Joint Secretary Dipak Dhital, who heads the UN Division at MoFA, handed over the Nepalese antiques dating back to the 12th century, to Prakash Darnal, head of the archival section at DoA, amidst a function at MoFA. According to Dhital, who is also spokesperson at MoFA, Christie´s had returned the elaborately painted wooden covers following moves by Nepal Police in coordination with DoA to reclaim the antiques on the basis of microfilmed evidence. [break]
The hand-painted covers of the Bishnu Dharmachar, Baishnav and Shaiva manuscripts were up for auction at Christie´s, which also has headquarters in London.
Dhital said authorities here were informed by friends of Nepal that the artifacts, which are of huge archeological importance, were being auctioned for about US $150,000. Nepal then filed an official claim to the artifacts through Interpol, furnishing Chritie´s with microfilm evidence.
Dhital said Christie´s handed over the set of six manuscript covers to Nepal´s embassy in Washington DC in March. "They were brought back to Kathmandu some three weeks ago," he said. After receiving the manuscript covers with images of various deities painted on them, DOA archival section head Darnal said the recovery of the artifacts was a big achievement. "We have not been able to trace how they were stolen from our archives. But it is good we could retrieve them easily thanks to the good efforts put in by many," he said.
Though several examples of Nepalese sculpture dating all the way back to the Third Century BC are available in Nepal, old Nepalese paintings are rare. The wooden manuscript covers recovered from Chritie´s are considered the oldest examples of Nepalese painting to be found so far.
Darnal said the manuscript covers were microfilmed between 1970 to 1986. "They must have been lost after 1986. The retrieval of the rare artifacts is a big achievement for Nepal," he said.
He also said stolen archeological artifacts could be reclaimed if there is evidence with DoA. "The important thing is we need records. This particular incident has proved that if there is evidence we can reclaim our lost treasures no matter where they turn up," he added.
Nepal is party to the UN convention on the means of prohibiting and preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of cultural property.
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