The Treasure Act, covering England and Wales, came into force on 24th September 1997 and applies to archaeological objects found by the public (particularly metal detector users) and archaeologists. This article will define the Treasure Act and explain the impact it has on museums and archaeology collections.
The objects and coins which need to be declared under the Treasure Act include the following:
Once a finder identifies an item of potential treasure, he or she is required by law to report it to the coroner within 14 days. In practice finders report the object to their local Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) Finds Liaison Officer (FLO), who in Oxfordshire, is embedded within the Museum Service. It is the FLO who reports it on the finder’s behalf to the Coroner once all the relevant information has been gathered. The information passed to the Coroner includes the findspot, landowner details, a brief description of the potential treasure, outlining what the object is and its date.
After the potential treasure has been reported to the Coroner, the FLO or curators at the British Museum/National Museum, Wales write a more detailed report of the object concluding with why it satisfies the requirements of the Treasure Act (1996). This report is passed to local accredited museums for them to consider whether they would want to acquire it for their collection.
Using the Treasure Report and the museum’s Collecting Policy the curator decides whether the item of treasure would enhance their collection. If not, the object is disclaimed by the Secretary of State and with permission of the Coroner returned to the finder or landowner. If the museum would like to acquire it, the Coroner holds an inquest to formally declare the object treasure. In this process the Treasure Report is viewed as an expert witness during the inquest.
Once an object is declared formally to be treasure it moves to the valuation stage, where the Treasure Valuation Committee (TVC) commissions provisional valuations by independent expert witnesses. Once these provisional valuations are received the TVC recommends a value to the Secretary of State and all interested parties (museums, landowners, and finders) are asked whether they agree to the valuation. If they want to challenge the value, they have 28 days to submit evidence supporting their challenge and the TVC will reconsider the value in light of the evidence they receive.
Once the museum receives the valuation, fundraising to purchase the item starts in earnest. It is a rare occurrence that a museum has a budget dedicated to acquiring treasure and the curator becomes a fundraiser. In Oxfordshire the curator applies to the Friends of The Oxfordshire Museum for seed funding to enable them to apply for larger national grants, such as the Art Fund and V&A Purchase Grant, but these are oversubscribed each year. The curator also contacts local businesses, uses funds raised by the museum donation boxes, delivers lectures and presentations to local and international societies. Every penny raised helps a museum acquire an object so that it remains in a public collection in perpetuity. In this way the treasure items remain accessible to researchers and the public.
The sum raised in acquiring the object becomes an award and usually is divided equally between the landowner and finder. It should be noted that if professional archaeologists find treasure they are not entitled to any financial reward.
For museums, the Treasure Act provides the opportunity to acquire significant archaeological objects that otherwise would go to private collections. Not all treasure items are acquired by museums – they may not en-hance a museum’s collection, or the museum already may have objects which tell a similar story. All treasure is recorded in detail on the publicly accessible PAS database (www.finds.org.uk) so if not in a public collection remains visible digitally. Without the Treasure Act, the PAS, and funders/donations, museum collections would not be as enriched as they are now.
