TREASURE HUNTING, TREASURE HUNTING LICENSES, AND CULTURAL PROPERTY LAW
History Beneath the Soil Versus the State’s Monopoly on Ownership Disputes regarding treasure-hunting licenses and historical artifacts—evaluated within the scope of the Law on the Protection of Cultural Property (Law No. 2863)—constitute a highly specialized and punitive niche area trapped between individuals in search of adventure and the state’s absolute right of ownership (the treasury). For an individual to obtain an official license from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to “hunt for treasure” on their own land or out in the countryside is subject to massive bureaucratic hurdles and the strict supervision of museum inspectors. On the other hand, conducting unauthorized (illegal) excavations is an unforgivable offense that directly entails heavy prison sentences pursuant to Article 286/A of the Turkish Penal Code.
Historical Artifact Smuggling and Imputed Heavy Criminal Offenses A citizen who happens to find an antique coin, mosaic, or figurine while plowing a field or conducting construction excavation, and chooses to keep it or attempt to sell it rather than reporting it, can become a suspect in an organized crime syndicate overnight. In such files, the judicial authorities’ determination of the boundary between a “historical artifact” and an “ordinary object” depends on technical reports and archaeological assessments to be prepared by museum experts. The defense conducted in this obscure and secluded world is a struggle to prevent—through rational expert reports—unconscious curiosity or an accidental discovery from turning into a disaster under the label of a “historical artifact smuggler” in the eyes of the state.
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