Countries practicing draconian measures to protect their cultural patrimony should consider the tremendous success of the UK's Portable Antiquities Scheme.
The UK system, extended in 2003, encourages finders of antiquities to report them to their local finds officers so they can be examined, recorded and logged into a central database. Unless it is deemed a national treasure, in which case a review panel determines a fair market' price for the object, the finder is entitled to keep or sell the object thereafter. This system encourages cooperation between the metal detecting and archaeological communities, bringing valuable information about find sites and objects to light that might otherwise be destroyed or end up on the black market.
The system has been highly successful, logging its 300,000th reported object -- a 3rd-4th Century AD Roman bronze coin -- on Monday. More than 65,000 objects have been recorded since January 1 of this year, including a Roman curse tablet, a medieval horse boss, and a rare Roman bronze figurine related to the Romano-British slave trade (pictured).
The Portable Antiquities Scheme database is available for public browsing and searching.