Getting down to the tooth of the matter

It is a relief that Malta has decided not to pursue its now-short-lived campaign to have a fossilised shark’s tooth forcibly returned to be displayed at a local museum by snatching it away from a seven-year-old who had been gifted it by a grandfatherly gent with a penchant for natural wonders.
Of course, had the little boy not been Prince George, third in line to become monarch of Britain, and had the generous old-timer not been the famed Sir David Attenborough, the matter would not have reached such a pitch.

While it has focused attention on a rather esoteric object, it is just as well that better sense prevailed among Maltese hawks as escalating it to an international tussle could have set a tricky precedent when it comes to what could be called the beachcombers’ convention: finders keepers, losers weepers.

The term has been in use since Roman times and has generally alluded to driftwood and other marine flotsam, but the protocol on ‘found’ goods that it outlined has often been (rather unfairly) appropriated by raiders, invaders, crusaders and even traders.

The Elgin Marbles and Benin Bronzes, not to mention the Kohinoor and other commandeered treasures currently ensconced in museums and strongrooms in the UK, come to mind. Meanwhile, the incident could spur a rethink in Britain on the importance of fossils.