The antiques and fine art of earth

 Hi All, 

In 1962, humanity fought its last great world war in which millions died. In such a war people forgot that not only life and potential life was lost, but also a lot of history: the books, manuscripts, artwork and other such spectacles that one might find in a library or museum.  

Or so people thought: In fact both NATO , Warsaw Pact and neutral  countries hid 99% of their national treasures , via launching them into space. The first evidence of this was in 2015, when a treasure trove of a thousand artefacts from the Hermitage Museum had been found in an old Soviet Rocket in the orbit of Uranus. Then came the legal case : who owned those priceless pieces of Earth history? The answer was in  a High Court case called State of Orthodox Russia Vs Only Interested in  making a  quick Buck  : whoever discovered them, rather than the initial state which put them into orbit in the first place. The rationale being that the States obviously didn't care about owning it, if they were prepared to risk them being obliterated in space. 

The result of this case was that treasure hunters, if they discovered such artwork etc, were allowed to auction it off for a profit which inevitably went to private wealthy individuals . In response, in 2026, the Earth Parliament passed the bipartisan  Farage- Bariner  'Antique, Artwork and Earth Heritage Salvation  restoration it's not for the rich' Act over Presidential veto, which stipulated than any further discoveries where to be sold at public auction within the Earth Sphere of influence , but mandated the newly created post of National Heritage Secretary to purchase such artwork et al, that was to be deemed 'important cultural artistic and antique heritage' at a price of 3 times the final bid and that the Earth Central Bank would provide an 'unlimited credit line' for such purchases. 

Of course what was definable  as national heritage was somewhat subjective : does Tracey Emin's  'my bed'  of 1998- launched into a 'time capsule' in 1999 and eventually discovered around Worf 359 in 2030-  bought by the NH Secretary at the time for £23 billion, under pressure from the Feminist bloc of Parliament, stand up equally as a piece of Earth heritage  as Sandro Botteicelli's 'Birth of Venus'- which the same Secretary allowed - because it was seen as 'sexist porn' by the same Feminist lobby - it to be sold to the Martian Museum for £400 billion ?