Bulgaria's Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev recently announced the start of a campaign which aims to check all private collections of artefacts of cultural-historical value.

The owners of private collections will have to prove the origin of the items and when and how they bought them, by providing all necessary documents.

The Prosecutor-General's action has focused public attention once more on the unregulated status of private collections.

Current legislation sets clear criteria about the seller, not the buyer, of items of cultural and historical significance. That's why it's mostly the treasure hunters that are pursued by the law, while the private collectors stay in a no man's land, between legal and illegal practices, often assumed to be illegitimate and labelled a taboo topic in the cultural field.

Although treasure hunting is prohibited by law, proving someone guilty of committing such a crime is very difficult. Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National Museum of History, has often recounted stories of how treasure hunters caught at the scene of the crime by police say that they were just passing by and saw a big hole and several shovels, which of course are not theirs.

Many cultural experts are afraid that the main suppliers for private collections are treasure hunters.

Private collecting has both many supporters and opponents, which is why it provokes a wide ongoing discussion among both cultural figures and observers.

Vezhdi Rashidov, a well-known Bulgarian sculptor, told The Sofia Echo that until the state established clear rules and laws about private collections, the debate would get even more severe.

"The state should do its job and specify private collections. If the artefacts are not stolen from a museum they have to be legitimate as everywhere else around the world. The state can also open private auctions where the cultural items will be sold legally. If it's clever enough, it will regulate the market the way that, for instance, the state will have 17 per cent of every purchased item," said Rashidov. He described the campaign by the Prosecutor's office as futile.

The issue of private collecting has another aspect. Bulgaria is considered to be a country with a great many artefacts which are a part of its rich cultural and historical heritage.

That's why valuable items found by treasure hunters or stolen from museums are exported and sold (mostly valuable coins) in private collections abroad. Many people familiar with the problem, including Rashidov, find an increasing trend in the existence of Bulgarian private collections.

"Of course, the matter has two sides," said the sculptor. "But thanks to some of the private collections, many artefacts still stay in the country."

In this complex discussion, even President Georgi Purvanov has to take a side. Last year he officially called for the legitimisation of the private collections.

Meanwhile, 280km away from the centre of the debate, an art gallery in Sliven (near Bourgas) provides a good example of co-operation between the state and a private collector.

In 1987, Bogomil Rainov, a famous Bulgarian writer, donated to the Sliven municipality his collection of West-European paintings. It consists of 303 artworks from over 200 artists, among whom are famous painters such as Goya, Mille, Chagall, Picasso, Renoir and others. The collection represents trends such as romanticism, classicism, impressionism and modernism.

The rich collection had not been exhibited for seven years. The director of the Sliven gallery, Dimitar Dobrovich, said this was due to reasons of finance and infrastructure.

"It is hard to raise money for culture in Bulgaria," he explained. "And we need money because we have to provide not just a building, but exhibition rooms with the proper air and moisture conditions for the right preservation of the items. This was one of the requirements of the donation."

In 2004, the hurdles were overcome and since then Sliven has had a permanent exhibition of paintings.