ARTIFACTS , ANTIQUTIES MONUMENTS ETC

artifacts stealing
THE HINDU 

Illicit trade in antiquities is far more rampant than what the government assumes or is willing to admit. The arrest of Subhash Chandra Kapoor, the U.S.-based antiquities dealer and the subsequent investigation have exposed a well-entrenched network of dubious dealers thriving on stolen idols and looted artefacts. For more than a decade, they have been smuggling stolen cultural objects with ease and selling them to museums in the U.S., Singapore and Australia for large sums of money.

Trade in illicit antiquities inflicts double jeopardy: the illegal removal of objects from their archaeological setting erases critical historical information; and it depletes a nation’s cultural capital.

CAUSES:

1.Outdated national policies and legislative measures have been rightly criticised for their inability to curb illicit trade. 

2.Ill-equipped investigating agencies and poor gate keeping have received equal flak. 

3.But, the slack practices of museums and auction houses have escaped attention. 

4.The failure of the Indian government to aggressively pursue stolen cultural objects has emboldened them to continue with their opaque ways. 

5.International indifference has not helped either. Import controls are lax in some countries such as Switzerland, making them safe havens for smugglers. Criminal laws in market countries have not deterred buyers and dealers of tainted art objects.
For instance, the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003, operational in England, Wales & Northern Ireland, provides for sentencing dealers in tainted artefacts to prison, but it has hardly changed the situation. 

6.Many museums and collectors conveniently overlook the doubtful provenance of antiquities, making it easier for traders — and themselves — to acquire stolen antiquities.

LESSON FROM ITALY:

In contrast, countries such as Italy, which was the first to set up a specialised police unit to deal with antiquities theft, have taken the fight against illicit trade to the doors of the museums and recovered many art objects. There is a lesson or two for India in this.

WHAT GOVT IS DOING:

 In 2003, the Ministry of Culture announced that it would amend the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act (1972) to:
 make trading in stolen antiquities a non-bailable offence,
prevent unauthorised production of replicas of antiquities and
 enhance the process of verification of art objects.
Till date, none of this has happened. 

Even the database of existing antiquities is incomplete.

 In 2007, the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities was launched to create a register of artefacts. After five years, only five lakh objects of the estimated eight lakh have been recorded.

Provenance documentation

The Hindu , which has been covering the Kapoor case ever since it broke in 2009, wrote to many museums and sought provenance details (documents that establish the history of ownership) of objects bought from Mr. Kapoor. Museums either refused to share information or evaded the query. The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), which bought a Nataraja from Mr. Kapoor for U.S. $5 million, said that it did a “thorough due diligence process.” It has provenance documentation from the early 1970s to support the acquisition, the NGA added. The Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore issued a statement to say that the ownership details of the idol it bought were checked against an international database of stolen objects and it found nothing amiss. The Toledo Museum of Art in the U.S. claimed it carried out a thorough review including checking with the Art Loss Register — a small database of 3,00,000 objects maintained by a private company.

Cambodia’s case

As recently as March 2011, Sotheby’s, the internationally famed auction house, planned to sell a 1,000-year-old stone idol stolen from Cambodia for an estimated value of about U.S. $2 million. Sotheby’s never thought it fit to adopt a tight review of the provenance details even though it knew full well that Cambodia had suffered severe looting of its archaeological sites. Instead, it breezily declared that the object had a clear title. The Cambodian government had produced evidence to prove that the idol was stolen from Koh Ker, a historical site near Angkor Wat. Simultaneously, it requested the U.S. government to help recover the idol. Faced with legal action, Sotheby’s agreed to return the idol in December 2013. The Cambodians were also successful in pressing the Met to return a pair of stolen idols in its possession.

In contrast, Indian follow-up has been feeble. The NGA, which initially refused to accept that the Nataraja in its possession was of doubtful origin, changed its stand after U.S. investigators produced fresh evidence. The Gallery said that it had got in touch with the Indian High Commission to discuss avenues for restitution. But the high commission has neither confirmed this nor disclosed efforts taken to recover the idol. It never responded to the emails. When this writer posed a question to the Toledo Museum of Art about a bronze sculpture bought from Mr. Kapoor, the museum replied that it had taken up the issue with the Indian Consulate General’s office in New York. It added that the museum was yet to hear from the consulate.

Hurdles police face

The state of Indian investigative agencies is far from comforting. The idol wings attached to the police departments in the States are poorly staffed and do not have the capacity to deal with antiquities theft in a swift and sustained manner. Police sources in Chennai, familiar with the Kapoor case, complained about the difficulties in requesting for even information. They have to navigate a cumbersome bureaucratic arrangement and cannot approach museums abroad. They have only to correspond through the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Ministry of External Affairs.

Compared with agencies such as the FBI in the U.S., which has a separate art theft programme with dedicated agents and special trial attorneys, the CBI seems to hardly pay attention to antique thefts. It is not surprising that the Indian government, as admitted by the Minister of Culture in 2012, has not managed to recover any stolen antiquities in the previous three years. The recent return of a yoginisculpture from Paris had more to do with the benign intentions of the owner of the idol than with the detective work of Indian authorities.

SCENARIO :

The UNESCO convention on prohibiting illicit trade in cultural property, ratified in 1970, and the code of ethics circulated by the International Council of Museums make it clear that museums must do due diligence evaluations at the time of acquisition. However, as the increasing incidents of improper purchase show, the museums are not taking these guidelines seriously. 

A UNESCO study estimates that the illicit trade, which was about U.S. $40 billion in 1993, has grown to reach U.S. $60 billion. Many African countries have lost 95 per cent of their cultural properties; the origins of about 70 per cent of objects in private collections are described in “a vague and insufficient way.”

If India is serious about recovering its lost cultural objects, it must take the cue from Italy, which in the last 40 years has recovered 800,000 stolen objects, and pursue a more aggressive route.

It is imperative that India, working through international organisations such as UNESCO, persuade countries to give up their apathy.

 But first, it should put its own house in order. Taking a cue from the success story of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, implemented in England and Wales, existing acts must be revised to encourage local communities voluntarily to report and register the discovery of artefacts with the help of experts. 

Museums have to be vastly improved to host antiquities in a meaningful manner and effectively perform their educative role. 

Setting up a well equipped, efficiently trained and dedicated investigating agency to track and prevent art theft is also critical.

 The loot has to be stopped and our precious heritage protected.

NGA threw caution to the winds in buying idol: Australian Minister

India’s case for getting back the stolen Nataraja idol strengthened further when Australian Minister for Arts George Brandis criticised the national art museum of the country for its slack practices in purchasing the 1000-year-old sculpture, allegedly stolen from Tamil Nadu.

New evidence strengthens case for return of stolen Nataraja idol

With only a few days left for the Australian government to take a decision on the return of the stolen Nataraja idol, which is currently in the possession of National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra, new evidence has emerged to strengthen India’s claim over its ownership.

An expert assessment report, filed for the first time in this case, by R. Nagaswamy, a renowned scholar on Chola sculptures, has listed new inscriptional and iconographic evidence to establish that the Nataraja idol in Australia was indeed stolen from a temple in Sripuranthan, Tamil Nadu.

The NGA bought the centuries-old Nataraja idol for $ 5 million from Subhash Kapoor, a U.S. based antiquities dealer. The Tamil Nadu police allege that it was stolen and Mr. Kapoor masterminded the theft.

The investigating agencies have so far provided evidence such as shipping documents and confession of Kapoor’s long time manager, but supporting iconographic and historical information was missing.

Recently the Tamil Nadu police contacted Dr. Nagaswamy to study the features of the stolen idol. After comparing the three photographs, taken at different points in time, in India, with the image of the idol in Australia, he concluded that all show “absolutely same details.” The photos are of the same idol, he explained.

Dr. Nagaswamy told The Hindu that details such as the left hand tenderly holding fire in a cup, the necklaces adorning the chest, the nail of a tiger in the neck chain, and the figure of river Ganga and tiny snake in the matted hair locks are identical. So is the case with the mark in the armlet in the upper part of the left arm. He also pointed out that features such as the eight crane feathers on the head match perfectly.

Similarly, minor crafting errors also coincide. For instance, at the bottom where the ring of fire emanates, there is a carving of a crocodile on the either side of the feet. While the one on the right reaches up to the first flame, the other in the left falls short.

Earlier, the NGA claimed that it consulted Dr. Nagaswamy before buying the idol, but he totally denied it.

Typical of any royal dedication in the Chola period, this Nataraja idol too was consecrated along with his consort Sivakami. The photograph taken inside the temple in 1994 shows both the idols together. While the Nataraja is now in Australia, the idol of Sivakami, the police say, was also stolen and traced.

Canberra gallery gives up claim on stolen idol

Return of Chola-era idol to Tamil Nadu village in sight

The National Gallery of Australia has surrendered to the Indian claim that a Chola-era Nataraja that it acquired for (A) $5.6 million had indeed been stolen from a village temple in Tamil Nadu, paving the way for an early return of the idol to India.

The NGA, Australia’s foremost art institution located in the national capital of Canberra, had 30 days to claim its ownership of the imposing bronze Nataraja after receiving a notice from the Australian Attorney General’s Department under the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986. That deadline expired on April 26.

The Attorney General’s Department said on Tuesday the NGA had not contested the March 26 notice, thus forfeiting the idol to the Australian government. The legal notice to the NGA was sent after India pressed the Australian government for the return of the idol following sustained coverage by the media in India, led byThe Hindu.

The 1,000-year-old Dancing Shiva is central to the investigations against antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor who was arrested in 2012 and is being tried in Tamil Nadu for conspiring to smuggle the idol and several others out of India. The return of the idol is expected to strengthen the case against him.

The NGA initially defended its purchase of the idol from Kapoor, but with its reputation scorched by the international controversy that erupted over the provenance of the Nataraja, the Gallery seems to have decided not to pursue any claim over the idol. Similarly, Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales has not contested the notice it received at the same time as the NGA on an Ardhanareeshwara it bought from Kapoor, who was operating principally out of the United States.

This idol too is a subject of Tamil Nadu police investigations against the dealer, and the Indian government had demanded its return along with the Nataraja.

Both the NGA and the Sydney gallery removed the idols from public display immediately after receiving the notices.

The idols were later seized by the Australian authorities from the galleries.

After the expiry of the 30-day deadline, “the objects have both automatically forfeited to the Australian government, and a final decision will be made in due course, in line with the requirements” of the law, an official said.

The Attorney General’s Department is now expected to make a decision on returning both idols to India. “A final decision will be made in due course,” the official said.

The Idol Wing unravelled the role of an international network in the theft of 18 ancient bronze sculptures from two temples in Suthamali and Sripuranthan.

Their investigations led to Kapoor’s arrest in Germany and subsequent extradition to India in July 2012.

The police, which found a visual match between the stolen Nataraja and the one displayed in the NGA, sent a letter rogatory in early-2013, seeking information.

However, the NGA initially denied even receiving it. When The Hindu then got in touch with the Australian Attorney General’s Department, it refused to either confirm or deny the receipt of a letter rogatory.

DDA’s heritage cell to give a fillip to conservation work

Newly co-opted members of the Delhi Urban Heritage Foundation met for the first time at Raj Niwas on Monday. The new members include eminent historians Romila Thapar and Amar Farooqui, conservationists A.G.K. Menon and Ratish Nanda and architect Kavas Kapadia.

According to a release a Heritage Cell would be set up at the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to co-ordinate with all agencies involved in conservation of monuments in the Capital

To give a fillip to conservation projects in Delhi, incentive schemes for conservation shall be instituted, so that people in the city are involved in such projects and can take pride in urban heritage of Delhi,” it said.

 inclusion of new members would give the DDA the expertise it lacks on heritage. “The Heritage Cell will help the DDA plan projects with the knowledge of conservation-related issues and the significance of monuments. The new members would also be able to frame better policies to get people more involved in conservation as Delhi has several monuments that are currently not protected and require public support.”

National Mission on Libraries Launched by President Shri Pranab Mukherjee

President Shri Pranab Mukherjee here today launched the National Mission on Libraries (NML), an initiative of the Ministry of Culture to modernise and digitally link public libraries across the country. At a function held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Shri Mukherjee also formally inaugurated the NML’s guidelines, logo and website in the presence of Culture Minister Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch. Secretary Culture Shri Ravindra Singh and other dignitaries were also present at the function. Speaking at the function Shri Pranab Mukherjee said, the creation of a National Virtual Library of India is one of the major component schemes of the National Mission on Libraries. This is truly a step in the right direction. With the aim of equitable and universal access to knowledge resources, the National Virtual Library of India would provide digital resources by digitizing the relevant reading material in different languages, which would be shared at all levels. He said, he is happy to know that the target users of NVLI will not only be students, researchers, doctors and professionals but also the educationally, socially, economically and physically disadvantaged groups. Thus, it would empower people with information in order to create a knowledge society and also ensure preservation of digital content for posterity. Shri Mukherjee said, digital libraries open up the possibility of far more flexible and coherent multimedia collections that are both fully searchable and browsable in multiple dimensions. As each generation becomes more in tune with the Internet, their desire to retrieve information as quickly and easily as possible has increased. Finding information by simply searching the Internet is considered much easier and faster than reading an entire book. He said, he is confident that this initiative of National Mission on Libraries will largely facilitate the internet savvy people in making maximum use of library resources. The President said, the endeavour of the National Mission on Libraries towards setting up of model libraries will set a benchmark for the development of Libraries. He said that these model libraries would be facilitated with subscription of E-Journals/E-Book services through Web VPN Services developed by National Informatics Centre. These would also be provided with reading resources to meet the local needs. It is appreciable that appropriate facilities would be created to meet the needs of Senior Citizens, Specially-abled persons and children. Speaking on the occasion the Culture Minister Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch has said that in recognition of the pivotal role of Libraries and the recommendation of the National Knowledge Commission her Ministry has set up a National Mission on Libraries to ensure sustained attention to development of libraries. She said, this Mission has identified four core areas viz. Creation of a National Virtual Library of India, Setting up of National Mission on Libraries Model Libraries, Quantitative & Qualitative Survey of Libraries and Capacity Building for revamping the Public Library System & Services. She said, for all these activities, Government of India has allocated Rs. 400 crore to be used in the next 3 years. She said the goals of the National Mission of Libraries cannot and will not be accomplished without the active participation of different State Governments and Union Territories. She urged every partner to extend their support and cooperation for effective and time bound implementation of these projects. Approved by the government in November last year, NML was set up in pursuance of a report of the National Knowledge Commission, which recommended a total revamp of the Library and Information Service sector to serve the changing needs and expectations of the users and give a fillip to the library movement in the country. Nine important constituents of the NML include upgradation of infrastructure, digitization and modernisation, census of libraries and their development as knowledge centres and transformation of libraries into empowering and inclusive institutions. Under the scheme, six libraries under the Culture Ministry, 35 Central Libraries in states and 35 District Libraries will be developed as model libraries. Emphasis will on developing these libraries in economically backward districts. Further, 629 district libraries across the states would be provided network connectivity. For setting up of the model libraries, existing libraries would be identified in consultation with the state governments to improve infrastructure and upgrade technology used by them. NML also intends to create a National Virtual Library of India (NVLI) to facilitate a comprehensive database on digital resources, carry out a census on the resources available in the libraries and conduct a study on the reading habits in different regions of the country. In the revamped libraries, cataloguing will be done not only of books and journals but also of all policies of the government in public domain to facilitate easy access and research work. Efforts will also be made to provide reading material in a multilingual mode. Besides upgrading the infrastructure of public libraries, a major component of NML is to initiating need-based training programmes to develop managerial skills and IT competencies of their personnel in tune with demands of the Internet era. The chief objectives of NML are to create a world class library system, foster reading habits, facilitate research work and provide information to people in a timely and convenient manner which is also universal and equitable. NML is designed to benefit the entire spectrum of population -- students, researchers, scientists, professionals, children, artists and differently abled persons. While the survey of libraries would be completed within one year, the other objectives of the scheme would be achieved by the end of the 12th Plan period. Kolkata-based Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF) is the nodal agency for the implementation of NML, a 10-member body headed by Prof. Deepak Pental, former Vice Chancellor of Delhi University.  Culture Ministry directive to echo BJP manifesto everal autonomous bodies under the Culture Ministry have been asked to align their ‘Results-Framework Document’ (RFD) with the action points reflected in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s election manifesto and the President’s address to both Houses of Parliament. In letters sent to these institutions last week, the Ministry asked them to improve the quantity and quality of success indicators to ensure the likelihood of achieving the government’s stated objectives as provided in the President’s address and the BJP manifesto. They have been asked to revise their RFDs after incorporating additional action points from the two documents. The RFDs are part of the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) for government departments to assess their effectiveness in their mandated functions. In the RFDs, each department highlights its objectives and priorities for the financial year and achievements against pre-specified targets at the end of the year. The PMES is managed by the Cabinet Secretariat. The guidelines for RFDs — introduced in 2009 by the previous government — provide for manifestos to be taken into account. As per the guidelines, “objectives should be directly related to attainment and support of the relevant national objectives stated in the relevant Five Year Plan, President’s Address, the manifesto,….” In the case of the Culture Ministry, the expectation is to incorporate the BJP manifesto promise to maintain and restore heritage sites, digitise archives, and preserve and promote Urdu. As of date, according to the overall status of ‘Alignment of 2014-15 RFDs with the BJP manifesto,’ the Ministry is yet to incorporate all of this. Submission of the RFDs has become an annual exercise now, the only difference being the change of guard at the Centre, which has given rise to the need for tweaking the RFDs.