The British Museum, UNESCO 1970, coin collectors and me

The British Museum, UNESCO 1970, coin collectors and me. An updated version, (March 2018), of a strongly held view about the hypocrisy of the BM’s Coins & Medals department .This contains an especially egregious example of the “smoking gun” which was lacking in the precious version. I did not think Turkey exported its patrimony so this is simply loot. The BM has recently decided to implement the UNESCO 1970 antiquities declaration after some 40+ years. This affects the coin collector who once was allowed to ask for an opinion on a hammered coin but now needs provenance of some description to show the coin was “collected” pre-1970. This of course does not apply to the BM who, for example, collected a coin now in their collection in 1981 whose only provenance was Seaby Ltd, (an auctioneers) , but bought and misclassified by them before their self- imposed deadline of 2014. I guess now if they bought the coin to their own window and asked about it they would have to turn themselves away. To compound their hypocrisy they declare it is alright for them to scour catalogues of coin sales for un-provenanced and obviously “fresh” coins and to read and use in research academic papers that have clearly declared that they use such sources. This means they get the fruits without getting their hands dirty with a holier than thou anti-antiquities stance. They declare they are hoping that this will stem the illegal antiquities desecration of so many ancient sites and leave evidence in situ for archaeologists of the future. Some chance! If, in the case of coins, the market dries up there is bullion value in many coins and it is likely that they will be melted down, whilst the lesser values will be discarded and scattered.. The situation they want to develop is likely to lead to a potential greater loss for future generations than the unfortunate but unstoppable situation now. This is where the quid pro quo position of the British Portable Antiquities Scheme must have derived from. It does not stop “nighthawking”, (where illegal digging of all types of sites with or without the say of the landowner still occurs), but gives some legal framework to non-protected sites being free to detectorists and landowners to investigate. This reasonable and realistic situation does not occur in the most vulnerable countries. And it would probably be not successful in any case since these countries have very little real popular governmental control over the regions that only treat with the political capital on sufferance ready to secede at the drop of a Kalashnikov. Not unlike the situation in the ancient societies we are interested in! Amongst the coin collectors there is a range of collector types; those who value coins purely as art works and investment potential, those who collect, classify and then squirrel them away in their own secret closet showing them off occasionally as a star prize in a smug self-satisfying way and those who not only collect but try to genuinely add value by studying and adding to the corpus of knowledge by adding academic research to them. Certainly I classify myself in the final category and there are others, who whether acknowledged by the professionals or not, diligently can handle the complexities of numismatic research with their small collections rather than the museums with their vast and diverse collections that seem to overwhelm their resources in so many ways. It is no surprise that museums have secrets they wish to hide, whether it is the provenance of their treasures, their chaos and research muddles, their lack of direction or even that the staff “mine” the resources for day to day living expenses. Nobody’s perfect and no situation is. Here are a few examples of what I mean and a knowledgeable person will be able to name the institutions or countries I am referring to. National coin collections get pillaged, gold artworks get replaced by replicas, pieces disappear into back rooms never to be seen again, some simply misplaced, some never recorded until they too disappear, some classified but with 100 year old and grossly out of date information and some pieces proclaim “gift” of such and such government. Museums can point the finger at us but by no means are they guiltless guardians but UNESCO 1970 absolves them and in the case of the BM‘s stock anything between 1970 and 2014 is OK too!. The situation now at the British Museum is ludicrous where they can be hoisted by their own petard. Maybe it would have been wiser not to implement the UNESCO 1970 rule after 40 years but to carry on as before but giving over a slip of paper telling the luckless individual that they are the final chain of a gang of cultural plunderers and can you please reconsider you future actions, but that you can ameliorate your crime a bit by publishing your coins on a discussion group or on one set up by the museum. Photographs are not the same as a coin in your hand but it is better than nothing and nothing is what you will get if the locals cannot smuggle their “finds” to collectors but melt them for bullion. Even better if they could encourage collectors to research and conserve, but all there is now is a yawning gap between the academic cultural zealots and the “average Joe-Asperger’s type” coin collector. There is no doubt (and has been shown to be the case), of a moral, cultural and social gap as voiced and acted by academics and museum staff and us. It is probably that they wish to atone for their plundering “gung oh!” roots and that we coin collectors remind them of their, (probably more interesting), antecedents. Most academics still come from the middle classes, particularly in the Classics where they still learn Latin and such from their public school days whilst most coin collectors are definitely not. Often appearing grunting and ignorant diggers of culture we are not in the same class. The BM is shamelessly guilty of this and the UNESCO 1970 declaration can be seen as a stick to keep the ignorant unwashed away from their hallowed turfs. I am certain that this attitude is widespread in the academic departments and is spreading to the undergraduates of British Universities. I think the BM is going to lose its marbles. I no longer care. Below is a typical example of one of many coins from limited provenances that were bought well after 1970. Difficult to read but they are well and truly hoisted with their own petard on this one example. Museum number: 1987, 0648.1 Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Miletus (hoard) (Asia, Turkey, Aegean Region (Turkey), Aydın (province), Miletus) Acquisition name Purchased from: A H Baldwin & Sons Ltd  Acquisition date 1987 Department Coins & Medals Registration number 1987, 0648.1 Will it be repatriated? I did not think Turkey exported its patrimony so this is simply loot. John Nisbet March 2018