The first morning has been about sharing stories, Dr Gautam Sengupta, director general of the Archaeological Survey of India, tells Daily News Egypt in a short reprieve from the international conference on the repatriation of antiquities.
Twenty participating countries have gathered at the two-day conference of “International Cooperation for the Protection and Repatriation of Cultural Heritage, organized by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), to discuss the return of artifacts.
India’s representative Sengupta has taught Indian history and archaeology in many universities in India, and also worked as the director of archeology and museums in West Bengal. He has many publications to his credit, most recently a book entitled “Eloquent Earth: Early Terracottas in the State Archaeological Museum, West Bengal.
Sengupta recalled some of the stories he heard at the conference attended by delegates from 21 countries. Peru related its case, where University of Yale had borrowed material following two major archaeological missions. Some material is still pending repatriation. Similarly, many of Guatemala’s antiquities were taken away by enterprising countries.
These countries have pleaded to laws on return of antiquities. Yet, legal battles are “time consuming and the fees are astronomical, Sengupta said, adding that many countries had consequently given up on repatriation claims.
At the conference, SCA Chief Zahi Hawass called for a unification of delegates to increase pressure on countries to return artifacts to their country of origin. Resolutions from this conference will be forwarded to the United Nations cultural body UNESCO.
Sengupta was realistic about the return of items. “If countries like ours – India, China, Iraq – demand for return [of antiquities], most museums worldwide would close.
Asked whether there were some antiquities requested for return that India would list at the conference, Sengupta explained that such negotiations were bilateral.
The issue closer at hand was to amend UNESCO laws which contain “damaging items such as “compensating for restitution, said Sengupta. The costs for the return of antiquities could be borne by many developing countries.
In a conversation with Indian Ambassador R. Swaminathan, Sengupta agreed that the UNESCO charter on the whole also needed to be redrafted. “The existing charter is not appropriate for countries like India and China.
Revisions in UNESCO laws would then need to be incorporated into the legal frameworks of most countries. Illegal trafficking and sale of antiquities also needed to be addressed in such laws. One such case of the theft of a 10th century artifact from Rajasthan is pending resolution, Sengupta said.
On India and Egypt
Speaking of common ground between India and Egypt, Sengupta noted that their traditions carried an “unbroken chain with the past. In early Indian archaeology, said Sengupta, scholars turned to Egypt as a source of knowledge.
Both countries also have deep-rooted traditions in local craftsmanship. Sengupta spoke of the countries’ colonial past as a “shared weakness that devalued these shared traditions.
Many of the countries brought together by the conference had lost their antiquities to a colonial power. But that was not the only issue.
“The central issue of colonialism, said Sengupta, “is inheriting certain attitudes and points of view that are essentially colonial constructs. One such is the neglect of local craftsmanship, while “modern technology is the ultimate marker of progress.
One of the setbacks in conservation has been waiting for technology to aid countries rather than harnessing local craftsmanship in conservation programs.
Exchange of skilled craftsmen for the purposes of capacity building was one avenue where Sengupta saw cooperation occurring between Egypt and India.
Other areas where the two countries could share their expertise were in structural and chemical conservation of sites. Digital archiving for the purposes of documentation was also an area of knowledge where India could learn from Egypt.
Cooperation between the two countries is ongoing. The Hyderabad Museum has had one mummy since the 1930s, which was recently restored by an Egyptian team. During the Nasser era, too, a mummy was donated to the Calcutta museum.
Egypt had also approached India two years ago with the idea of restoring the Baron Palace, a monument fashioned after Indian temples, that as Sengupta said, all too suddenly confronts you on the streets of Heliopolis.
“Conservation is ongoing work, says Sengupta. While confronted with the repatriation, one is often confronted with the task of “trying to find a way to explain one’s past, by re-contextualizing artifacts and their stories in their original context.
