Page 36 - Manual for Activities directed at the Underwater Cultural Heritage

 © U. Guérin / UNESCO. Damaged Chinese ceramics removed by
a salvage company from a wreck near Cirebon, Indonesia. More than 270,000
ar tefacts
(Chinese
ceramics, religious
objects, jewellery, gold coins, pottery, etc.) were salvaged
in a commercially motivated intervention from an ancient wreck. Located by a private exploration company in 2004
off the coast of Cirebon in northern Java, the ship is thought to have foundered in the 10th century as it sailed to Java from Sumatra, giving the discovery exceptional historical value. In 2007, a mission of experts from UNESCO visited the site where the findings were stored.The experts underlined the historical importance of the artefacts and the need to conserve them in suitable conditions.The artefacts were subsequently considerably damaged by the lack of conservation and were ultimately put in majority on sale.
as is further discussed in particular in Chapter V on funding. This should not be confounded with undue commercial exploitation. Also, Paragraph a) of Rule 2 further reiterates that nothing prevents the commercial renting and exploitation of equipment, ex- pertise and services in the con- text of heritage management.
Curation and the issue of dispersal
The second disclaimer under Rule 2 b) addresses the transfer of a collection to an appropriate repository. Such transfer should not be interpreted as an undesirable transaction. Obviously, it should be subject to authorization by the competent authority and it should meet several conditions. The transfer should not ‘prejudice the scientific or cultural interest’; on the contrary, the transfer should be in the best of those interests. Also, the integrity of the collection should be guaranteed. Artefacts, samples and information relating to a site should be kept together. However, in practice, there can be multiple reasons relating to storage, preservation and display that plead against physically keeping everything together in the same place or building. Sharing responsibilities between different institutions, such as museums, repositories and archives can therefore sometimes be the preferable solution. There is no reason to fundamentally oppose this, as long as it does not result in irretrievable dispersal and as long as the competent authority agrees. Transfer between
public institutions is not included in what the Rule tries to avoid; neither is deaccessioning, as long as it does not imply feeding the antiquities market with finds. All such transfers should be in accordance with the provisions of Rules 33 and 34, which address the sustainable curation
The ban on commercial exploitation does not preclude the organization of professional services, or of access to heritage on the basis of commercial principles.
The ban addresses
- trading,
- selling,
- buying, and - bartering.
It does not preclude the change of ownership in the context of curative deposition.
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General Principles