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| ARCHAEO-REMITTANCE: TEXT OF THE APPEAL IN ENGLISH |
Inserito il 09 luglio 2010 alle 23:38:00 da redazione-ct. IT - Tutte le notizie
To the president of the Italian Republic, all political parties and all those of goodwill,
A measure in the State Budget, “Matters relating to recovery and cataloguing of archaeological patrimony, as well as revision of disciplinary sanctions,” the so-called “archaeo-remittance” will de-criminalize the illegal possession of archaeological artifacts, putting Italian archaeological patrimony into the very hands of those who have been plundering it.
In past years this law has been proposed many times but retracted due to the protests of the cultural world. But this time it will end up in the Budget proposal, which in parliament will be put to a vote of confidence and, therefore, with all probability will be approved.
The declared purpose of the law is to recover undocumented patrimony and to allow it to be catalogued. In reality the law will end up being an enormous boon to looters and organized criminals, the so-called “archaeomafia,” involved in illegal digging and international trafficking of antiquities.
We’re not dealing here with the remittance of the common earthenware jar or ceramic pot that a farmer happened to unearth in his field or that an enthusiast has misguidedly acquired, but of an indiscriminate legalization of archaeological antiquities from clandestine excavations, unethically removed from the collective archaeological record with irreparable harm to the finds themselves, especially in terms of provenance.
If the law is approved, anyone in possession of archaeological artifacts, even if those artifacts came from illegal excavations, will be able to obtain from the State a renewable permission to keep the object for the duration of 30 years. All they will have to do is declare that they have been in possession of the artifact since before December 31, 2009, and pay a modest fee.
The antiquities thus “legalized” will also probably be allowed to be bequeathed in wills or even sold. The department of cultural heritage will only have the power to contest the declared value of the artifact and request the difference.
Thus overnight, the law will officially transform looters and the “archaeomafia,” which the current legal system condemns and prosecutes, into collectors and managers of cultural heritage, who with the antiquities they have robbed from the public patrimony, can engage, legally, in commercial activities and with museums and art galleries.
From the moment of the law’s approval, until the end of petitions for remittance, the greatest plundering and devastation ever seen of the nation’s archaeological sites will be unleashed, with epic and irreparable damage to our cultural patrimony.
We invite the whole world of cultural heritage and antiquities, all the peaple and those who in Italy and abroad hold dear the Italian archaeological and artistic patrimony, which constitutes our nation’s cultural identity itself and belongs to the cultural patrimony of all mankind, and is protected by our constitution, to mobilization against this law that would render vain in our country any legal efforts of protection and archaeological research.
We petitioners appeal to the President of the Republic, to all political parties and to all those of goodwill to stop this mortal strike to the cultural patrimony of Italy.
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