State Rights.
These confiscatory laws, these claims on private property on behalf of the state, are more or less illogical nibblings on a wide claim which no state has ventured yet to formulate,—namely, that all objects of past generations are public property. This means, if fully carried out, that no person can own any object of antiquity as private property. No private collections would be possible in such a condition, all would belong to the state. Of course there is a huge amount of material which is duplicate, and not needed in a national collection; but the state claims would be maintained if all collections must be placed in a public building, (such as a local museum) where they could be seen. The energy of collectors, the transfer of specimens from one to another, would not be stopped, only the objects would be compulsorily visible in a public place. And everything wanted for a national collection would be transferred. This condition of things is slowly being reached by the state buying important objects continually, when they are sold on changing hands. But the logical outcome of the present laws and present tendency would be this nationalisation of all antiquities. Whether such a result would be satisfactory at all points may be doubted; but it is clearly a position to which all changes at present tend. If fully and honourably carried out by the state paying the finder full value for all it took, and giving up confiscation of all sorts, the result would probably be the best that could happen for archaeology.
One great result of defining the position thus, would be to prevent any ancient buildings being destroyed or altered without state consent. If every structure, say, over five hundred years old, needed three months’ notice to an inspector before it could be pulled down or dealt with, there would be a great check on the present changes. Every cathedral and church, every castle and manor-house, would need special licence for changes in all parts older than the prescribed limit. A notice of one week might be required for the destruction of structures as yet not known, which were unearthed in course of digging. Such a protection of monuments would not affect vested interests or property values nearly as much as an ordinary railway bill that passes through Parliament without a protest; and it seems not too much to hope that such a protection of all monuments of historic interest might be carried out. The legal position might take the form of pronouncing all ancient buildings, stone circles, and earthworks the ultimate property of the Crown, with the existing owners having full powers as trustees for the Crown to preserve, use, and enjoy such property, and to sell or devise such trusteeship in every way as if the property was not beyond the age limit of private property. Only the right of destruction and alteration would be reserved.
A state register of works of art is desired by Professor Ernest Gardner, who proposes that (1) the ownership of works of ancient art and sculptures and pictures by great masters should be entered on a register in charge of a public registrar; (2) the registrar should have a right to see to the safety of such objects; (3) any fairly qualified scholar may apply to be entered on a register of students kept by the registrar; (4) owners of registered works must fix times for exhibition to students or to the public, or else a registered student must be allowed to see any work within a reasonable period; (5) the owner, if absent, must appoint some one to preserve and exhibit such works; (6) in case of sale of a work to a foreign country, the government shall have the option of retaining it at the price fixed for the sale.
Excavating Laws.
The attitude of foreign governments regarding scientific excavating has not been happy. Too often the prohibitions have been used not in the interests of archaeology, but for promoting plundering. Because it is easy to drop on an open excavation, all regular excavations have been fenced with severe difficulties and costs; while in Greece and Turkey none of the proceeds have been allowed to the finder. On the other hand, it is difficult to always drop on a surreptitious native, and the sympathy of the courts—in Egypt at least—is openly on the side of the plundering native, who is seldom punished for anything. Hence the curious situation is that the whole values of the property have been solely created by the labours and study of the archaeologist; yet he is almost debarred from using the material which an ignorant peasant may dig and destroy as he pleases.
The form of law which is wanted is (1) the punishment of all destruction or removal of antiquities, by a special court, independent of local sympathies or favouring of the plunderer; (2) the rigid requirement of technical knowledge and ability in those who excavate, with the condition that everything is published promptly, and that nothing found can be sold or pass except into a public museum; (3) the right of the government of each country to such objects as are necessary to the national collection, on reimbursing whatever may have been given as bakhshish to the finder, and some proportion of the costs according to the case.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FASCINATION OF HISTORY
The love of past times, the craving for that which is gone, is one of the more obscure instincts which appears to be brought forward by the wider growth of interests of the mind. It takes many forms; it appeals to the intellect, to the curiosity, to the affections; yet it is really a single instinct, and one which, from its strength, must spring from a primal cause.