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lokicramer t1_jbmluw4 wrote

Reply to comment by TheBatemanFlex in Unique medieval treasure found with metal detector in The Netherlands by rzwart

Depends on the country, for example, it is illegal to metal detect in Hungary without an affiliation and permission from a county museum.

Anything found becomes property of the state, and is placed in the custody of the museum.

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Warpzit t1_jbnx5w3 wrote

Rest of Europe should look at the Danish system. We have a ton of people going around detecting in their free time and then turn their finds in.

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LeftieTheFool t1_jbo7483 wrote

This is a horrible system. Plucking metal objects out of their context results in lots of archaeological knowledge lost - we'll never know the age and context of those finds!

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Warpzit t1_jboarch wrote

Look up how it works before bashing it ;)

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lokicramer t1_jbo6rq0 wrote

The problem with that system, is there are without a doubt a bunch of dishonest detectorists who probably keep, and or sell their finds.

Even with regulations in Hungary, it's still a problemm

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Warpzit t1_jboaoal wrote

Doesn't seem so in Denmark. Maybe people are just more honest (statistics imply this).

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Diacetyl-Morphin t1_jbq24wj wrote

>Anything found becomes property of the state, and is placed in the custody of the museum.

And this often leads to the exact opposite of what the museum wants: The people will then either keep it or they will sell it on the black market, when they know, that maybe there's some kind of problems and punishments by the law.

I think, the state and museum should pay the guy that finds something and turns it in, rather than punish him. We are talking about very rare historical artifacts sometimes, some collectors are paying a lot for certain things.

Like in my country, a guy found an original dagger from the Roman Empire, dated around 15 BC. I'd like to have such a dagger in my collection and i'd pay a lot for it.

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