Return of Stolen Heritage Nepal witnessed the first ever voluntary return of three stolen statues and a fragment (a severed Saraswati head). The valuable artifacts were voluntarily returned by an American art collector, confronted with evidence of their theft. Since the 1960s, thousands of stone sculptures have disappeared from temples, monasteries, fields and forests of the Kathmandu valley and nearby towns. Devotees will now have to travel thousands of miles to view them polished and alone in big museums and private collections around the world. Sotheby’s featured a 15th century Laxmi Narayan statue from Patko Tole in Patan, in its 1990 sales catalog and sold it for an undisclosed amount. An 11th century Uma Maheswar statue from Nasamana Tole in Bhaktapur is now a prized collection of the Musee National d’ Arts Asiatiques-Guimet in Paris. The statues are stolen from the laps of the worshippers and their sites of consecration centuries ago. The worshippers’ grime that has accumulated from centuries are cleaned off to be sold. An object of worship is transformed into an object of art. Says Chandra P. Tripathy, a specialist at the Department of Archaeology in Kathmandu, “when a statue is displayed in a museum, it is converted into an archaeological item which has lost its current cultural value”. The early visitors to Nepal found the Kathmandu valley like an open museum, populated by tens of thousands of gods and goddesses. There were almost as many temples as there were houses. Western collectors of oriental art came upon a valley which hosted a treasure trove of iconography in stone, bronze and wood. The process idol theft began with the end of the Rana regime. Lawlessness, involvement of high officials and the indifference of the local people acted as strong catalysts to the process. Some now believe that almost all that was worth stealing from the valley’s open spaces have been stolen. There is nothing left to steal. It can be said with confidence that with hardly any exception, every ancient statue from Nepal currently adorning pedestals in the west has been the subject of loot. Artist and art historian, Lain Singh Bangdel and Jurguen Schick, an art connoisseur from Essen, Germany, emerged as guardians of statuary in a valley where the effects of modernisation and breakdown of community spirit had left thousands of icons in the fields and neighbourhood orphaned. Bangdel and Schick photographically documented hundreds of statuary in their original places and also took pictures of sites which had been ravaged. Bangdel published his book Stolen Image, while heading the Royal Nepal Academy. Schick published his book, The Gods Are leaving the Country, first in German and then later in English. Although Bangdel and Schick worked independently of each other, they were both racing against time and working against powerful thieves who had strong connections with high officials. Bangdel was threatened with his life and Schick was harassed with his visa and had to leave Nepal and could not return for a year. A positive result of their genuine effort to save a part of the heritage of Nepal finally showed when an unknown art collector in the United States of America returned 3 stolen idols and a severed stone head of the goddess Saraswati unconditionally when he saw their pictures in Bangdel’s book, Stolen Images. The loss of the stolen idols are still felt to this day. The empty pedestals where they were consecrated centuries ago still receive offerings and prayers while the gods are sitting alone in distant lands unable to receive the love and offering from their genuine devotees. The whereabouts of 4 stolen statues documented by Bangdel and Schick are known today. An idol lifted from Nasamana Tole, Bhaktapur is in the Musee Guimet, Paris. Similarly statues from Wotol in Dhulikhel and Ga Hiti in Patan are in the Berlin Museum Fur Indesche Kunst, and the Denver Museum. It is also known that Sotheby’s sold the Laxmi Narayan from Patko, Patan and therefore is dutybound to help trace it. If something is stolen, it must be returned. - Vision http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishweekly/independent/8-95/comment.htm