they aren’t lying. The museum’s massive London building are packed with Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu images spanning thousands of years, some cut right off the rock faces onto which they were originally carved. Occasionally a visitor bored of Egyptian mummies and Greek friezes will make a quick detour into the South Asian gallery, glancing briefly at ancient sculpture without a second thought as to what they’re looking at or where it came from. And the information placards hardly ever explain the true circumstances behind the object’s provenance. For camera-toting tourists, these statues are little more than “Eastern art,” antiques made of metal or stone that are worth little more than their ornamental value. For the people who inhabit the areas from which these pieces were stolen, however, these objects’ value extends beyond the prettiness of their intricate carvings. Instead, they often hold deep sacred significance and are prized reminders of a cultural heritage that is strongly connected to a specific people and place. The British Museum and its peer institutions argue they are dedicated preserving the heritage of all of humanity and that repatriating any one object sets a precedent that would clear out their collections. But it is impossible to divorce a culture’s tangible heritage from its geographical context. People from a village in rural Tamil Nadu shouldn’t be expected to buy a plane ticket to London or Canberra to see the works of their own ancestors. In 2014, the National Gallery of Australia buckled under
Courtesy of Idol Wing, Tamil Nadu Police
Siva, Uma, and Skanda as a Child, Somaskanda Bronze
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Courtesy of Idol Wing, Tamil Nadu Police
Missing Idol of Nataraja
international pressure and the Australian prime minister formally returned the Nataraja in New Delhi. Later that year, the statue was triumphantly paraded down the streets of its original home, Sripuranthan. Much, however, remains to be done. It is up to museums across the west to take moral responsibility for the damage done by looting both in the colonial era and today and repatriate stolen artifacts to the countries where they belong. <
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