Three stolen artifacts brought back to Nepal (With video)

KATHMANDU: Three artefacts dating back to 13th to 17th centuries that were stolen have been brought back to Nepal from the United States.

These stolen artefacts – a wooden toran (festoon), a woodwork featuring the image of a flying gandarva, and an idol of Gautam Buddha in meditation posture dating back to the Malla dynasty – were handed to the Department of Archaeology amid a function here today. 

The objects that were stolen from different places of Nepal at different dates and kept at a museum and two galleries in the US were brought to Nepal with the diplomatic initiatives of the two countries.

Of them, the toran dating back to 17th century was stolen after 1985 from the entrance to Yampimahabihar in Lalitpur.

Similarly, the flying gandarva was stolen in the year 1997 from a puja house of family deities of Shakya at Itumbahal of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

The Buddha idol dating back to 13th century is priced at USD 30,000. Similarly, the toran is priced at USD 110,000 and the flying gandarva at USD 22,000.

Addressing the event, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Prem Bahadur Ale thanked the representatives of the US-based museum for handing over the stolen objects back to Nepal. RSS

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