Nepal’s Art Treasures Belong To Nepal

We were surprised by the tone of your article "Nepalese Bronze Sold at Record Price" Rising Nepal, 4th November 2001, which appears to be celebrating the high prices paid in the West for Nepal’s heritage. It is well known that many of these works of art have reached the international art market through illicit channels and that no one in Nepal benefits from the high prices paid. In fact the opposite is the effect in that the high prices only encourage desperate and unscrupulous people to steal and smuggle more pieces out of the country.

UNESCO/Kathmandu has been campaigning to raise local awareness of the plundering of Nepal’s heritage, which is also regularly reported in your newspaper. Instead of revelling in the high prices achieved for these artworks it would be an interesting exercise if your journalists could investigate how many of these treasures can be shown to have been taken from Nepal illegally.

Nepal’s art treasures belong to Nepal, not for the collections in the West.

G E Peter Laws
Culture Section
UNESCO/Kathmandu