SL must protect its artefacts while trying to bring back stolen ones from foreign museums – DG Archaeology

Director General of Archaeology, Prof. Anura Manatunga yesterday said that before trying to bring back the Sri Lankan artefacts in foreign museums, the country needed to protect archaeological sites in the country.

Prof. Manatunga said he had to sign at least 10 files a day to prosecute against those who had caused damages to archaeological sites.

Prof. Manatunga said that archaeological sites were being destroyed at a rapid pace.

International agreements prevented artefacts from being traded internationally, but there was a large black market for such items, Prof. Manatunga said.

“We must first try to establish our legal rights to Lankan artefacts in foreign countries. Our artefacts have been taken to 27 countries, 15 in Europe. There are some artefacts in the US and Canada too. Some of them are in various British colonies. Some of our artefacts are in India, but these were placed there by the British. There are many of them in Germany.”

In 1975, Hemasiri de Silva, the then Director of the National Museum of Colombo, published a catalogue of objects that were taken from Sri Lanka. The British were the most avid gatherers of Lankan cultural property, wrote Dr. Nazeema Kamardeen of the Department of Commercial Law at the Colombo University in her 2017 paper on the subject. “Cultural objects from Sri Lanka could be found in over 16 museums in England. The objects in British hands accounted for about half the entire catalogue and numbered well over 3,000. They included statues, coins, ivories, personal ornaments, utensils, boxes, weapons, musical instruments, toys, paintings, masks, manuscripts, and textiles.”

In 2010, Sri Lanka made an official request to various countries and private collectors to return cultural and religious artefacts and statues taken away in colonial times.