APPENDIX 8
Memorandum submitted by RESCUE: The British
Archaeological Trust
We would like to offer the following evidence to
the Committee:
1. RESCUE: The British Archaeological Trust
is an independent charity which acts to promote archaeology's
interests in Britain and seeks to maintain the position of archaeology
as a vital part of our nation's cultural life.
2. Archaeological understanding derives
from the inter-relationship of objects and location. When an object
is removed without proper record this relationship is destroyed
and knowledge is irrevocably lost. The worldwide illicit trade
in antiquities represents a huge loss of knowledge from human
history.
3. There is a long standing impression that
not only is London a key player in the antiquities market but
also that the British Government has in the past been more concerned
to protect this trade than to investigate how much of the material
was obtained illicitly in the country of origin.
4. We are also concerned about objects found
illicitly within the United Kingdom and then exported. RESCUE
was particularly involved in the case of the Icklingham Bronzes
which illustrated the inadequacies of the current situation. These
objects, a group of Roman bronze heads and statuettes, were eventually
shown to have been looted from a Scheduled Ancient Monument at
Icklingham, Suffolk in about 1982. Fortunately photographs of
the pieces came into the hands of the British Museum, so that
when the major elements of the group appeared in a New York gallery
in 1989 they could be identified. However it rapidly became apparent
that there was no mechanism by which these important pieces could
be reclaimed as far as the Government was concerned, nor was any
help forthcoming for the landowner, Mr John Browning to reclaim
his property. The only hope of recovery was for Mr Browning to
embark on a private prosecution which he did; the claims and counter
claims still continue in the American courts.
5. Having publicised the Icklingham case
in 1989-90, RESCUE identified the need for Britain to ratify the
1970 UNESCO Convention so that such a situation could not occur
again in the future. We still believe that ratification of this
and of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention are a necessary step to protect
our heritage and to demonstrate our opposition to the looting
of archaeological sites in any part of the world.
March 2000
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