Grant licenses only to groups who can prove they have a legitimate home for the items they recover, guarantees that items will not be sold on for profit (with subsequent penalties should it be discovered that is what they have done) and that any scrap recovered from a site be sold on with the full proceeds being donated to the RAF Benevolent Fund.
And what happens when I want to sell said item on eBay?
“Purchased back in 2008 with proceeds to RAFBF…..now scaling down my collection…..have lost the paperwork…”
I would suggest the MOD, Inland Revenue, HM Customs or whoever you think is going to police this scheme would have better things to do with their time and money.
Is it the financial gain part that is bothering you? I don’t really see much difference between making money from this or making money from books about air combat and there are plenty of those about.
I don’t understand why anybody would want to assign an archaeological value to these relics (unless they are from an exceptionally rare type). Is there really any knowledge about a Spitfire that is going to be ‘lost’ if it is dug up? How long will anything last if it is left where it is?
I often feel that the objection is actually that nobody else should be allowed to dig things up!
To me the prices these relics fetch is, if anything, encouraging. I don’t think museums lack artefacts to display but what they do lack, and will certainly lack in future, is paying customers to walk through their doors and volunteers with enough interest to spend their spare time caring for the museum exhibits.
If the prices these things fetch is an indication of a level interest then that’s a good thing surely.
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