The “Begram Ivories”: A Successful Case of Restitution of Some Antiquities Stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-477
Author(s):  
John Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
British Museum ◽  
International Exhibition ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Successful Case ◽  
Afghan Civil War ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Museum Exhibition

Abstract:This article details a successful case of restitution of important antiquities stolen from the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul during the Afghan Civil War (1992–94). These items had been excavated by the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan at the site of Begram during 1937 and 1939 and were allocated to the museum in Kabul when the excavated finds were divided between the National Museum of Afghanistan and the Musée Guimet (Paris). In Kabul, the most important objects were put on permanent display, but they were placed in storage in 1989 when the museum was officially closed and the capital threatened by war after the withdrawal of Soviet forces. Many objects were hidden, and some are now touring in an international exhibition hosted by the British Museum in 2011.1 However, most of the Begram ivories were stolen and entered different collections. The following article discusses how a group of 20 of these exquisite carvings were acquired, conserved, exhibited, and returned to Kabul as a direct result of the negotiations for the British Museum exhibition.2 This allowed the first scientific analyses of Indian ivories of this period, and the results provided important new evidence for the extent of polychromy as well as the scale of the different unrecorded conservation treatments previously applied to these highly fragile objects.3 The objects were returned safely to Kabul in 2012. This article also sets out some of the lessons learned from this chain of events and how it can provide an example for future restitutions.

The British Museum and British Antiquities

Antiquity ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 37 (145) ◽  
pp. 50-53
Author(s):  
Frank Francis
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Post War ◽  
Great Advance

Professor Hawkes’s important article on ‘The British Museum and British Archaeology’ in the December number of ANTIQUITY is based on an intimate knowledge of the Museum and a sympathetic understanding of the disabilities which have beset it since the war. It may be that he is not fully aware of the changes in work and tempo that have markedly developed since he himself left the staff in 1946, but we know well that his article reflects a widespread impatience to see an end of the disabilities and the problems which have developed as the direct result of the war; and above all to see created in the National Museum an organization for dealing with British archaeology and antiquities which will be equal to the great advance of the subject that has taken place in this century, and with dramatic acceleration in the post-war years. No one is keener to see this development than the staff of the Department of British Antiquities who are entirely alive to what is required. We fully recognize, therefore, the importance of what Professor Hawkes has to say, but he does seem to be in some danger of falling into the mistake that many other less well-informed and less well-intentioned critics have made—of assuming that the honourable scars which still disfigure the British Museum and the overcrowding which was the inevitable concomitant of an informed and successful collecting policy in the Museum’s many departments, are being complacently lived with and that nothing has been done to bring about the speedy disappearance of these obstacles to our service.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Tir ◽  
Johannes Karreth
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Conflict Management ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Economic Incentives ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
State Fragility ◽  
International Environment

After summarizing the theoretical arguments and findings of this book, we discuss key lessons learned from our study. The international environment has a significant influence on civil war development and prevention. Amplifying their conflict-preventing influence on member-states, highly structured intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) often coordinate their activities, especially in the area of political violence and state fragility. We then identify a number of tangible, economic incentives as the main pathways of this influence. Overall, this book suggests that the economic benefits of peace provide a potent temptation—for both governments and rebels—to settle low-level armed conflict before it can escalate to full-scale civil war. With these lessons learned, we also identify suggestions for both the research into and practice of conflict management. The chapter closes by pointing to opportunities for making use of our findings to further capitalize on the role of highly structured IGOs in civil war prevention.

The Master of the Eucharides-Stamnos in Copenhagen

1912 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 217-233
Author(s):  
J. D. Beazley
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
History Of

The only extant vase with the love-name Eucharides is a red-figured stamnos of severe style in the National Museum at Copenhagen. Twenty-three vases must be assigned to the painter of the Eucharides-stamnos, among them such well-known pieces as the Danae-stamnos in St. Petersburg, the Tityos-vase in the British Museum, and the krater with Sarpedon or Memnon in the Louvre. His work, though not of the highest quality, is interesting in many ways; so I propose to make a list of his remaining vases, to describe the more prominent characteristics of his style, and to indicate very briefly the place he occupies in the history of Attic vase-painting.

Homosexuality in the Shadow of War

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-270
Author(s):  
Fayyad Haibi ◽  
Yaseen Kittani
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Direct Result ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Modern Arabic

This study deals with homosexuality in modern Arabic literature in the context of the civil war in Lebanon, as reflected in Hudā Barakāt’s novel Ḥaǧar al-ḍaḥk (The Laughter Stone). The study concludes that homosexual relations were a fundamental and direct result of the war and the twisted reality it engendered. This becomes clear in light of the three stages through which the figure of Ḫalīl the homosexual goes in the course of the novel: From absolute homosexuality, through uncertainty to transformation. The last of the three afore-mentioned stages highlights the totally masculine nature of war. The study also demonstrates that the fact that the author chose a homosexual figure as the novel’s protagonist to demonstrate her principled ideological opposition to war in any form.

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