Trouble for two pre-philatelic items!
Hello everyone, today I met a friend who made me worry! He had put two pre-philatelic items up for sale and went through two years of legal trouble. Carabinieri at his home, search, seizure of some other items, two years of criminal proceedings for receiving stolen goods, lawyers, hearings….acquittal. The seized stuff is gone forever. I can assure you he is a very honest person, a collector of postal history. Basically he told me that you can't sell pre-philatelic items or anything else sent to public offices, mayors, prefects….Who can make sense of it anymore!
3 comments
marioelegio
·3 years agoIt seems obvious to me that they can’t be sold; this is handling stolen goods. If a private individual is in possession of documents sent to public offices, such possession cannot be lawful. These are documents somehow taken from archives, and therefore it is not possible to prove lawful possession. https://www.soprintendenzapdve.beniculturali.it/attivita-istituzionali/tutela/in-cosa-consiste-il-vincolo-di-tutela-di-un-bene-culturale-e-come-posso-sapere-se-un-bene-e-tutelato/
hi
mario
caterinatp
OP3 years agoThanks for the clarification! But if the documents are not public but private ad personam, even from the 1600s-1700s, is there no problem? Could the descendants cause problems? Thanks again
marioelegio
·3 years agoIt always depends on how one comes into possession of them. If they are things considered important and if lawful provenance cannot be proven, they belong to the state. If, on the other hand, they are family documents or were purchased with a regular invoice, they can be resold.
The same applies to ancient coins and archaeological finds; finding one of these objects (for example with a metal detector) does not allow you to then have possession of it.
hi
mario