Category Archives: Treasure

What Price the “Holy Grail” of Shipwrecks?

Posted on: January 8, 2024 by Paul Stevenson

Readers will doubtless recall fictional archaeologist explorer Indiana Jones’ quest to find the holy grail, a cup providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance and, by analogy, an elusive object or goal of great significance. Readers may also recall that some time ago on this blog (2018 indeed) I noted that UNESCO had weighed […]

The Everyday Deserves Protecting

Posted on: May 9, 2023 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds

Any mention of a shipwreck being found immediately conjures up the wildest possible imaginings in most people’s minds – treasure chests full of gold, pearl necklaces, stone studded jewels and other magnificent objects. Alongside the treasure, our imaginations are also filled with scenes of uninhabited islands in the Caribbean with white sand, turquoise water and […]

Changes to the Law of Treasure

Posted on: April 14, 2023 by Geoffrey Bennett

One might say that if the law of Treasure has slumbered throughout most of its long history it has now had a rude awakening. Its obscure origins in Anglo-Norman common law had nothing to do with preserving items of cultural interest and probably everything to do with a source of revenue for the Crown, albeit […]

A North Carolina Filmmaker Continues to Challenge State Sovereign Immunity

Posted on: October 28, 2022 by Gina McKIveen

For nearly two decades, Rick Allen, an experienced underwater videographer and professional photographer, documented the retrieval and recovery process of an 18th century pirate shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina. A dispute over the copyright in the works produced between Allen and the State of North Carolina (the “State”) is now approaching its tenth […]

Looking ahead to 2021

Posted on: January 5, 2021 by Alexander Herman

If 2020 taught us anything it’s that making predictions is a futile – perhaps perilous – exercise. Looking back at our predictions for 2020 from last January only confirms this. Who would have thought that a global pandemic would tear through the fabric of our cozy existence, all the while upsetting a number of accepted […]

Treasure, treasure everywhere – Government plans to update Treasure Act

Posted on: December 11, 2020 by Rebecca Hawkes-Reynolds

On Friday 2nd December 2020 it is likely that many archaeologists, curators and metal detectorists woke up pleased at the announcement from the Government that the definition of treasure for the Treasure Act 1996 will be revised. However, it is also equally probable that the same number were perplexed and worried as to how this […]

Discovery of gothic sculpture in Spanish river – thoughts on Spain’s finds regulation system

Posted on: July 13, 2020 by Marta Suárez-Mansilla

Last month, a fisherman found in the Sar River, near the city of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain), a 14th-century gothic sculpture of the Virgin and Child, half-submerged, and covered in moss and slime. On paying closer attention to the shape of the object, he noticed some engravings suggesting that what he was looking at […]

Renewed search for one of Spain’s “greatest treasure galleons”

Posted on: February 25, 2020 by Paul Stevenson

Media reports this month claim that almost four centuries after the ill-fated galleon Nuestra Señora del Juncal (“the Juncal”), a Spanish naval vessel, sank off the Mexican coast in a storm in October 1631, researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History and Spain’s National Museum of Underwater Archaeology are to undertake a 10-day […]

New issue of Art Antiquity & Law available now

Posted on: January 16, 2020 by Julia Rodrigues Casella Hommes

As we leave behind the festive season, the latest issue of Art Antiquity & Law has just been released in time for you to start the new year with the latest in-depth analyses from the world of art and cultural heritage law. Adam Jomeen writes about street photography and compares the legal treatments afforded to […]

‘Bad things come in threes’ in the world of art crime…

Posted on: November 26, 2019 by Emily Gould

It has been a tumultuous fortnight in Europe in the world of art crime. First, we heard about the audacious attempt to steal two Rembrandts from London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery – thankfully unsuccessful with the perpetrators being apprehended and the paintings recovered within the grounds of the gallery. Then, yesterday, news broke of a heist […]