All regional museums in Bulgaria would be included in a national computer system, aimed at their protection, Rusko Rusev, head of National Centre for Museums, Galleries and Arts, said.

Museum and IT specialists were currently determining the parameters of the programme, he said as quoted by investor.bg.

The system would digitalise the museums’ collections and help prevent raids by treasure-hunters.

Rusev said he hoped the system would prevent artefacts being smuggled abroad and prevent cases in which artefacts are returned to treasure-hunters. Currently, if a museum fails to prove ownership of a certain artefact, it is returned to the person it was seized from.

The information regarding activities of treasure-hunters would be shared with other EU member states and all specialised institutions would have access to it.

The software would be ready within two to three years. Complete digitalisation of the museums will last some 10 years.