Kabul National Museum is still waiting for priceless artefacts and relics that were stolen when the museum was ransacked during the civil war and the start of the Taleban regime.
An investigation by Killid reveals 11 carvings in ivory are reportedly in the erstwhile home of Benazir Bhutto, twice prime minister of Pakistan who was assassinated in December 2007. Also, the late Naseerullah Babar, a general who was Pakistan’s minister of internal security, has artefacts including “ivory of Bagram”.
Afghan Ministry of Culture and Information officials say they have twice tried through diplomatic channels to bring back things in the two houses but there has been no response from the Pakistani side.
Meanwhile, Nadersh Katawazai, head of information in National Museum, says roughly 10,000 stolen pieces were recovered when several countries returned pieces to the museum. For instance, Britain in 2012 sent back 843 items, including the famous 1st Century Bagram Ivories.
Afghanistan’s National Museum was at one time one of the most important in Central Asia with exhibits – according to one estimate, 100,000 objects – dating back several millennia. It had a large collection of numismatics (coins), sculptures, fragments of architecture and jewellery.
Museum officials say they are still tracking down stolen pieces. “When we find these we ask the individual countries to give it back,” says an official who did not want to be identified.
Oamarakhan Masoudi, a former head of the National Museum, says artefacts from the Kabul Museum are known to be in the erstwhile homes of Bhutto and Babur in Pakistan.
He cites an interview the latter gave the media in which he said his collection has relics from “Afghanistan and other countries”. “I bought them with my private money,” he is quoted saying.
Masoudi feels that since both Afghanistan and Pakistan are members of Unesco, the UN’s cultural organisation, “Nasirullah Babur was obliged to give back the historical relics”. When he passed away, he says the Afghan Ministry of Culture and Information tried again to get back the relics.
Saber Momand, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture and Information claims, “Eleven ivory relics are in Benazir Bhutto’s house.”
Killid failed to get an official reaction from the Pakistan Embassy in Kabul.