Brazil wins legal fight over 100M-year-old fossil bounty • Hacker News Board

Re: Brazil wins legal fight over 100M-year-old fossil bounty

#21

Post by klyrs » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 2:06 AM UTC

polartx wrote: post #11

ptah wrote: post #4

Now if we can just get a courtcase similarto this one for the entire contents of the British museum and other artifacts looted by pirates like this one: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/26/westminster-ab...

IMO there should be a limited period of time for which nations can lay claim to 'artifacts', especially when considerable effort to recover them is expended by a private party. Take for example the Odyssey group that spent years tracking down, and excavating treasure from an 1804 spanish vessel off the coast of Portugal ( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/01/treasure-trove... ). There's no reason that a judg…

> ...especially when considerable effort to recover them is expended by a private party.

I'm curious why this is a part of your argument. If I spend a year staking out your house, and spend considerable effort to break in and steal your stuff... does that make it any more legitimate?

Re: Brazil wins legal fight over 100M-year-old fossil bounty

#22

Post by celticninja » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 11:46 AM UTC

knolax wrote: post #16

celticninja wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest that if it was not the British Museum then someone else would have these treasures and they would probably be tucked away far from public view or possibly destroyed through lack of maintenance. I would not mind them being returned if they were guaranteed to remain in good condition and in public ownership. That may be possible now but for a long time it wasn't.

Who's to say the British Museum are the best equipped to maintain the artifacts? Why would you expect an organization that acquired these artifacts through violence to be able to properly take care of them, or even understand their significance? In GP's example the British are literally committing blasphemy against one of the artifacts. And this is for an Ethiopian artifact, which belongs to arguably the same religio…

Why are the best equipped? The exhibits still exist, in great condition and can still be viewed by the public, so they must be doing something correct.

Perhaps what you fail to realise is that a great many treasures have been looted and sold into private collections over the years. Looted and sold by locals, to anyone who can pay. So there is a good chance that anything that the British Museum received as loot would have been someone else's loot otherwise.

Re: Brazil wins legal fight over 100M-year-old fossil bounty

#23

Post by celticninja » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 11:49 AM UTC

zorked wrote: post #13

celticninja wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest that if it was not the British Museum then someone else would have these treasures and they would probably be tucked away far from public view or possibly destroyed through lack of maintenance. I would not mind them being returned if they were guaranteed to remain in good condition and in public ownership. That may be possible now but for a long time it wasn't.

Still looting though.

By who though? Many were looted by locals and sold on to private collectors and then made it to the British Museum. Are the brotha museum the looters, no, the looters were often locals looking to make money selling artifacts and European collectors who sought them out or actually did the looting.

Re: Brazil wins legal fight over 100M-year-old fossil bounty

#24

Post by ganoushoreilly » Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 7:22 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #20

polartx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO there should be a limited period of time for which nations can lay claim to 'artifacts', especially when considerable effort to recover them is expended by a private party. Take for example the Odyssey group that spent years tracking down, and excavating treasure from an 1804 spanish vessel off the coast of Portugal ( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/01/treasure-trove... ). There's no reason that a judg…

I look at it from this standpoint. It is highly unlikely in many parts of the world that the government now laying claim to an artifact has any relationship to the government if any at the time that existed in the same area. Just because you live in the same area should not automatically be an absolute right. The care of the artifact must be weighed against those who seek to claim it. Even items freely given have had…

Sadly the middle east has proven by example that had some of these artifacts not been removed, they would have been substantially lost by now. It's not an easy topic to address.