Recovering national treasures a distant dream

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, October 29
There is some bad news for art lovers in the country. Some of the most precious treasures of the country, which are now kept in various museums across Europe can never be brought back, feels eminent art historian and member of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) executive board Kapila Vatsyayan.
In an executive board meeting of UNESCO held in early October, the topic of returning artefacts belonging to various countries, including India that are housed in museums across Europe was raised. But curators of various museums in Europe, which include the British Museum and the Louvre, have turned down the offer.
“They felt art objects which belong to the developing world would be safer in European museums and they need not be returned. According to some curators, these pieces of our heritage will be best preserved in those museums and we would not be able to take care of them in the way it is done by them,” said Vatsyayan. The curators have instead suggested that the countries, including India that want their antiques back can be given a digital version of the original.
In various European museums — paintings, sculptures, metalworks, textiles, furnitures, drawings, and other decorative art — from ancinet India like the Gupta age, Pal age and Mughal age are preserved. According to UNESCO’s 1970 convention, one country cannot take away another country’s treasures by illicit means. But the problem with India is that most of the art objects were taken during the colonial rule.
Asked whether it is possible for India to reclaim its treasures, even if the museums disagree, Vatsyayan said, “The possibility is very low. It is a very complicated legal process and even the Interpol gets into it. The biggest problem is to prove its place of origin and even if it were done, it would be more difficult to prove how it changed hands and ended up in an European museum.”
Though it is illegal to accept any antique without the export clearance certificate from the country of origin, most museums do not follow the rule.
Talking about the loss of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medal, the art historian, who was once a student at Santiniketan and had met Tagore in her childhood said, “Gurudev is much more than the medal and he is in our blood. But I felt terrible and defeated when I see that we could do nothing to bring back the medal. We do not have that sense of pride and ownership for our heritage,” she added.
Mou.Chakraborty@hindustantimes.com