Cultural Resources of archaeology and heritage values – already with a mandatory registration regime?

Svetoslav Kantardzhiev, founder of the Bulgarian Mizia Foundation for Preservation of Cultural Heritage and a member of the Bulgarian Union of Collectors, is the next who openly opposes the proposed amendments concerning the cultural resources (values) in the  Bulgarian Penal Code.  If the new draft law becomes a reality, Art.  278 para.  6 of the Penal Code will change its disposition by replacing the term “archaeological sites” with the term “cultural resource (value)”. Under the amendment, every Bulgarian citizen will have to register property older than 50 years.  Otherwise he will be held criminally liable for the illegal “behavior?  of the thing.

 Despite the obvious idea that the changes will help to end the schemes for illegal export and trade of cultural and archaeological sites, such changes in the law will not only harm the successful integration of our country into the European Union, but will complicate the social life of many innocent  citizens.  The ambiguities in the law come from the legal interpretation of the term “holding of cultural property”.  This may mean that one can easily become the object of criminal prosecution only because the extension covers not only antique coins and antiques, but also paintings, icons, books and all sorts of other items that most people keep in their homes.

According to Kantardzhiev, the new law demonizes the collecting community and the trade in artifacts.  Collectors, numismatists and antique dealers have long since registered their collections and even optional archaeological identification.  If anything needs to change, it is to introduce a special regime of what to keep from the state and what not, as in Italy.

Otherwise, the interests of ordinary Bulgarian citizens will be most affected by the law, because primordial human rights are being violated.  In the 21st century, it is insane to force half of Bulgarian people to declare and register all their belongings over the age of 50, and to threaten citizens with imprisonment if they do not do so, warns the founder of the Mizia Foundation.