… by co-operating with those who say knowledge that’s everyone’s is theirs to withhold. We can do no better than to quote Paul Barford:

“From past experience, this program almost certainly will NOT be telling the public about the relationship after quarter of a century of operation of this public-funded detectorists’ scam between the number of finds that are recovered ‘responsibly’, i.e., reported and recorded, and the vastly greater numbers that are not, and what this means in terms of the overall destructive effects of this exploitative hobby. 

By not telling the public about this, the object-centred ivory tower eggheads of the British Museum will (again) not have to bother about telling the viewing public about the realities behind the silly publicity-spin ‘expedition’ jeep parked in front of their faux-classical façade aping imperial grandeur with the numpty in Indiana Jones garb standing next to it trying to look cool.”

One can’t help reflecting on what most archaeologists and educated people elsewhere in the world think of this image and the official involvement in it. We doubt if they are thinking what the British Museum imagines they do.

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting
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