Pakistani Museum Workers Throw Away Gandharan Sculptures!

1,500 year old Buddhist statues rescued from a Pakistani smuggling ring only to be thrown in the trash at the National Museum in Karachi, Pakistan.

Gandharan period stone statues were discovered in a rubbish pile, visible from the street, at the National Museum in Karachi, Pakistan. The statues, which are said to be from the 3rd-5th century, have traveled from their original site, somewhere in Northwest Pakistan, to the Awami Colony in Karachi, where they were recovered from a Pakistani smuggling ring in 2012 , and finally to a trash heap at the National Museum. Two of the five statues were used to decorate the doorway of the antiquities director-general’s personal office, the others were tossed into a rubbish heap outside. There was no information on what happened to the other 390 “rare objects” recovered in the Awami Colony raid.

One wonders whether the precious statues were hidden below rubbish so that one night a truck would appear in the museum courtyard and corrupt museum authorities can profit from their sale. The treatment of the Buddhist statues highlights the general neglect of antiquities and cultural heritage sites rampant under the archeology and antiquities departments of Pakistan. Not only these statues, but many other artifacts have been neglected and improperly stored.

See the Committee for Cultural Policy article, The Dolorous Case of Pakistan’s Museums", April 8, 2016, April 8, 2016