So how do we determine on what year is the so called 'reference' year? It saddens me to say this, but after having lived in Africa for two years, the artifacts

So how do we determine on what year is the so called 'reference' year? It saddens me to say this, but after having lived in Africa for two years, the artifacts are probably better off being in western museums. Though it would of course vary by country, I have a very strong feeling (and too much first hand experience) that if they were returned, they would first go to the minister of antiquities; he would give some speech about how part of the soul of the country has been recovered and then he would sell the antiquities on the black market to some foreign collector. He would then keep maybe 50% of the sale price and pay the rest as bribes to other ministers (including probably the president and prime mister) so they could all be on the same side. The best case scenario would be they went to some moldy basement of a "museum" and never looked at again. The chance of them surviving the next 10 years would probably be less than 50%.