The Elgin Marbles, Stonehenge and the Crown Jewels are labelled "priceless" for good reason.
But that may change under plans to calculate the value of all the heritage assets in the UK.
The Accounting Standards Board, which sets the rules for British number-crunchers, has issued a paper suggesting that museums and heritage groups should value their assets for the first time.
If the plans go ahead, it could amount to an unprecedented "Heritage Domesday Book" giving the value of everything from castles and ruined abbeys to the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History Museum.
The move could provide a multi-billion-pound boost to the British government's balance sheet.
At present it is only necessary to make current valuations for cultural assets that have been bought since 2001 - merely the tip of the iceberg for the vast collections in Britain's many museums.
The ASB said the new proposals should result in much more useful and relevant information about Britain's antiquities.
Curators will only be expected to make valuations where it is feasible.
It may seem impossible to put a price on Stonehenge, for example, because of its rarity value. In this context, "replacement value" is a ludicrous concept. However, accountants may simply choose to take the annual income from the ancient standing stones and multiply it by a figure of, say, 20.
For smaller historical artefacts and pieces of art it may be possible to gauge valuations by seeing what the market is paying for similar objects.
One finance director of a London museum told the FT on the 19th Dec the idea was likely to be impractical and in-volve huge labour and cost.
"Firstly, there is not a market for a lot of the stuff we have, so how do you ascertain a value, and if you bought something for £2 150 years ago what is it worth now?" he said. "Secondly, many items are impossible to value because they are unique."
The ASB argues that there are already good examples of accountants valuing unlikely objects and buildings.
You might think that putting a price on the House of Commons would be an arbitrary exercise. But the Palace of Westminster was revalued on March 31 at £1.13bn (�.7bn, $2.2bn) according to the House of Lords Resource Accounts.
Such calculations - involving replacement values - are not difficult where the building has a practical use.
The National Trust, which owns many of Britain's stately homes, said in its most recent accounts that its estate was insured for £5.4bn.
Other cultural institutions, including many museums, are directly owned by the central government and therefore do not take out external insurance, according to Alan O'Connor, project director for the ASB's scheme. As a result, no one knows what their contents are worth.
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But that may change under plans to calculate the value of all the heritage assets in the UK.
The Accounting Standards Board, which sets the rules for British number-crunchers, has issued a paper suggesting that museums and heritage groups should value their assets for the first time.
If the plans go ahead, it could amount to an unprecedented "Heritage Domesday Book" giving the value of everything from castles and ruined abbeys to the dinosaur skeletons at the Natural History Museum.
The move could provide a multi-billion-pound boost to the British government's balance sheet.
At present it is only necessary to make current valuations for cultural assets that have been bought since 2001 - merely the tip of the iceberg for the vast collections in Britain's many museums.
The ASB said the new proposals should result in much more useful and relevant information about Britain's antiquities.
Curators will only be expected to make valuations where it is feasible.
It may seem impossible to put a price on Stonehenge, for example, because of its rarity value. In this context, "replacement value" is a ludicrous concept. However, accountants may simply choose to take the annual income from the ancient standing stones and multiply it by a figure of, say, 20.
For smaller historical artefacts and pieces of art it may be possible to gauge valuations by seeing what the market is paying for similar objects.
One finance director of a London museum told the FT on the 19th Dec the idea was likely to be impractical and in-volve huge labour and cost.
"Firstly, there is not a market for a lot of the stuff we have, so how do you ascertain a value, and if you bought something for £2 150 years ago what is it worth now?" he said. "Secondly, many items are impossible to value because they are unique."
The ASB argues that there are already good examples of accountants valuing unlikely objects and buildings.
You might think that putting a price on the House of Commons would be an arbitrary exercise. But the Palace of Westminster was revalued on March 31 at £1.13bn (�.7bn, $2.2bn) according to the House of Lords Resource Accounts.
Such calculations - involving replacement values - are not difficult where the building has a practical use.
The National Trust, which owns many of Britain's stately homes, said in its most recent accounts that its estate was insured for £5.4bn.
Other cultural institutions, including many museums, are directly owned by the central government and therefore do not take out external insurance, according to Alan O'Connor, project director for the ASB's scheme. As a result, no one knows what their contents are worth.
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