Bulgaria Seizes Smuggled Coins

By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News July 18, 2011

This article was originally printed in World Coin News.
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The recent return from Canada to Bulgaria of illegally imported cultural patrimony, including coins, is a grim reminder that Bulgaria and other countries are actively looking to seize additional items previously thought to be “safe” that these nations claim as their property.

No one is arguing in this case that the approximately 18,000 coins, bronze eagles, rings, pendants, belt buckles, arrows, spearheads and bone sewing needles, a total of about 21,000 objects, shouldn’t be returned to Bulgaria.

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The objects in question were blatantly mailed from Bulgaria in 2007 without proper authorization. The packages were detained by the Canada Border Services Agency, and referred to the Department of Canadian Heritage, who in turn had the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigate the situation. A Canadian court later ruled the shipment had been illegally exported from Bulgaria.

What is unusual about the return of these objects is that Canadian legislation states that the objects could remain impounded in Canada. They were returned to Bulgaria as a courtesy, following a visit by Bulgaria’s Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov. The items were returned by hand to Bulgaria in what the Agence France-Press described as “black suitcases” carried by a 15-man security team.

It appears Rashidov may have been personally involved in the physical return of the cultural patrimony. He was quoted in the June 16 online report by Standart News as saying, “We brought the treasures as carry-on, and saved 300,000 euros from transport, insurance and escort. It was a thrill, we took shifts to sleep and guard the luggage.”

The cost of the return may have been a bargain, but saving 300,000 euros in costs may have been a stretch. The AFP report clarified that Rashidov said the unusual way of returning the objects cost Bulgaria 20,000 euros, as opposed to using a contract transporter, who would have charged perhaps as much as 300,000 euros for the same services.

The seized objects were reported to be a mix of Hellenistic, Roman, Macedonian, Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman cultural artifacts with an estimated value of about $700,000.

Although coins represented the largest part of the seizure, the balance included an assortment of bronze, iron and stone tools; weapons; buckles; clasps; horse harness and casings; amulets from lead and bronze; gold, silver and bronze jewelry and what was described as “vessels.”

The objects date from the 8th century B.C. to as late as the end of the 19th century. The objects, including the coins, were reportedly given to the National History Museum in Sofia. What will happen to them later was not reported.

There was the usual trumpeting in the press regarding how wonderful the return was. The bigger question, however, is where do you draw the line regarding ownership, and what objects, including coins, should be honored as someone else’s cultural patrimony? Furthermore, how do you define the term “ancient?” The Peoples’ Republic of China, as an example, has insisted Chinese “ancient” coinage is anything dating from 1911 or earlier.

This is where there has been much behind the scenes wrangling in the U.S. State Department and elsewhere. The Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, and others, have been defending the position that collectors have the right to own coins, which, in some cases, a foreign government may argue should be seized as being part of that nation’s cultural patrimony. Some of the countries interested in the return of antiquities and coins, regardless of when and how they were exported to the United States. They claim the coins are their cultural patrimony and property. Countries exercising this practice include Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Greece, The Peoples’ Republic of China and Turkey.

No one is arguing that Bulgaria’s policies regarding how treasure troves are treated when discovered are unproductive when compared to how treasure troves are treated in countries such as Great Britain.

A June 16 Associated Press story reported, “Alongside Greece and Italy, Bulgaria is believed to be among the countries with the largest amount of antiques on the international black market.” Bulgarian laws mandate that all archaeological finds belong to the state, and finders are not reimbursed for such discoveries.