PARIS, FRANCE, December 28, 2007: A row has erupted between France and Bangladesh after the theft of two ancient statues led to the cancellation of a ground-breaking exhibition of Hindu artefacts. Bangladesh scrapped the exhibition at the Guimet Museum, amid claims that France could not be trusted with some of the country’s finest cultural treasures. French officials pointed out, however, that the 1,500-year-old statues were stolen amid insufficient security controls in Dhaka, and claimed that the exhibition had fallen victim to a plot involving art-traffickers and opponents of the Bangladeshi regime.
The terracotta artworks disappeared from Zia international airport, Dhaka, at the weekend before they could be loaded on to an Air France aircraft for Paris, where the first important international exhibition of Bangladeshi relics was due to open next month. Police in Dhaka said yesterday that they had arrested eight members of a criminal gang in connection with the thefts and had raided premises in search of them. Detectives also questioned cleaners who claimed that they had found the objects, broken and in a rubbish dump.
The theft of the two representations of Vishnu sparked a political crisis in Bangladesh and prompted the resignation of Ayub Quadri, the Cultural Affairs Minister.
The statues were insured for a total of $65,000 (#33,000), although art experts said that they were so rare that it would be almost impossible to sell them. With the controversy over the loss of the statues increasing in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi Government withdrew authorisation for 143 remaining relics to leave the country and asked the Guimet Museum to return the 42 objects that had already arrived safely.
French authorities believe that the thefts were organised by corrupt Bangladeshi officials colluding with art-traffickers and government critics. The exhibition of statues, paintings, manuscripts and coins dating from the 3rd century BC to the 19th century had already provoked fierce debate in Bangladesh, where opponents attempted to stop the loan of the artefacts with legal action. The Supreme Court approved the transfer of the artefacts to France in October.
Intellectuals and artists also opposed the exhibition, saying that France had never returned works loaned for display in the 1950s.