Looted art returned to Afghanistan
21 July BBC
The British Museum has assisted in the return of 843 artefacts to
Afghanistan, almost 20 years after they were stolen or smuggled
abroad.The items include examples of the Begram Ivories, seen at the
British Museum's Afghanistan 2011 exhibition, and an important sculpture
of Buddha.
Both were stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan during its
civil war and ended up on the black market.The artefacts were passed to
the museum for safekeeping, ahead of their return.The items were seized
by customs officials and the Art and Antiques Unit of the Metropolitan
Police as they passed through Britain, presumably for sale on the black
market.All the artefacts were identified by experts at the museum.
Other objects - some of which were saved by private individuals
include Bronze Age carvings and medieval Islamic coins.Neil MacGregor,
director of the British Museum, said the pieces' restitution was "the
outcome of the ongoing dialogue between our cultural institutions, as
well as the support of the authorities, to identify and preserve items
from the national collection of Afghanistan that had been illegally
removed during years of conflict".
Assisted by the Royal Air Force, the collection left the UK last
week, bound for Kabul, via the army base in Helmand.More than two thirds
of the exhibits at the National Museum in Kabul were stolen or destroyed
during the 1990s Afghan civil war."I'd like to think that anyone would
do the same for us if we were unlucky to suffer major disaster or
crisis," the British Museum's St John Simpson told The Independent.
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