and actual archaeologists. If anyone is interesting in watching it, it can be viewed on youtube for free here:

 

SInce they trespassed would they have lost their find? This may have been the root cause in going into the underground from Day 1. Apparently even if they trespassed the article suggest they still would have got a cut. The land owner may have said with his/her lawyer - why share or 90% mine/10% to the trespassers. When you sell something for $100,000 the pedigree chain becomes important - hence they had no choice ... but being ignorant of collectibles of this stature ... they got SCREWED. Either way they would get screwed ... reminds me of that metal detected Willow Tree Mass piece from Long Island, NY ... detections gets $50,000 eventually down the selling line sells at Stacks/Bowers for $300,000+ ... lack of expertise/knowledge is always a killer in COLLECTIBLES. JPL

 

I thought the saying was hung up by their eyelids and beaten in the naughty bits till they blink.

 

They were nighthawks. A glamorous name for theives. If they had done the right thing and asked the landowner, they would have eventually received 50 per cent of the value, along with the landowner.

The unforgivable thing is that we have lost the archaeological information that went along with these finds. I have no sympathy with these people. The sentences handed down are not long enough (considering, knock 50 per cent off for good behaviour). In this country, we are incredibly lucky to have the amount of archaeology that we do. Those that are in it for their own gains get what is coming to them. End of.

 

In states like Florida and anything that can be stolen again by Spain they have forfeited the right to be treated honorably. Sending salvaged shipwreck gold to Spain instead of the countries where they tortured and enslaved natives to get it is abominable. Florida requires hefty payments and licenses to search for shipwrecks and when you find one legally and give them their fair share after jumping through multiple hoops they seize it all and it takes years and years and millions in legal fees to get it back. Read up on what they did to Mel Fisher and the Atocha treasure. That said these guys were fools and greedy. They should have immediately asked permission to search the area where they found it and turned it over to the proper authorities. They would be basking in total freedom and 25% of the value instead of massive fines and prison time.