Here’s a novel way for the British government to help reduce the massive public deficit: sell Stonehenge.
As reported in today’s Telegraph, a survey of 500 estate agents has placed the value of the iconic ancient monument at a cool £51 million, and rising. That’s just a drop in the ocean when you consider that the gap between government income and expenditure currently stands at a staggering £156 billion. But it’s surely a start, and a more coldly rational solution than scrimping on essential frontline public services.
Okay, so we’re not really advocating the sale of one of Britain’s most prized historic monuments. UNESCO would have a few very angry words to say about that. And we don’t even want to think about how the druids might react. But the results of the survey does shed fascinating light on just how much heritage sites are worth.
Yet, are the sums correct? Shouldn’t such an internationally-renowned and popular heritage site as Stonehenge in fact be worth so much more?
Megaliths for Megabucks
To put that £51 million price tag into some sort of context, it’s worth consulting Nick’s Top 10 Antiquity Sales at Christies blog. In recent years, the world famous auction house has sold the likes of the Egyptian statue of Ka-Nefer and his family for a tidy £1.9 million, the Canford Assyrian relief for the princely sum of £7.7 million, and the Jenkins Venus for a whopping £7.9 million.
Not counting the many small stones scattered around Stonehenge, but just the 18 large standing stones, the 10 giant stones of the inner circle and the central altar stone, by a very unscientific breakdown, that £51 million total gives the 29 key constituent parts of Stonehenge an approximate value of just £1.7 million a piece, lower than each of the Christie’s sales listed above.
Even if Stonehenge – by some highly unlikely twist of fate – were to be sold, it would surely never be broken down and flogged bit-by-bit. But, theoretically speaking, don’t these sums at least suggest that the total price tag should be much higher? Surely a super-wealthy antiquity collector would be prepared to pay megabucks in order to have a Stonehenge megalith in their front room? Or possibly even a trilith framing their front door?
And what about admission fees? Stonehenge presently attracts around 900,000 visitors a year, at an average price of about £5 per head. Multiply that long-term – by 25 years say (during which time visitor figures will most likely increase) – and that means the monument is worth over £112 million to its owners. £51 million is beginning to look like a snip!
How Do You Put a Value on Stonehenge?
“It’s quite a challenge for estate agents more used to valuing suburban semis to put an accurate valuation on a royal castle or ancient monument,” commented Nigel Lewis, a property analyst at FindaProperty.com, who ran the survey.
“But there was a surprising amount of agreement between the different agents we spoke to.”
Estate agents of course consider lots of factors when it comes to judging the value of property – location, age, quality of renovations, whether it’s in need of improvement and suchlike.
Stonehenge doesn’t lack for a good spot – on sheep-nibbled rolling open countryside, with good access to a main road. But at 4,500 years vintage, it could hardly be described as a new build, while its state of repair is questionable to say the least.
And when it comes to renovation, works carried out at the site over the years haven’t exactly done the monument’s value any favours. Over the last century, various well-intentioned archaeologists have carried out restoration jobs at Stonehenge – sometimes haphazardly altering its layout in the process. And then there’s that ugly car park plonked right across the road since the 1960s (although it’s slated to be removed soon).
The cost of upgrades needs to be considered too. Unless Stonehenge’s new owners were to scrap the already scaled-down plans for the new visitor centre, currently costed at £25 million and due to be completed by 2012, then that’s a big chunk of change they’d need to lay out straight after being handed the keys to the front gate. Estate agents of Britain: we can see where you’re coming from – but £51 million still sounds way too low.
Not as Daft as It Sounds?
Someone buying a historic British monument isn’t actually as ridiculous as it sounds. Take the example of Missourian businessman Robert P. McCulloch, who in 1967 purchased a bridge across the River Thames (or, at least the stone-cladding from it) for $2 million dollars from the City of London. He then shipped it the States, where it was rebuilt across Lake Havasu in Arizona as the gateway to a mock-English community he had founded there. Legend has it that McCulloch mistakenly believed he was actually buying Tower Bridge – a story he vehemently denied.
We of course hope to see Stonehenge remain safely in the hands of English Heritage and the British people – and never winds up being sold on the cheap to a misinformed American entrepreneur or alike. But other, more expendable heritage treasures could probably go in the process of tightening the public purse strings. The same survey that valued Stonehenge at £51 million placed the price-tag for 10 Downing Street at £5.2 million, and put Windsor Castle’s worth at around £391 million. The campaign to rehouse the Prime Minister and the Queen starts here!
Source: Heritage Key