This is what happens when you confiscate and don't compensate the land owners for ancient stuff found on their property. If your only choice is to lose your shit, or sell the stuff and bury the place, then you are going to pick the latter. If you incentivize people to report archaeological findings, then you are going to preserve them. The only country which seems to know this is the UK with the PAS which compensates people who find treasure the government wants. (The PAS and this argument has nothing to do with foreign looted artifacts, just to push back against some stupid fool who starts talking about irrelevant shit.)
Infamous_Set_5573 t1_j6na38z wrote
Reply to TIL tomb raiding is a big problem in China that looters sometimes find historically significant sites first. For instance the tomb of the famed 3 Kingdoms-era general, Cao Cao, was discovered in 2008 after police inspected the stolen goods of a bunch of robbers, who then led them to an unknown tomb. by Khysamgathys
This is what happens when you confiscate and don't compensate the land owners for ancient stuff found on their property. If your only choice is to lose your shit, or sell the stuff and bury the place, then you are going to pick the latter. If you incentivize people to report archaeological findings, then you are going to preserve them. The only country which seems to know this is the UK with the PAS which compensates people who find treasure the government wants. (The PAS and this argument has nothing to do with foreign looted artifacts, just to push back against some stupid fool who starts talking about irrelevant shit.)