Is finders, keepers as simple as it sounds?
We were poking around an old Carthaginian graveyard when a man approached with an armful of goods to hawk. At first, I was dismissive; street sellers are a common hassle in Tunisia. Then something made me take a closer look at his wares. He was holding a tiny stone plinth with a carving of a boy on it.
“Very old,” he said and I was inclined to believe him. Prominent Carthaginian families used to sacrifice children, thought by some historians to be their firstborn sons, before they reached puberty. The graveyard was full of small monuments to these unlucky victims. Some featured a rough carving of a boy and sometimes a symbol of the family making the offering. Most of them, however, were attached to urns, unlike the one being thrust towards us by the seller.
Perhaps realising the limited appeal of the stone, he instead began to take out other wares. I recall several bronze coins, long turned green, one especially pretty and featuring a carving of a tiny horse. “For a necklace,” he suggested. For the first time during the trip, I felt a stab of temptation to buy something.
I thought of that moment this week when David Attenborough triggered a diplomatic row by giving Prince George a present. It was the tooth of a megalodon, a giant shark that roamed Earth’s oceans 23 million years ago, which he had found during a family holiday to Malta in the Sixties. Malta’s minister of culture Jose Herrera took a dim view of the gift and demanded that it be returned for display
in a museum. Mr Herrera was quickly shouted down by Maltese public opinion. The law might be on his side, but people contrasted his prompt action on the tooth, the likes of which are readily available on ebay, with the government’s ineffective action on corruption. But the incident reminded me of those Carthaginian remains. Like the tooth, they had been left carelessly in the ground until being noticed by a discerning eye. Who was to say that the locals didn’t deserve to earn their living from their own archaeological finds?
A nudge from my friend brought my priorities back in order. Whatever the circumstances, the law said these were stolen goods. If they were to be sold, it shouldn’t be on the cheap to a thoughtless tourist. I declined the offer and we went on our way.
Telegraph
A reader, Tina Berry, wrote this week to point out that, thanks to the country’s weird patchwork of Covid rules, she is not legally allowed to stay in her second home in Wales, but is allowed to rent a holiday cottage nearby. I am keen to hear from more readers with examples, because rules that defy common sense seem to be a feature of the pandemic.
Over the summer, I overheard a recent visitor to Madrid recounting a night out on the town. He passed a gay sauna and was amused to see that the entrants were obediently wearing masks and socially distancing in the long queue outside. I suppose it always pays to use protection.