234 carne;gie institution 



museums of Europe and America from Greece in the course of the 

 last seventy j^ears is sufficient evidence that the Greek law against 

 exportation is often evaded, and the efforts to elevate the public sen- 

 timent on the subject have not been very successful. The peasants 

 in general do not yet understand why their government or any one 

 else should care for broken stones or old pottery, and if strangers 

 are disposed to pay a good sum for these trifles, why should they 

 not have them ? The Greek senate has recently passed a much 

 stricter law, making every work of antiquity, wherever or however 

 found, in Greece or in Greek waters, the property of the state, if this 

 cares to take it for its museum. In this case the finder is to receive 

 from the Archaeological Society half of the value of the article. 

 Every ofiicial of the government is bound under heavy penalties to 

 see this law enforced. For dereliction of duty he is liable not only 

 to be deprived of his office, but also to be sentenced to fine and im- 

 prisonment for two years. But very recently a party of archeolo- 

 gists visiting Eretria brought away with them vases that, in my 

 opinion, were not only more numerous, but also more valuable, than 

 those in the Eretrian Museum, all purchased within a few feet and 

 almost under the very eye of the soldier on duty as a policeman. 

 Though it is only fair to add that the best vases from Eretria were 

 already in the museum at Athens, yet the letter of the law was fla- 

 grantly violated in the sale to the archeologists. 



Contrast with Former Spirit. 



The Turkish government in 1884 enacted a similar law to that of 

 Greece, absolutely forbidding the exportation of antiquities; but this 

 law, too, is not supported by public sentiment, and the exportation 

 continues, though attended by difficulties. The European or Ameri- 

 can purchaser is obliged to pay a higher price because of the increased 

 risk to the seller, and the high price in turn encourages illegal digging, 

 and thus leads to archeological loss. The Germans, on renewing 

 their excavations at Pergamon, receive for themselves only the objects 

 that are needed to complete those which they removed to Berlin a 

 score of years ago. 



The great Museum of Cairo is already provided with a large supply 

 of the ordinary objects found in Egyptian tombs, but the law for- 

 bidding the export of antiquities, except such as are derived from 

 authorized archeological excavations, is so strictly enforced that a 

 prominent dealer in antiquities has recently given up his business, it 



