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Karl Schembri
A 34-year-old British diver is the first to be prosecuted and found guilty of stealing underwater cultural heritage following a wide-ranging investigation launched last year by the police Cultural Heritage Crimes Unit and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, and revealed by this newspaper.
Gavin Lee Howard was fined Lm500 last Monday by Magistrate Giovanni Grixti after pleading guilty to stealing an antique glass sphere that formed part of a lamp from a World War I shipwreck, the SS Polynésien, which according to the court’s decree will now be exhibited in a museum.
MaltaToday exposed the extent of the pilfering of underwater treasures from the Maltese seabed last September. Charges against at least five other expert divers involved were filed in court last January. They are expected to be arraigned in March for stealing artefacts from the same wreck and from other sites, with some of their items dating back to the Roman period.
“This is the first time that the Cultural Heritage Superinten-dence is working with the police unit to prosecute people who breach the Cultural Heritage Act,” said acting Heritage Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar. He helped Inspector Michael Mallia with the prosecution.
“It was a pilot case for us, and the sentence is an endorsement of the new laws safeguarding heritage,” Cutajar said.
The court was informed that the diver had not damaged the item, so he was not fined additionally to finance its restoration.
But lifting artefacts from heritage sites is a crime that can get six years imprisonment as maximum punishment, even though divers have been taking up underwater items for ages.
Last year’s arrests had sent shockwaves among the diving community used to “taking souvenirs” from deep water wrecks, although some of the accused were notorious among divers for their unrestrained looting for business.
MaltaToday’s coverage of the arrests had also triggered a petition to the culture minister signed by more than 500 bona fide scuba divers and concerned citizens, calling for an amnesty to collectors who present their underwater artefacts to the authorities, but Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech has so far refused to take a stand.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
Links:
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/12/25/t1.html
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2005/09/11/t7.html
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