Collectors are made into potential criminals

Amendments to the Criminal Law made over several years have created grounds for accusing collectors of criminal offenses. Collectors are forced to hide their collections or sell them to foreigners - in a conversation with Neatkarīgā, say Jānis Upmalis, president of the Rīgas kolekcionāru biedrība (Riga Collectors' Association), and Igo Zilbers, a collector with more than 30 years of experience.

On February 2 of this year, regular amendments to the Criminal Law came into force, which provide for criminal liability for the storage, trade and transportation of cultural objects and antiques.

In contrast, in European Union countries, especially Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, etc. such strict rules do not apply. Collectors' meetings can still be held there freely, there is no criminal punishment for the sale, storage and transportation of antiques. Latvian collectors and other lovers of antiques can forget about the hitherto very popular Ikšķile antique fairs and monthly collectors' meetings at Riga 6th Secondary School.

Will consider who to vote for in the election

As J. Upmalis pointed out to Neatkarīgā, the strict norms of law exclude Latvian collectors from the international circuit of collectors, and this is due to irresponsible politicians: “Collectors are very disappointed in their political idols, the National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība), who say in words that they defend history, but in works do the opposite, not to mention the people of Bordāns, the New Conservative Party (Jaunā konservatīvā partija), whose slogan is to destroy everything. The National Alliance has betrayed historians with its political indifference, and collectors will have to consider who to vote for in the next election."

As J. Upmalis explained,

it is absurd if the state starts banning collecting a hundred years old and even younger items.

“I discussed the situation with antique shopkeepers. For example, it has already become problematic to sell a porcelain figure that is over fifty years old. In Latvia, a person may purchase such items, but they may not be exported outside Latvia. To export, they must be evaluated by a special state committee. Obtaining or not obtaining such a permit costs 38 euros for each item. On the other hand, if I order an antique from France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, it will be delivered to me without any problems within three days. This means that we, Latvian collectors, can no longer compete with collectors from European countries. We are forbidden to do practically anything.”

Bureaucrats choose the easiest path

The president of the Riga Collectors' Association explained that by amending the law, clever bureaucrats are once again trying to take the easiest path - not to find solutions to regulate the activities of treasure hunters and "shady" archaeologists, but choose to ban cultural monuments from existing in the nation: "Now all antiquities older than 1800 must be taken away from the people and handed over to the state free of charge. I may no longer keep any of my collections at home, let alone sell them. What is happening is similar to a method if the state decided to fight poachers. The state could then similarly ban the keeping and eating of wild game meat at home, and not only the meat but also the skin, the animal's intestines and horns would have to be handed over to the state free of charge, even if they were found in the forest. The burden of proving guilt is shifted from the state to the citizen, who must now prove that he has acquired the antiquity legally. This violates the presumption of innocence. The investigator must prove that you acquired the property criminally, but you do not have to prove that you purchased it legally. It is important that when creating these useless amendments to the law, the authors have never asked the opinion of collectors. Collecting is a long process. For example, a coin collection is collected for decades in different ways - by buying, exchanging, obtaining from a neighbor as a gift. If I were to ask the antique markets in Tallinn, Berlin, Paris or Warsaw to write me a receipt that this or that coin has been officially purchased, they would tell me to get lost and call me crazy.”

Estonia is acting smarter

I. Zilbers said that, for example, in Estonia, the state acts incomparably smarter than in Latvia to fight treasure hunters and “shady” archaeologists. No one is allowed to walk around freely with a metal detector, as this is an administrative offense. All detector users are registered. Before that, they must undergo training courses. The detector user must notify the country twenty-four hours in advance of the coordinates at which they intend to carry out the search. At the end of the search, they must submit a report to the cultural institution on what has been found, together with photographs of the objects found and a description of the objects. Depending on the cultural and historical significance of the found object, the state may purchase the objects at their full market price. But if someone finds, for example, a deposit, a money box, and does not sell it back to the state, but sells it to someone else, then criminal liability arises. There have been such cases. "But in Latvia, everything is much different. There is a law that allows, for example, Sandra Zirne, the head of the Archeology and History Department of the National Heritage Board, to visit any apartments with the police and remove any items to find out if they have been stolen. That is permissiveness. A lawyer will cost me 100 euros an hour to prove that the removed item is inherited from my mother. Zirne gives information to the police, the police search the location and take the collector into custody. Then the persuasion takes place. The police are very good at manipulating, saying - admit guilt and the prosecutor will only give you a small sentence. The person falls for it. In the end, the full prison sentence is given, they must pay thousands and even have to clean the streets for 200 hours. In contrast, in European countries, collectors are still allowed to hold major fairs, festivals and trade even medieval and ancient Roman coins. Nothing like that is possible in Latvia. If that happened, a truck with Zirne and the police would show up and everyone would be deprived of everything with the proviso that the valuables are badly stored and their legal origin must be proven,” explained I. Zilbers.

Traps for Heffalumps

J. Upmalis ironized about the excuse of the Ministry of Culture that collectors were given the opportunity to submit and declare collections and antiques: “These were the legislator traps for Heffalumps. A collection is a gathering created over a long period of time, which is constantly evolving and improving. As soon as the collection is locked in one frozen state, that collection is dead. Latvia treats collectors in the same way as Russia once did millionaires. The administration of President Vladimir Putin called for the declaration of foreign capital. Those who did so have long been put in prison, and everything that was taken away has since flowed into the state. Data declared in Latvia may leak to the criminal world. They will not hesitate to pay a visit to the collectors. Sure, they can pass laws that do not work and hope that the people will not protest. The camel's back has been broken. The collectors' association is putting their heads together. We plan to ask the Minister of Culture for an explanation of how collectors can continue to operate in this country so that they are not considered potential criminals. In Latvia, collecting of antiques is limited, but in other European countries it can be done freely. The question is: where is the European free market? Why do we have to hand over all old items to the state without receiving any compensation just because we have them at home? Article 92 of the Constitution states that property may be confiscated in the interests of the state, but then the owner must receive fair compensation. But collectors are tough people who, through the harsh Soviet years, were able to preserve the flags of the first Republic of Latvia, officers' swords, awards, Ulmanis' manuscripts, for which they could have gone to prison during the Soviet era. What to do now - if you want to keep the collection you have stored for generations, you have to put it in a three-liter jar and hand it over to the "ground bank" (meaning - to secretly bury it in the ground)? Or, what is even sadder, sell it for cheap money to Estonian, Russian and Polish collectors prowling in Latvia? The stricter the laws in Latvia, the fuller the markets of neighboring countries are with Latvian antiques. Thus, both Latvian museums and collectors will miss out on many valuable antiques.”

Explanation from the Ministry

Following Neatkarīgā's publication on the impending danger to antique collectors, the Ministry of Culture sent out a circular. Among other things, it emphasizes that in the Criminal Law, for cultural objects and archival documents the “protection status is determined by the National Heritage Board, museums, the National Library of Latvia and the National Archives of Latvia. If a person owns or possesses objects with such status, then they are subject to the restrictions specified in regulatory enactments, but if such status is not specified, then the person cannot incur liability for the activities specified in the Criminal Law.”

The circular also states that “The Criminal Law protects antiquities found in archeological ancient sites of the Republic of Latvia in-ground, above ground or in water dated up to and including the 17th century. Consequently, it is not reasonable to consider that antiquity that has been accidentally found, for example, in a garden, forest, attic or other places that are not recognized as an archaeological site, would be considered to have been illegally acquired within the meaning of the Criminal Law. It should also be noted that neither the Criminal Law nor the Law on Protection of Cultural Monuments provides for the deprivation of antiquities from their legal owners, but to clearly determine the state ownership of those antiquities found in archeological sites and the legal owner of which cannot be ascertained.”

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