Afghan Minister of Information and Culture to discuss preservation and restitution of artefacts with Director-General

27/02/2002
The Afghan Minister of Information and Culture, Said Makhdoom Raheen, will hold several talks with UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura on February 28 and March 1, during a busy schedule of events scheduled at Organization Headquarters on the occasion of the official visit to France of the Chairman of Afghanistan’s Interim Administration and several ministers.

The safeguarding and restitution of artefacts presently outside Afghanistan and UNESCO’s initiatives in this area are on the agenda for these talks.

These matters, considered as a priority by the Interim Administration, were already broached by the Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs and by the Minister of Information and Culture during the Director-General’s visit to Kabul in January. In view of its long experience in this field, the Organization was then entrusted, as had previously been the case in Cambodia, with the co-ordination of assistance and initiatives to safeguard Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.

Within the institutional framework of contracts and agreements concluded with a number of institutions and non-governmental organizations such as the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage in Pakistan (SPACH), the Hirayama Foundation in Japan, and the Swiss Afghanistan Museum at Bubendorf, UNESCO is engaged upon organizing the collection of artefacts and on the creation of the legal conditions for the preservation and restitution of works of art illicitly exported from Afghanistan.

Thus, the Hirayama Foundation was able to take possession of 17 statues and 15 artefacts, of which some are presently on exhibition at the Musée Guimet in Paris alongside numerous objects previously salvaged thanks to SPACH, acting with UNESCO’s support. Other works of art are presently in safekeeping, within the framework of an agreement concluded between UNESCO and the Swiss Parliament, at the Swiss Afghanistan Museum at Bubendorf.

UNESCO will pursue activities in this area by organizing and guaranteeing the return of these objects to their country of origin as soon as conditions allow for their safety and preservation. This is why UNESCO has pledged to contribute actively to the speedy rehabilitation of the Museum of Kabul and to the training of Afghans in the arts of conservation and restoration.

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