Patel inaugurates ‘Gallery of Confiscated & Retrieved Antiquities’ at Purana Qila

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (Independent charge) Prahlad Singh Patel  inaugurated ‘Gallery of Confiscated and Retrieved Antiquities’ at Purana Qila in New Delhi on August 31, 2019. Curated by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the Gallery is located in the arched cells of Purana Qila and displays confiscated and retrieved antiquities to public.

Speaking to the media after tour of the gallery, Patel said that it is a matter of pride that we have been able to retrieve the previous pieces of our heritage from abroad. The number of antiquities recovered in the last five years is the highest ever, he revealed. The Minister said that the credit goes to our the Prime Minister who not only made efforts to help retrieve these antiquities but personally carried them back with him during his official tours abroad. The Minister lauded the tireless efforts of various government agencies like ASI, CBI , DRI among others in this endeavour.

The displayed heritage in the Gallery is a part of Central Antiquity Collection (CAC) located in Purana Qila which was created to house the antiquities explored and excavated by the ASI and also those antiquities which were retrieved and confiscated with the help of Ministry of External Affairs and various law enforcing agencies i.e. Police, CBI, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Custom officials. At present, a total of 2,72,824 antiquities have been stored in the CAC of which 4,144 are confiscated/retrieved antiquities.

The ‘Gallery of Confiscated and Retrieved Antiquities’ showcases a part display of 198 confiscated and retrieved antiquities belonging to ancient to modern period from the CAC collection. The exhibition also sensitises the visitors about the illegal trade of precious heritage items and process and regulations for retrieving them.

Accordingly, the Gallery  displays two parallel narratives which will provide a holistic understanding of the importance of repatriation of smuggled antiquities. One of the narratives establishes the larger context of the museum display including the importance of cultural heritage; laws governing our heritage; theft and trafficking of cultural items and the process of retrieval of smuggled antiquities, while the other narrative focuses on the intrinsic aesthetic qualities and iconography of the artifacts.

The display in the gallery ranges from proto-historic to modern period and affiliated to different provenances. The wide range of retrieved or confiscated antiquities includes stone and metal sculptures, coins, paintings, ivory and copper artifacts, architectural panels, etc.

Some of the exclusive exhibits showcased in the gallery are Bronze sculptures of Parvati and Sridevi of Chola Period (brought back in 2016), Standing Buddha (returned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the year 1999), terracotta Mother Goddess of Mauryan period (brought back in the year 2016), Brahma-Brahmani (confiscated by Central Bureau of Investigation), Mithuna (seized in New York and brought back in the year 2010) and Kashmiri Harwan tile (returned to India by Consulate General of India, New York in the year 2016), according to a PIB release.