Events & Issues

New Delhi, 18 October 2010

Rise In Museum Thefts

HERITAGE MANAGEMENT VITAL

By Suraj Saraf

Another Indian art museum became a victim of pilferage recently. Shockingly, it was the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) biggest site museum at Murshidabad having 20 galleries with 4742 antiquities of which 1034 were on display. Clearly, the easy manner in which the arte facts were stolen, that too from the Government’s most important agency to take care of the nation’s pristine glorious riches, calls for attention.

Equally scandalous, not only did the pilferage take place in broad daylight when many visitors were around but worse the artifacts were stolen from a secure place. The famous Hazardusari building-turned-museum (palace with a thousand doors) handed over to the ASI in 1985. The theft was detected at about 2.30 in the afternoon when the gallery attendant returned from lunch. Usual police investigation has been launched to establish whether it was an insider job or other pilfers.

Importantly, what matters is that this pilferage is not an isolated incident. Artifacts have been stolen from museums in the past as well. Some years back, a worse incident took place in Kolkata’s famous National Museum in the heart of Kolkata. Wherein an art thief lifted a priceless masterpiece, a 24 cms sandstone Buddha head belonging to the Gupta period, from the museum’s Archaeology Long Gallery and walked away unhindered. Therein also, the time of the crime was mid-day when many people were in the museum with its much touted three tier security system in place. A similar incident also occurred in Chennai.

These classic examples highlight the reason why India had been losing thousands of exquisite art pieces annually over the years. According to Interpol (International Police) every year over a 1000 cases of art thefts are being reported in India. This was a few years ago. Today, the number must be higher. The National Crime Record Bureau on its part puts the number of thefts at over 2500 annually with Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal topping the list.

Indeed, the antique auction halls in London, New York and Switzerland abound in rare stone sculpture from the Gupta and Kushan periods and miniatures from the Mughal and Pahari schools, asserted an Indian connoisseur who is frequently abroad. Added a leading foreign antique dealer, many private collections in Europe boasted antiques from India dating back to thousands of years.

Recall, in the mid-1990’s a sensation was created with the alleged involvement of the big international auctioneering house Sotheby’ in antique smuggling from India. Whereby, a London based art journalist Peter Watson’s book “Sotheby’s Inside Story” (also made into a documentary by BBC) revealed the journey of antiques from Indian temples and collections to markets abroad including Sotheby. The book alleged that senior employees of the auction house were involved in smuggling and named certain art dealers involved in pilfering the art pieces.

Commenting on the book, a retired Art Director Baburao Sadwelker observed that it had not revealed anything new. “It is sad but not shocking. The racket has been going on for years. What is shocking though is that an old and reputed firm like Sotheby has been implicated. I often come across empty spaces in ancient temples where just a few decades ago, I had seen statues. Unfortunately, we have no system of maintenance of antiques. The ASI cannot handle the matter alone because the sheer size of ancient Indian art outnumbers the ASI’s strength. Unless local people are made more aware of the value of their treasures such unscrupulous activities will continue,” he added for good measure.

Further, at an UNESCO workshop for the Asia Pacific Region on “Illicit trafficking of Cultural Property” held a while back in New Delhi, the World Council of Museums’ Vice President averred, “Trafficking in cultural property (from India) has assumed the dimensions of a seamless trade as drug cartels peddle art object for ploughing the huge monetary gains in to their narcotics trade and also use it for arms dealing”. Calling the trafficking in cultural property as an international phenomenon, the workshop put art trafficking at $6 billion dollars annually. Stressed, noted Indian scholar Kapila Vatsyayan, “Asia has become the worst sufferer of theft of its cultural property”. The security at Indian museums leaves much to be desired.”

In order to underline that Indian art museums are under increasing threat of crime and need to be specially protected, it needs to be pointed out that pilfering takes place despite three multi-national treaties in place to stem the rot. Namely, First Protocol for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of armed conflict 1954, UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing Illicit Import and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, 1970 and the UNESCO Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, 1995.

Tragically, given the disappointing state of security of our art wealth in various museums and increasing cases of art thefts from therein, the time has come to lay more emphasis on the security of our heritage. The security personnel need to be imparted proper special training so that they are not careless and keep a close watch on precious objects d’ art in the museums and exhibitions.

The Government on its part needs to make the laws more stringent. Sadly, India like other South East Asian nations have adequate laws to protect their heritage but fail to realize that laws are as good as their enforcement. Till such time the laws are not properly implemented no amount of harsh measure would prove effective.

Not only that. As UNESCO Advisor Galla suggested, India should follow Nepal and Cambodia’s example where UNESCO has trained police and custom officials if it is serious about curtailing art thefts. Towards that end, the Government needs to ensure professional heritage management, documentation and conservation. Only then would it be able to see the result of heritage security in five years. Else, it would spell disaster for India, said Galla.

In sum, given the alarming proportions of art smuggling from India, the Government should also declare a State of Emergency when cultural property is stolen. The need of the hour is for the authorities along-with all national and State museums to realize the benefits of art heritage documentation and undertake these measures in a comprehensive manner. ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)